Your writing is incredible, Swarnali. My breath was taken away with your powerful style.
The subject matter is also so ridiculously heartbreaking and anger inducing. British colonialism in India boils my blood every time.
When I was in 6th grade, I had a British Economics teacher tell a class filled with students from all over the world that the smartest Indians had below average IQ. I lived in Dubai at the time — and until then, I hadn’t lived in India before. Being Indian was something that I was so ashamed of, living outside of India most of my life. When he said that, I felt like I wanted to disappear. I wanted to strip myself from my Indianness.
To so many levels was his statement wrong and so ridiculous — but at the time, none of the other Indian students in that class including myself knew enough to contradict him. Now every time I think of that incident — I wished I had said something instead of sitting there mute and swallowing it.
British colonialism has been so devastating on our country and to the world as a whole and the global order is STILL entrenched in a colonialist mindset. And the worst part of it all is that students in England or following the British curriculum world over do not learn about it properly. It is an optional part of the course and even when it is occasionally taught, the full extent of what the British perpetuated does not come across. British museums and English historical sites are still in denial of the extent of damage they caused on nations world over.
It breaks my heat because we still see the consequences of their rule to this day. On the lines of the famines, recent data actually found that because the British starved our nation so much, it changed our DNA — our bodies have learnt to retain as much sugar and fat as possible, something that people during the famines had to rely on to survive. But because we don’t live in a world where we are perpetually forced to endure artificial famines, it results in us being more vulnerable to diabetes. It’s so insane that it boggles my mind!
Just some thoughts. Thank you so much for your writing ❤️
This is stunningly well-told, Swarna. I'm glad you reposted it. Your work is truly essential. Like many others, I immediately thought of other lesser-known and well-known mass famines, and how integrated they have often been with policy. This brings that factor home repeatedly: so many of these are the consequences of choices made by powerful people to serve their own purposes. Humanity is weary of it, and life is weary of it. And to see how to dismantle it all, we need stories like this, telling the truth about what has happened, and in a voice full of love and power. A firebranded heart, you might say. 🧡
This was so powerful. It is so important for us to imagine a world beyond all of this, as Rose Braz said in 2008, "a prerequisite to seeking any social change is the naming of it. In other words, even though the goal we seek may be far away, unless we name it and fight for it today, it will never come." Thank you for naming it, Swarnali!
A courageous and well written reminder that the values of the powerful people who own and drive this system, the economic structure they've created, the social norms and values they believe in and thrive under are all meticulously designed in such a way that war, starvation, exploitation, racism, sexism and a never ending list of other cruelties and aggression's are carefully built into the system and will never stop without dismantling the whole vile edifice.
Thank you Berkana, an excellent and profoundly sad post.
Swarna, I've been sitting with this for a few days, re-reading and thinking about it, how it overlays all that I think so many of us want to do--to bear witness to one another, to name and talk about the traumas of ancestors, the crimes of ancestors, how to reconcile with ideas of power that would do to others what has happened over and over with colonialism, empires, wars. I am so grateful for your voice, how powerful and unflinching it is in naming and describing hard truths, to not let the lives of people lost in horrific famine remain untold, to demand a better way, a better life, a better world. We need to use our voices for those who were not allowed to be heard, and you are doing that in a way that invites us all to do the same, and it is so powerful. ❤️🔥🧚🏼
Your writing is incredible, Swarnali. My breath was taken away with your powerful style.
The subject matter is also so ridiculously heartbreaking and anger inducing. British colonialism in India boils my blood every time.
When I was in 6th grade, I had a British Economics teacher tell a class filled with students from all over the world that the smartest Indians had below average IQ. I lived in Dubai at the time — and until then, I hadn’t lived in India before. Being Indian was something that I was so ashamed of, living outside of India most of my life. When he said that, I felt like I wanted to disappear. I wanted to strip myself from my Indianness.
To so many levels was his statement wrong and so ridiculous — but at the time, none of the other Indian students in that class including myself knew enough to contradict him. Now every time I think of that incident — I wished I had said something instead of sitting there mute and swallowing it.
British colonialism has been so devastating on our country and to the world as a whole and the global order is STILL entrenched in a colonialist mindset. And the worst part of it all is that students in England or following the British curriculum world over do not learn about it properly. It is an optional part of the course and even when it is occasionally taught, the full extent of what the British perpetuated does not come across. British museums and English historical sites are still in denial of the extent of damage they caused on nations world over.
It breaks my heat because we still see the consequences of their rule to this day. On the lines of the famines, recent data actually found that because the British starved our nation so much, it changed our DNA — our bodies have learnt to retain as much sugar and fat as possible, something that people during the famines had to rely on to survive. But because we don’t live in a world where we are perpetually forced to endure artificial famines, it results in us being more vulnerable to diabetes. It’s so insane that it boggles my mind!
Just some thoughts. Thank you so much for your writing ❤️
I'm coming back to this for a second re-read. Starvation as a weapon of war is as old as war itself, and is still with us. Denial of water, too.
It's also been a weapon of colonialism, from the famines in Ireland and Scottish highands, to Native Americans, to Ukrainians under Stalin.
And you are so right that we must evolve past this. On a good day, I can feel that new world trying to be born.
Thank you.
This is stunningly well-told, Swarna. I'm glad you reposted it. Your work is truly essential. Like many others, I immediately thought of other lesser-known and well-known mass famines, and how integrated they have often been with policy. This brings that factor home repeatedly: so many of these are the consequences of choices made by powerful people to serve their own purposes. Humanity is weary of it, and life is weary of it. And to see how to dismantle it all, we need stories like this, telling the truth about what has happened, and in a voice full of love and power. A firebranded heart, you might say. 🧡
This was so powerful. It is so important for us to imagine a world beyond all of this, as Rose Braz said in 2008, "a prerequisite to seeking any social change is the naming of it. In other words, even though the goal we seek may be far away, unless we name it and fight for it today, it will never come." Thank you for naming it, Swarnali!
Just, wow. Another must read.
A courageous and well written reminder that the values of the powerful people who own and drive this system, the economic structure they've created, the social norms and values they believe in and thrive under are all meticulously designed in such a way that war, starvation, exploitation, racism, sexism and a never ending list of other cruelties and aggression's are carefully built into the system and will never stop without dismantling the whole vile edifice.
Thank you Berkana, an excellent and profoundly sad post.
Gosh 💔💔💔💔💔 so many wars, so much pain, and when you dig deep down into it, there’s Britain, lurking.
Swarna, I've been sitting with this for a few days, re-reading and thinking about it, how it overlays all that I think so many of us want to do--to bear witness to one another, to name and talk about the traumas of ancestors, the crimes of ancestors, how to reconcile with ideas of power that would do to others what has happened over and over with colonialism, empires, wars. I am so grateful for your voice, how powerful and unflinching it is in naming and describing hard truths, to not let the lives of people lost in horrific famine remain untold, to demand a better way, a better life, a better world. We need to use our voices for those who were not allowed to be heard, and you are doing that in a way that invites us all to do the same, and it is so powerful. ❤️🔥🧚🏼