Okuma – Independence through Unity
11 Haziran 2020A short article in simple English about the history of India as a colony / Hindistan’ın sömürge geçmişine dair basit İngilizce’yle kısa bir yazı
India was the largest British colony. It had been colonized by a large English company at first: The East India Company, which had come to India as a trading company in the 18th century. In time it grew bigger and stronger. By using the enmities between the different tribes in India it came to gain a huge political power too. But when things went wrong, that is, when it was no longer able to keep India under control, it adopted violent methods and use of force. The company established its own army in order to protect its interests in India. However, things were not getting better for the company because keeping an army was very costly even though most of its soldiers had been conscripted from among the poor Indians.
The company was about to go bankrupt. At this point they demanded help from the British government. The government agreed to help. Thus, India was added to the British Empire in 1876. The government, however, didn’t prove more successful in keeping India under control than the East India Company. Soon it faced the same problems such as the huge expenses of keeping an army there. They could not have done without an army because their existence there depended on nothing more than force. People hated them.
In this respect, they were just like the Americans in Iraq. Iraqi people hate them. Although the Americans pretend to have saved them from a dictator and brought in democracy and freedom to the country, no one believes them anymore. In order to avoid a common attack by the Iraqi people, the Americans have been emphasizing cultural, sectarian (=mezhepsel) and ethnic differences between them, telling them secretly, and sometimes openly, that they are not simply the people of Iraq, but they are Sunnis, Shi’ites, Kurds and Turks, as if they haven’t been the people of the same country for centuries. In other words, just like the English did in India, they are trying to make use of the enmities between these poor people so that they won’t unite and attack the Americans together, and in this way the US will be able to keep them under control.
This method didn’t work with the English in India. To the financial strains of keeping an army was soon added another big problem: Mahatma Gandhi. This man was not warrior. He didn’t fight the English off India. Through his wisdom Indians united, and England had to recognize that it was impossible to rule 300 million people without their consent. So, in 1947 India finally achieved its independence.
2005-2006 Pazarcık Anadolu Lisesi 11.sınıf İngilizce yazılısından