Sunday, June 8, 2008

Did Taj Mahal led to colonialisation of India ?

Till 1750 India and china contributed about 50% of the world GDP at that time, India was Europe of seventeenth century and all the exploration by European navigators from Columbus to Magellan were done to search for this fabled country. This exploration, lead to discovery of South America, North America and Australia and lead to economic prosperity of Europe. With this new found power many European countries were able to establish colonies around the world leading to mass poverty and extermination of native population such as Red Indians in North America, Incas in South America and Aborginies in Australia. People are once again talking about rise of India and china as economic and military powers and USA is hedging against rise of China through series of covert and overt alliances. China’s economy at present is less than 1/5th the size of USA and by far USA is hyper power on this planet. So why is USA preparing for future?, it is mere plausibility that China may challenge American dominance. So question now arises why did, kings who governed India and China in seventeenth did not foresee the future and prepared their respective countries from challenge posed by small European countries. If we think about it then it will show us that culturally, indian and Chinese people are not allowed to think independently or ask questions about the accepted facts of that time. For eg:

When apple dropped on Newton’s head, he thought why did it drop?, why did this apple not soar into sky…… This basic question gave us “Gravity” If Newton had been born in India or China; he would have been first thrashed for asking such STUPID Question, made fun of and then humanity would have been deprived of this basic understanding.


If Jehangir (the great mughal empror) had only asked one simple question, when East India company’s envoy came to his court asking for permission to trade – “ How and from where did this British person came in my court?”, he would have sent indian scout to Europe, Learned about new technology and saved the country from ravages of colonialisation. Then his son Shah Jehan came he was too busy in making Taj Mahal, that, he also forgot to enquire where these white people came from.

So moral of the story is that if India, truly wants to emerge as economic power, its citizens need to ask questions to it’s politicians- How so ever stupid it may sound. Even Newton’s question was stupid when he asked at that time.

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