Punjab to banish all trace of ‘cruel’ British rule
INDIA’S northern Punjab state is readying legislation to “erase” all remnants of “cruel and humiliating” British colonial rule through a historical memory law, similar to the one enacted by Spain in 2007.
“It [the law] will make Punjab the first state in the country to formally condemn British rule and destroy its remains,” said state finance minister Manpreet Badal, from the newly elected Congress Party.
Ironically, the minister is an alumni of India’s renowned Doon School, modelled on British public school lines, which has had headmasters from Eton and Harrow.
Badal declared that the colonial era, which ended with independence and the creation of Pakistan in 1947, “has to be formally condemned as the single most unfortunate phase of Punjab’s history”.
Badal proposes to do this by readying legislation that replicates the Spanish Memory Law, condemning General Francisco Franco’s 36-year dictatorial rule.
It will be tabled in the state assembly’s session in July, and considering the comfortable majority of the Congress Party, its passage would be guaranteed, local legislators said.
Badal also said the predominantly Sikh state would “destroy any vestiges and anything that appreciates that era”. Instead, it would “glorify and exalt” the greatness of Punjab and its local heroes.
Local municipalities across Punjab are preparing to rename roads, buildings and public places named after British officials.
Badal, however, is willing to cut the British some slack.
Punjab, he said, would not demand compensation for its many wrongs or seek justice for the descendants of civilians killed in the horrific Jallianwala Bagh shooting by the colonial army in Amritsar in 1919. It would also not demand the return of the Koh-i-Noor diamond from its current home in the Tower of London.
But several Punjab historians like Malwinder Singh Waraich have ridiculed Badal’s proposal as a waste of time and energy and a sign of narrow-mindedness. “It will serve no purpose,” he said. — ©