Indians know that the colonial british opened fire on a peaceful gathering of Indians after sealing off all means of escape. I not only thought of the British as cruel but also as racist.
In Mel Gibson’s movie patriot, I saw that American citizens were similarly killed trapped in a church, and in Russel Crowe’s Robin Hood, I saw the English trap other Englishmen in a large wooden enclosure and set fire to it.
So while the colonials may have been racist, that was not a pre-requisite to a ‘torch your own protesting civilian citizens’, race and nationality no bar.
I have previously written about how the British-English imposed a salt tax on their own subjects and the present Govt. of free India taxes salt too. When I read about Gandhiji’s salt satyAgraha, I thought it was what cruel foreign rulers did to innocent Indian citizens!
I guess now that rulers tax whatever they can whether they are kings, foreigners or elected representatives. And tax on salt makes sure that even a beggar is a tax payer.
satyA
