Opinion: The sun has set on the British Empire but the egoistic agenda continues… Why is India in trouble?

Rashmi Roshan Lal: India has completely risen above empire. Is the rest of the world still there? Indications of this have been visible for years. Sometimes, India demands the return of the Kohinoor diamond or apologizes for Jallianwala Bagh. Some might say that these calls for post-imperial grace are half-hearted, even performative. The last time the gem came into the international public spotlight was just before Charles and Camilla’s coronation 18 months ago.

Modi was not involved then

At the same time came the moment of any meaningful acknowledgment of the massacre of peaceful protesters in Amritsar in 1919. The 100th anniversary of British artillery went on without real results. This happened five years ago. Then, Modi skipped the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Samoa. Along with fellow CHOGM non-participant, South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, Modi sided with the BRICS Plus summit hosted by Putin.

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Some people understood it as a political drama. A huge raspberry that audaciously blew up in the face of the 56-member Commonwealth. After all, rebranding from the British Commonwealth to the Commonwealth of Nations has not changed the reality of its past, present and projected future. The Commonwealth should still rejoice in being led by hereditary right by the British monarch.

Fun events for small countries

Raspberries of any size are a colorful sidebar to any story, but it’s not clear they apply to Modi’s absence at CHOGM. Because, the Commonwealth is mostly yesterday’s news. Even its four-year-old games are struggling with reports of mortality. Generally considered a fun event for smaller countries as top sporting nations like the US do not participate.

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Organizers of the Commonwealth Games, originally scheduled for 2022, 2026 and 2030, pulled out of the hosting privilege citing cost considerations. This raises the possibility that the competition could continue until a mournful grand finale in 2030, exactly a century after its first appearance as the British Empire Games.

British Raj survives to some extent in the Commonwealth

Nevertheless, the Commonwealth is a forum where the former British Raj can be said to still be alive. Although in very rare circumstances. This is where the threats of a post-Brexit – ‘Global Britain’ – ring true to some extent because the action or inaction of the former colonial master matters so much.

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This is where more than a dozen Caribbean countries have spoken out for reparations for historical slavery. The way he/she tells it, Britain’s consent would be consequential and transformative for his/her people. This has always been a controversial issue, but the timing is especially important as the Labor Party is running in Britain today. It is the Labor Party that celebrates Indian independence as one of the great achievements of its post-World War II administration as well as that of PM Clement Attlee.

The sun of the British Empire will set

Just a few weeks ago, Britain’s Labor government had agreed to hand over the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. While negotiations began under the former Conservative government (with assistance from India and the US), they collapsed under Labour’s watch. This auspicious announcement means that once the transfer is complete, the sun will set on the British Empire for the first time since the 18th century. Really. That is, once again there will be a time of day when all remaining UK overseas territories (and Britain itself) will be in darkness.

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Not surprisingly, in Britain, under the leadership of the Labor Party and its former human rights lawyer turned Prime Minister, expectations are high that justice will be done, binding the wounds of history with the sharp skill of empathy and moral clarity. Accordingly, CHOGM in Samoa ended by appointing Shirley Ayorcar Botchwe of Ghana, an experienced foreign minister, trained lawyer and supporter of reparations, as the new Commonwealth Secretary General. It issued a communiqué agreeing that it is “time for a meaningful, truthful and respectful dialogue towards building a shared future based on equality.

Acknowledgment of painful aspects of the past

However, what happened first could be an indication of where the rest of that particular fight is headed. Keir Starmer strongly advised looking ‘forward’ rather than ‘past’, which can be summarized as: Get over it. In Samoa Charles also acknowledged ‘the painful aspects of our past’, but reminded everyone that ‘none of us can change the past, but we can commit to learning its lessons.’ To sum it up like this: I’m over it.

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And so, one might argue, is the case with India too, which has no great expectations from the links of history that cruelly tied it to Britain. Perhaps history takes its own revenge, as Shashi Tharoor once said about the inverted trade equation between India and Britain post-Brexit.

Britain’s arrogant agenda

In a recently published novel that is garnering considerable attention in Britain, British-Cambodian author Kailyn Bradley examines the legacy of the British Empire and its ongoing impact, using a playful premise: the 21st-century British government. has secretly discovered time travel and has brought several ‘immigrants’ from the past into today’s world.

However, Britain is still pursuing the same arrogant agenda of leading the world, as the main character, a mixed-race UK civil servant, says with disappointment. She says, As far as I understood the British Empire, other people’s countries were useful or insignificant, but rarely seen as autonomous. The Empire looked at the world the way my father looked at the elastic band the postman leaves on his/her rounds: It’s a useful thing, it’s lying here, now it’s mine. Perhaps India is the rubber band that bounced back to significant autonomy – political and psychological.
(The author is a journalist)