The Queen is dead, long live the King!

©Elanour Tomlinson

We are often advised to say only the nice things about the recently departed. Somehow, all the ill feelings and the wrong paths crossed are temporarily swept under the proverbial carpet. Everyone, including the ones who tend to benefit from the deceased's passing, is expected to carry a sombre outward appearance - wear a sad face, dress down and avoid merriment. 

After the so-called mourning period, it will be pretty much no-holds-barred, I guess. 

But now, even before the dead are laid to rest, the wokies are already at it. I am referring to the recent demise of one of the longest reigning monarchs of the once most enormous Empire of the world, where the sun never set. True, she inherited a bounty of loot from the world over. At one time, pirates scaling the Atlantic high seas were free to pilfer gold from Spanish vessels legitimately under the auspices of the British Crown as long as they paid their dues to the monarch.

True, they went out with their imperial stance with a chip on their shoulders and a stiff upper lip to match. And plunder wealth from civilisations that had found peace with their place in the sun, create mayhem to liberate the oppressed and destroy other cultures with their new economic model.

This turn of events is inevitable. Every nation wants to improve life for itself. The designated / king does that for his subject at the expense of a gamut of benefits for himself and those under his umbrage who held his torch. This way of conquest was thought to trickle down the food chain and continues to date.

There were plundering imperialists, and there were cruel plundering imperialists. Some maimed their subjects without caring about their future. In a way, the British made some humane decisions to ease their administration but ended up causing their Empire's own destruction along with other compelling factors. They laid down plans for proper administrative machinery, invested in education for natives to help (and look down on their own cultures) and created an extensive web of transportation networks. 

If not for the English, this blog would not be in English or an incomprehensible language that could hardly pass for English. We were lucky that English became the lingua franca of the world, the modern language of communication. Left to our politicians to steer us to the future, we would still be a fumbling fishing village ruled by despots, not that they are not preventing this from happening. An unthinking obedient herd of the population led by their leash to the slaughter is their idea of utopia. If we had been savaged by colonists, we would have been brutalised by our own kind. As the Tamil saying goes, "Whether Rama or Raavan rule, it doesn't matter to me, I don't give a damn!"

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

He was no Maharajah!

The Black Prince (2017)


Punjab has the dubious honour of being one of the last states in India to stand steadfast against the might of the British. Even when it finally crumbled, the state was the site of one of the first resistance to the rule of the British Raj.

We are all too familiar with the prowess of the one-eyed Maharajah Ranjit Singh, who remains the only person that managed to conquer Afghanistan. Even the mighty Alexander the Great was blocked at the borders by King Porus with a little unceremonious help of the Anopheles mosquito. The 1919 Jallianwala Bhag massacre ignited the fire of nationalism.

On one hand, the Sikh can walk proudly with their heads held high knowing very well they had a few 'firsts'. However, as boastful as they may be of their feats, they would also bow their heads in shame for the treasonous acts of many their kind. 

On 13th April 1919, which happened to be the day the Sikhs celebrated their holy day of Vaisakhi, the Christian ushered in Palm Sunday. If Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday before the countdown, Colonel Dyers marched into Jillian Bhag for a meltdown. Even though history may suggest Dyer's miscalculations as the primary cause of the tragedy, the villainous misdeeds of fellow Sikhs cannot be understated. The heroes/martyrs and villains were both Sikhs. The whole episode illustrates the skilful mastery of the colonial masters at subjugating their subjects as well as to extricate themselves from misgivings. The villains continue performing their mercenary sepoy deeds through Independence all the way till the present. These turncoats remain critical of anything Indian but are still hearty with their praises of anything Western.

Duleep Singh

This film narrates the aftermath of the Sikh Empire with the demise of Maharajah Ranjit Singh. Dying without a succession plan proved costly. Infighting amongst stepbrothers led numerous assassinations probably orchestrated by the East Indian Company with the cooperation of fellow Sikhs with an eye on the throne or the wealth of the kingdom. A five-year-old Duleep Singh, the youngest son of Maharajah Ranjit Singh, was placed as a figurehead King, with his mother ruling on his behalf.

The British were fearful of the uprising of the Indians with Duleep Singh as the central unifying icon. Citing his mother's unstable mental condition as a reason, Ranjit Singh was kidnapped and brought to the UK. Ranjit grows up to be a confused adult. Having an existential crisis quite early in life, he ponders on his past, his religion and the glory of his race.

Even though with the benefit of artistic licence, the film tries to place Duleep Singh as one who makes a feeble attempt at regaining his throne with the cooperation of the French, Russians and the enemies of the British Crown, such a plot never actually happened. He lived his lavish life mostly as a convert Christian. His attempts at re-embracing Sikhism met a premature death. His remains were buried in an unmarked grave.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.