The colonial heart is bleeding. Over Hong Kong? Surprisingly no. Maybe because sentimentality never works with the mandarins of the mainland. It happens to be Kashmir that concentrates the conscience of the crown.In the pink pantheon of British Labour, it is quite funny to see certain socialist divinities seeking extraterritorial causes. Why Kashmir? They should be talking about Scotland and Ireland, or such truly socialist subjects like the barbarism of fox-hunting and the privileges of hereditary peerage. But Tony Blair, the socialist with stolen ideas, prefers to wear the colonial crown of jaded pink.His Foreign Secretary has not only identified Kashmir as a potential Armageddon of the new world but expressed his country's (colonial) obligations to resolve the crisis. Has the Empire taken refuge in socialist minds?No, it is the case of an island a jarring remoteness in post-Maastricht Europe refusing to discard its colonial pretence. The absurdity of this pretence becomes starker if you compare it with American sensibility. For the US House of Representatives has advised the Clinton administration to endorse the Gujral Doctrine for sub-continental benefit. Here is a chance for India to choose between the colonialist and the imperialist.The imperialist caricatured by Delhi's pathological third worldists turning into a friend of Gujral has to be seen in the wider context of India's own prejudices and America's pragmatism. It doesn't benefit India if New Delhi continues to look at Washington through the cataract of Cold War legacy. Kashmir is a problem and it is India's problem, and Robin Cook's unsolicited benevolence of colonial vintage has no relevance here.But Capitol Hill's wisdom, rather the Republican wisdom, unlike the British joke, accepts Kashmir not as an American burden but as a local conflict which can be dealt with effectively by the Gujral Doctrine which seeks to have an India with a less problematic near abroad. It suits the superpower; it suits the pre-eminent nation in South Asia as well. For America, South Asia may not be another Middle-East but nevertheless, it matters. Hence the American pragmatism finds an ally in Gujral Doctrine.But the colonial joke it is less than funny. The cheerleader of European socialism, with his modernise-or-die advice to Europe's left-of-centre rulers, may be the continent's baby boomer-in-chief, an inspiring mascot of `socialism redux', but his country is a diminished power in Europe as well as the world at large. Today England is economically smug, thanks to the living legacy of Maggie Thatcher the unacknowledged godmother of Tony Blair; but the rich island wields no power beyond the borders. But the empire is a mindset even for the Labourites. The lost colonies continue to evoke colonial sentiments in the islander. That is why the emperor in pink crown is wailing over the violated human rights in Kashmir. India can afford to ignore that, for the emperor is used to being snubbed by all and sundry. Simply put, Britain doesn't matter. And India at this juncture can easily pick its choice let it be the `imperium', not the `empire'. For the nostalgia of the decolonised, forget Robin Cook, BBC is good enough.
