The darkest period of America's brush with slavery gave rise to an interesting character - The House Negro.
Definition:
"House Negro" is a pejorative term for a black person, used to compare someone to a house slave of a slave owner from the historic period of legal slavery in the United States.
The house negro was given certain privileges which included a lighter work load, better food, better housing than their fellow slaves who toiled under inhuman conditions in cotton fields and slaughter houses.
In return, the house negro served an important purpose. He kept a close eye on his fellow slaves. Any signs of rebellion were quickly identified and nipped in the bud by many a house negro.
Though the House Negro served his master loyally and was rewarded for his services, he could never hope to be elevated to the level of an equal.
And the House Negro did everything to please his master, never forgetting his place in the racial hierarchy.
For centuries, India witnessed a similar dynamic. Scores of Indians and their families across the length and breath of the country served as 'House Negroes' to their foreign Masters. What Mughals instituted by marrying into the families of Hindu Kings they had defeated, the British perfected by creating a host of institutions. The Indian Administrative Service being perhaps their most successful project.
Like their American counterparts, Indian House Negroes (IHN) always knew their place. They never attempted to defeat or betray their British masters.
The stellar success of this British experiment can be gauged from the fact that they engineered into existence the
Indian House Negro 'gene'. A gene which has been passed down from father to son to daughter to grand children and continues to persist within Indian political and cultural power structures to this day.
This community of Indian House Negroes was conspicuously absent from India's freedom struggle and their progeny has been similarly under represented in the Indian armed forces.
When the British left India, they handed power over to these well trained community of House Negroes.
The rise and continuing prosperity of Indian House Negroes is perhaps Britain's greatest success story. It has however, had a devastating effect on India.
When House Negro #1 i.e. Pandit Jawarhlal Nehru insisted on taking the Kashmir dispute to a fledgling United Nations, he was behaving on expected lines. He was trying to please his British masters at a heavy price to his fellow Indians.
A price India continues to pay.
This Indian House Negrodom hasnt ceased. Under an Italian Sonia Gandhi it has only accelerated. Sonia represents a second coming of Indian house Negrodom after a few setbacks it faced, first under PVNR and then under ABV.
I'm not suggesting that Indians should hate Westerners or western cultural influence. Despite Hiroshima the sagacious Japanese adopted several western influences. Even their much celebrated success with manufacturing quality products came from the ideas espoused by an American Professor - William Edwards Deming.
There's much that India can learn and emulate from Westerners but it can only be beneficial to Indians if it is done from a position of self confidence.
If Indians wish to be counted as equals, if they wish for India to be counted as an equal they must rid themselves of Indian House Negroes and their Negrodom.
Since the 1980s a generation of Indians born after independence has emerged which seems less infected by the IHN gene. Cricket is an area which has helped illustrate the rise of this truly Indian generation.
Whenever India has been led by a native son, devoid of Western influence, the Indian team has thrived and prospered. It is hardly surprising that both of India's WC victories came under captains one would never mistake for an IHN.
Neverheless, IHNs continue to hold influence over India's power structure, a control greatly disproportionate to their numbers.
Some prominent examples of House Negros:
Mani Shankar Aiyar, Shobha De, Derek O'brien, the Gandhis, Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai.......
are at the forefront of India media and political levers of power and they continue to view all things Indian/Hindu with the same sense of disdain and hatred as their forefathers did before them.
This is the progeny that prefers 'Bombay' over 'Mumbai' and this is the same group that hates Narendra Damodardas Modi.
May 16th, 2014 symbolizes India's true Independence day. For it was on this day that India finally broke free from the shackles of Indian house Negroes.
A native son, unburdened by the guilt engenered by benefiting from a British education finally defeated the collective might of Indian House 'Negrodom'.
This victory may prove to be ephemeral. But it symbolizes the possibility that after centuries of enslavement Indians are ready and prepared to be counted as equals.
PM Modi has birthed a new era into existence. An era with endless possibilities where India guides the world toward a phase of tolerance, spirituality, peace and prosperity.
Indian House Negroes have no place in such a meritocratic dispensation where subterfuge, treachery and genuflection before a foreign deity is no longer the criteria to gain access to corridors of power.
It is this tectonic shift which has terrified Indian House Negroes. And they have reacted on predictable lines.
If PM Modi wins in 2019, this process will become irreversible. This is their last chance and they will attack him with all means, fair and foul. But mostly foul.
p.s. If you ever make these arguments with an IHN you will elicit a familiar response "If you hate British India so much why dont you return all those facilities built by the British - railways, educational institutions, etc."
Your response:
When the British took over, India accounted for 25% of global GDP. When they left in 1947 Indian share of global GDP had dropped to 3%.
If the British return all the wealth they looted from India, it would bring prosperity to India, but most importantly it would bankrupt the British.
