“How did they do it Nina?” He asked
“Huh? Who did what?” I turn to look at him. He was leaning on the rock and was looking ahead.
“How did a country ruled first by the Romans then by Anglo Saxons, then the Danes and eventually established a monarchy and the descendants of that monarchy manged to rule us? How did they do it?”
Romans? Anglo Saxons? What is this guy talking about? It took me a few seconds to figure out that he was talking about British Empire. The empire where the sun never set!!.
Happiness was knowing that the love of my life loves history just the way I do. I wanted to get up and do a victory dance.
“Because they were systematic” I replied
“Systematic? How could the barbarians be systematic?”
Barbarians? He called the British barbarians? Goodness gracious, that is the name I call them. How did he know that? I looked at him.
“Why are you smiling?” He asked
“Do you know something? When I think of the British, I think of them as modern day Barbarians”
“Why?”
“Because, British had no culture. They had nothing. They changed their rules, when ever they needed to. They were pagans at first, then became Christans with a hope that religion can unite all the Anglo Saxon mini kingdoms and centuries later when the king didn’t get a divorce, he established a new church and called it Anglican church. You see, they were not consistent in their own belief, they changed the rules every time there was a need”
“So how did we land up as their subjects? What do you think happened?”
“Religion I guess.Religion was used to conform people. Religion was used to control and enslave people.”
“Enslave?”
“Yep Slavery! The Anglican church itself used the religion to enslave people”
“Really? Where?”
“Have you heard of Society for the propagation of gospel in foreign parts?”
“No, tell me about it”
“Well, it was established to evangelize the non believers in the Asia and Africa and America. In fact some of their missionaries were in India promoting education and improving female literacy. But the Church also was actively involved in slave trade. Their sugar plantation survived on slave trade. Their slaves had the word ‘society’ branded on their chest. A lot of people died while in transit to the salve camp, and in the camps.
When the Slavery was abolished compensation was paid. Guess who got the compensation from the British Government? The slaves or their owners?
“Must be the owners”
“Yep, the society that was created to evangelize got compensation for the slaves they set free! You see the paradox? One hand they wanted people to believe in their God, yet they had no problem keeping the same people as slaves. Religion was just a mean to achieve the end result and in their case it was more money. Either way they got it. Cheap labour from the slaves and when it was abolished compensation from the government!”
“But still Nina, how did the British get us sing ‘Yes Sir, No Sir, Three bags full Sir”
“What?” I looked at him stunned
“You know the song right, Ba ba black sheep?”
“Yeah, but the song wasn’t like that it was yes sir, yes sir, three bags full”
“Oh Nina”
“Don’t Oh Nina me. I told you that so many times” I was so angry.
“Oh Nina, Oh my darling Nina, have I told you that you look so pretty when you are angry”
“Get..” I bit my tongue quickly so I won’t say the rest. I knew it I said get lost again, he would start teasing me more.
“Get what Nina? You mean Get lost?” He was smiling
I ignored him. Why do I speak without thinking?
“Come here” He pointed to the space next to him
I ignored him.
“Come here Nina”
“Why?”
“Because it is Saturday” He was laughing so loud
“What?”
“You wanted a reason why you should come and sit next to me didn’t you? So the reason is Today is Saturday, do you need any other reason to sit next to me?”
“Aiyyeda“
“what does that mean?”
“I am not going to tell you”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want to”
I watched him getting up and walking towards me.
He sat next to me.
He was looking at me and smiling.
“Nina ma, I was hungry. You have my bag. I asked you to come and sit with me, so you will bring my bag with you and we can eat something”
“oh”
“what oh?”
“nothing” I wondered why I felt a bit disappointed.
I gave the bag to him. He took out all the stuff he brought. There was bread, Kissan Jam, bananas, potato chips and Indian sweets and Amul Chocolate”
“You can feed an Army with this much of food”
“Well, I don’t know what my Malayalee darling likes to eat, so I had to pack whatever I could find! So what do you want to eat?”
I took some sweets from the box and started to eat, very conscious of the fact that his thighs were touching mine. I thought of all the times I had to endure thigh rubbing in the public buses in Kerala. Yet this time, I didn’t feel uncomfortable. I didn’t bother to move my body away.

“When the whites came to India, why did we give them more respect than they deserved? Why did we treat them differently? We have been trading with other nations all through the history right?” He asked me
“Right”
“then what changed? Why did we start singing ‘Yes sir, No sir, three bags full Sir to the whites?? Why did we think that the whites are superior? Why did we start to dance to all their tunes? Why did we forget out culture? Why did we embrace a new religion? Was it all to make us more equal to the Whites?”
“I don’t know”
“Have you heard of Steve Biko?”
“No” I shook my head
“You haven’t read about him?”
“No”
I wondered what I missed reading?
“He was one of the first black people who started to preach about blacks not being inferior to the whites and whites not being superior to the blacks. He said the “The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” He started the change and guess what the whites did? They killed him! Then they had the audacity to say that he died because he was on hunger strike! He was a medical student, just like us Nina. He was killed because he spoke the truth. A minority of white could rule over a majority of black because they made them think that they are inferior. You see Nina it is all in the mind. Unless we liberate our mind, we will always be some one’s slave”
“What do you mean?”
“Initially I thought education would change our attitude. But I was wrong. We are not allowed to think. If we have a different opinion, we won’t express it, lest we be called names. We are afraid to think. We are afraid to be different. Look around Nina, India has been independent for decades, yet see the way Indians treat whites.
Have you seen how an ordinary Indian treat a white visitor? For all you know he must be a labourer in England but when he visits India..”
“Yes Sir, No sir, Three bags full Sir” I continued the rest for him.
I understood what he was saying. We have been free from British rule, but the cultural Imperialism..that is alive and kicking.

Further to Abraham’s comment in my last blog, I would like to ask.
“What did you learn in school about Dravidian’s?
I remember studying about Dravidian when I was 11 0r 12 years old. From what I remember, I learned that Dravidian are dark they have curly hair etc etc and were uncultured and uncouth.
My view of Dravidian were something similar to Barbarians, where as I learned that Aryans were superior, they were fair complexioned and they wrote the vedas etc etc.
As a child I didn’t want to be associated with Dravidian. I was glad that I was fair complexioned and have straight hair. I wanted to be associated with learned scholars, not barbarians. In fact I even felt sorry for my older sister, because she was dark and would be considered as a Dravidian!
How did I land up thinking that way? It had to be the way it was taught!

It took years of reading to finally erase all the prejudices I have had and be proud of what I am. ie to accept that I am a homo sapien, just like everybody else.
That being said, has the education system changed? Has the stereo typing changed?