© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Even after over seven decades since the end of British rule in India, the wounds of colonialism still remain fresh in the collective memory of the Indian subcontinent.
Now, a viral video shows a 1957 debate between high school students. The topic of the debate is ‘Prejudice’. The debate features four high school students, including Gopinath Padmanabha from India, Amin Jan from Pakistan, Sara Chatt from the UK and Edward Dennis Normandy from the Philippines.
The clips going viral now show how Padmanabha and Jan highlight the harmful impact of Britain’s policies in India as UK student Chatt argues that colonialism was helpful to India.
Among other points, Padmanabha is seen arguing that the British notion of giving a “democratic way of life” to their colonies is just a patronising cover for the empire’s misdeeds. He adds that India would have eventually adopted democratic values even without the presence of the British and pointed out that many Indian villages have held democratic institutions like village panchayats as long back as 3,500 BC.
On Friday, business tycoon Anand Mahindra shared a clip from this video and wrote, “This was going around furiously on social media yesterday. Wonderful to see someone so vigorously champion the cause of India back in ‘57! @ShashiTharoor I’m sure you have seen this and perhaps know what became of Mr. Gopinath…”.
In response, Congress MP and former diplomat Shashi Tharoor referred to Gopinath Padmanabha and wrote that the “brilliant bespectacled Indian student” who went on to work at the International Labour Organization (ILO) and is “now retired & living in undeserved anonymity”.