Definition:
"House Negro" is a pejorative term for a black person, used to compare someone to a house slave of a slave owner from the historic period of legal slavery in the United States.
The house negro was given certain privileges which included a lighter work load, better food, better housing than their fellow slaves who toiled under inhuman conditions in cotton fields and slaughter houses.
In return, the house negro served an important purpose. He kept a close eye on his fellow slaves. Any signs of rebellion were quickly identified and nipped in the bud by many a house negro.
Though the House Negro served his master loyally and was rewarded for his services, he could never hope to be elevated to the level of an equal.
And the House Negro did everything to please his master, never forgetting his place in the racial hierarchy.
For centuries, India witnessed a similar dynamic. Scores of Indians and their families across the length and breath of the country served as 'House Negroes' to their foreign Masters. What Mughals instituted by marrying into the families of Hindu Kings they had defeated, the British perfected by creating a host of institutions. The Indian Administrative Service being perhaps their most successful project.
Like their American counterparts, Indian House Negroes (IHN) always knew their place. They never attempted to defeat or betray their British masters.
The stellar success of this British experiment can be gauged from the fact that they engineered into existence the
Indian House Negro 'gene'. A gene which has been passed down from father to son to daughter to grand children and continues to persist within Indian political and cultural power structures to this day.
This community of Indian House Negroes was conspicuously absent from India's freedom struggle and their progeny has been similarly under represented in the Indian armed forces.
When the British left India, they handed power over to these well trained community of House Negroes.
The rise and continuing prosperity of Indian House Negroes is perhaps Britain's greatest success story. It has however, had a devastating effect on India.
When House Negro #1 i.e. Pandit Jawarhlal Nehru insisted on taking the Kashmir dispute to a fledgling United Nations, he was behaving on expected lines. He was trying to please his British masters at a heavy price to his fellow Indians.
A price India continues to pay.
This Indian House Negrodom hasnt ceased. Under an Italian Sonia Gandhi it has only accelerated. Sonia represents a second coming of Indian house Negrodom after a few setbacks it faced, first under PVNR and then under ABV.
I'm not suggesting that Indians should hate Westerners or western cultural influence. Despite Hiroshima the sagacious Japanese adopted several western influences. Even their much celebrated success with manufacturing quality products came from the ideas espoused by an American Professor - William Edwards Deming.
There's much that India can learn and emulate from Westerners but it can only be beneficial to Indians if it is done from a position of self confidence.
If Indians wish to be counted as equals, if they wish for India to be counted as an equal they must rid themselves of Indian House Negroes and their Negrodom.
Since the 1980s a generation of Indians born after independence has emerged which seems less infected by the IHN gene. Cricket is an area which has helped illustrate the rise of this truly Indian generation.
Whenever India has been led by a native son, devoid of Western influence, the Indian team has thrived and prospered. It is hardly surprising that both of India's WC victories came under captains one would never mistake for an IHN.
Neverheless, IHNs continue to hold influence over India's power structure, a control greatly disproportionate to their numbers.
Some prominent examples of House Negros:
Mani Shankar Aiyar, Shobha De, Derek O'brien, the Gandhis, Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai.......
are at the forefront of India media and political levers of power and they continue to view all things Indian/Hindu with the same sense of disdain and hatred as their forefathers did before them.
This is the progeny that prefers 'Bombay' over 'Mumbai' and this is the same group that hates Narendra Damodardas Modi.
May 16th, 2014 symbolizes India's true Independence day. For it was on this day that India finally broke free from the shackles of Indian house Negroes.
A native son, unburdened by the guilt engenered by benefiting from a British education finally defeated the collective might of Indian House 'Negrodom'.
This victory may prove to be ephemeral. But it symbolizes the possibility that after centuries of enslavement Indians are ready and prepared to be counted as equals.
PM Modi has birthed a new era into existence. An era with endless possibilities where India guides the world toward a phase of tolerance, spirituality, peace and prosperity.
Indian House Negroes have no place in such a meritocratic dispensation where subterfuge, treachery and genuflection before a foreign deity is no longer the criteria to gain access to corridors of power.
It is this tectonic shift which has terrified Indian House Negroes. And they have reacted on predictable lines.
If PM Modi wins in 2019, this process will become irreversible. This is their last chance and they will attack him with all means, fair and foul. But mostly foul.
p.s. If you ever make these arguments with an IHN you will elicit a familiar response "If you hate British India so much why dont you return all those facilities built by the British - railways, educational institutions, etc."
Your response:
When the British took over, India accounted for 25% of global GDP. When they left in 1947 Indian share of global GDP had dropped to 3%.
If the British return all the wealth they looted from India, it would bring prosperity to India, but most importantly it would bankrupt the British.
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