The above words are directly quoted from Shri CB Patel’s column “As I See It” of last week which was on the subject of plunder and mayhem carried out on the people of Bharat by Britain. There has been no remorse on the part of Britain for their atrocious deeds. The way to address these past atrocities, could be by establishing a “Truth and reconciliation commission” (TRC) as was done by South Africa at the end of apartheid era. Canada and several other countries as well as the UN has dealt with the racial and the human right issues within a country in a similar manner by establishing dozens of such TRCs. The purpose of these TRCs is to bring out the truth and reconcile but not to punish the guilty as it was done in the Nuremberg Trials.
However, there has been no such TRCs ever established for atrocities carried out by one state and its culture on another state and its culture. The USA is the only country which has used nuclear weapons on innocent people of Japan and large scale chemical weapons like “Agent Orange” on innocent people of Viet Nam. There has been no remorse on their end. Arabians and their converts from Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan have carried out numerous invasions on people of Bharat in which they looted wealth, destroyed places of worship and murdered millions of people. Mohmud Ghazani who was a son of a Turkic slave marched from Ghazani to Somnath in 1025 CE and razed the famous temple to the ground.
How many innocent people were killed by the huge army of fierce invaders on their passage through 2400 km round trip? Muhammad Ghori carried out several raids on Bharat in which he was defeated but each time he was allowed go free as per our cultural norms. In the year 1192 CE, Ghori eventually defeated Prithviraj Chauhan, reaped out his eyes and took him to his land where he was cruelly killed. How many innocent people were butchered in more than a dozen such raids? Nader Shah of Iran in 1739 CE captured Delhi and he stated in his autobiography that his army killed one lakh innocent people in a single night. There has been no remorse on their end. Will there be any TRCs for these terrors and mayhem carried out by one country and its culture by another country its culture?
Narsibhai Patel
New Malden
