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Vignettes of India & Bharat: different countries

the height of the Covid pandemic crisis. This protest was In the 21st century with the Indian diaspora in the UK
supplemented with protests in Punjab, Haryana as also having grown to a large and visibly content minority and
pro-farmer protests in Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Kerala. a prime minister of Indian origin presiding over formerly
Railway services remained suspended in Punjab for over imperial Great Britain — both of which could be interpret-
two months. The adamant refusal of the farmers unions ed as acts of atonement — it’s easy to forget that average
to budge from their demand and continuous camping on GDP growth during almost 200 years of the British Raj
highways encircling Delhi forced the Union government to over India was one percent per year; the average lifespan
repeal the three Bills in November 2021. of Indians was 31 years, and public health and education
Predominantly an agriculture economy which was by- were almost totally neglected in the rural hinterlands of the
passed by the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th subcontinent. These realities are scarcely documented by
centuries, the Indian subcontinent has a long history of post-independence India’s historians.
peasant revolts in the 20th century including the Cham- Therefore, after the dawn of independence when free
paran (1917), Kheda Satyagraha (1918), Bardoli Satyagra- India embarked upon its “tryst with destiny”, quite rightly
ha (1925) and Tebhaga Movement (1946-1947). Moreover India’s rural majority which at that time contributed 60
there’s a mountain of evidence emerging that the worst percent of the country’s GDP, expected rural growth to
excesses of the British Raj — heavy coercive taxation by become the focus of national development. This was the
comprador zamindars; uprooting of traditional mixed ideal of Mahatma Gandhi, prime architect of India’s unique
farming and forced cultivation of monoculture plantation and unprecedented freedom struggle based on satyagraha
crops including indigo and opium (see book review p.78) (truth) and ahimsa (non-violence) which completely flum-
were inflicted upon India’s peasantry who constituted 80 moxed our erstwhile British masters and prompted their
percent of the population until the dawn of independence. hasty, unlamented departure from Indian shores. Gandhi
Unfortunately, it is insufficiently documented by post-inde- advocated rural-led national development with “village
pendence historians that it was resolute rural and peasant republics” stimulating agriculture productivity and gen-
support astutely mobilised by Mahatma Gandhi in the 20th erating surpluses to finance employment generating rural
century, that enabled India to free itself from almost two MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises). These in
centuries of deeply exploitative British rule. turn would generate employment and demand for consum-

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