Does Britain Owe India Reparations

[kamlesbhati9]

Just came across an interesting old video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7CW7S0zxv4

[cee-dee]

No, Britain sends £150 MILLION a year there and what do they do with it?

Britain left a rail network there and what's it like now?

Trump's comments were crude but as the OP is on about India, see how the masses live? A paddy field and there's a bloke having a drink from it, another's cleaning his teeth in it and a woman's doing her washing in it. Also, mind where you walk or you'll step in human excrement in the streets.......

[kamlesbhati9]

Britain doesn't give it directly to Indian Govt. as India has already said no to the British Aids. Britain give this directly to NGOs. The aid is nothing in compare to what Britain looted. The amount looted from India at that time comes to around 3 trillion dollars.

 Everyone thinks that the British gave India Railways. Railways was a very big colonial scam. The purpose of the Raliways was to serve the British to extract goods, minerals, raw materials from the Indian hinterland which were hitherto inaccessible. To send soldiers there, get the labour to move and get these goods out of the hinterland. The poverty in India due to which people poop in roads and doesn't even have toilets is also a reason of Britain's colonial loot.

[fallen-archie]

I am quite certain that there are more stories out there and claims to boot! From Kenya to Malaysia, Australia to Zimbabwe, Pakistan to Egypt all have a story to tell and each would like to take cash from Britain for the sins of our fathers! Likewise other colonial powers like Spain, France, Belgium etc have a similar historic debt to many countries they colonised. By the same token what debt is owed to Britain from Germany who have repeatedly attacked us causing great financial problems also?
Truth be told there are claims and counter claims throughout the world which someone sees as a means of getting something back, I however look at the joyous way most former colonies celebrated their independence and the fact that terms were negotiated at that time, So should I be getting something back from the Nordic countries for **bleep** and pillage carried out by the vikings? Where does one draw the line.
As for the Indian Railways, don’t they employ more people than any other interest in India? Surely the creation of such an enormous system with all that it gives the country is worthy of celebration regardless of why the system was developed in the first place?

[cee-dee]

Lets get one thing straight, some Indians are more "British" than many Brits. They're very nice people. As ever, it's the masses that are "the problem". I suppose if Trump was posting here he might say "They breed like Rabbits and live like pigs"?

The railways were left in pretty good order but check them out today. The track-bed's falling apart, the rails are as level as a switch-back and the alignment looks like it was done by the visually impaired.

As regards the millions Britain sends there, it's sent there but what do they do with it?

An intransigent won't accept anything but their tunnel-view so no matter what's said, not much progress can be made here?

[astrologica]

No...we don't owe them a penny. And we shouldn't be giving them a penny in aid while they prefer to spend money on space technology rather than giving their poor people proper toilet facilities and safe drinking water.

[upthecreekyetagain]

I think your impressions of the state of India Railways are somewhat out of date.

Certainly there are many narrow gauge ‘side’ lines, (the equivalents of which in the UK have simply been demolished), which aren’t up to standard but overall the railway system is in good repair - nearly 50% of the system has been electrified, the first solar powered train in the world has been introduced and they build their own engines and carriages.

A high speed rail link is being built and stations being upgraded under a $168 billion plan.

Infrastructure in general suffered incredibly after partition in 1947 under British rule when millions of people were displaced.  Seventy years is not that long in terms of world history and India in real terms has developed far more in that short period than has the UK.  Productivity, industrial output, healthcare, education and GDP proportionally have all improved far faster than in the UK.  Of course they are starting from a much lower level but they are catching up fast.

Do I think we owe them reparation?- no I don’t.  In a few decades time I wouldn’t be surprised if we were asking for assistance from them!

[upthecreekyetagain]

---

@astrologica wrote:

No...we don't owe them a penny. And we shouldn't be giving them a penny in aid while they prefer to spend money on space technology rather than giving their poor people proper toilet facilities and safe drinking water.

---

I agree we don’t ‘owe’ them anything but it is a bit ingenuous to criticise them for developing their space industry. The cost of their space program is a tiny proportion of the overall public spending in India and like other industrial investment has the potential to become a huge source of income.

Those working in the ‘space’ industry are highly skilled and educated individuals - it can’t be in the interest of the country to ignore these attributes and spend the relatively small amount they cost on other tasks.  Their space program is already attracting millions of dollars of foreign investment and income from satellite launches.

The British ruled India for hundreds of years before they granted independence seventy years ago - why was the country so far behind the UK in terms of public facilities and infrastructure when we left?  The advances made by the Indians in just seventy years is remarkable. 

[upthecreekyetagain]

Just been reading more about India Railways - the railways have been extended by over 6,000 miles since the turn of the century - compares favourably with the UK’s few hundred miles!

There are are only about 10,000 miles of railway in the whole of the UK. 

[al**bear]

No such Country as India, when Britain went there, so who would You pay reparations to ?

[upthecreekyetagain]

---

@al**bear wrote:

No such Country as India, when Britain went there, so who would You pay reparations to ?

---

Reparation is an action to make amends for a wrong-doing and is due to those who were wronged or their descendants.  The political situation at the time of the wrong-doing is irrelevant.  

The current Indian government wasn’t wronged - it was the people that the current government represent who have the ‘claim’.