The British Genocide in India

[jmm1184]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/a ... deepramesh

I came across a very interesting article which has huge ramifications for generational dynamics. The article itself is not too long, but to sum it up an Indian historian claims that up to ten million Indians were massacred by British troops over several years following the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. This mutiny was very serious in that it nearly overthrew British rule over India, and it horrified and enraged popular British sentiment because of Indian atrocities against British women and children who were in India. The commonly known history is that there were brutal reprisals by the British against the Indian population to avenge the atrocities on British women and children, but nothing of this scale or for this long. The author claims cites labour records showing a severe drop in population in some areas during the 1860s. While some believe his number of ten million is an exaggeration, they do not dispute that the casualties may exceed the cited 100,000 to the hundreds of thousands. Moreover, the historian claims that this shows the mutiny was a pan-Indian phenomenon and not just a northern Indian rebellion as the main narrative of the revolt presents it.

On its own merits this is truly horrifying, but in regards to generational dynamics this sheds light on one of the potential problems in GD theory - namely the mid-19th century British crisis war or lack thereof - as well as an issue I have found, which is a lack of a south Indian crisis war during the mid or late 1800s.

On earlier threads on this website, a consensus formed that the British crisis war was the American Civil War of 1861-1865. While I do not dispute that this war was part of Britain's crisis war era, it always struck as me as odd considering they avoided military involvement in the war - not your usual behavior during a crisis war, it would be more fitting if the British joined in righteous fervor. But two events that intrigued me were the Indian Mutiny of 1857 and the Second Opium War of 1856-1860. The Indian Mutiny sparked horror, outrage and cries for vengeance in Britain, and they ruthlessly suppressed the rebellion. Considering India's importance both to the empire and to the British image of themselves I though that this was at least the catalyst to a crisis war period that included the invasion and even sacking of the Summer Palace in Beijing in the second Opium War as well the American Civil War.

However, if the claims of this author are true, then this most assuredly would be Britain's crisis war for the mid-19th century. Beginning in 1857 and continuing into the 1860s, the British ruthlessly put down any potential resistance to their authority, and it is noteworthy that there was never again a rebellion against British rule.

[John]

This is really quite a discovery, and you're very convincing.

> A controversial new history of the Indian Mutiny, which broke out
> 150 years ago and is acknowledged to have been the greatest
> challenge to any European power in the 19th century, claims that
> the British pursued a murderous decade-long campaign to wipe out
> millions of people who dared rise up against them.

> In War of Civilisations: India AD 1857, Amaresh Misra, a writer
> and historian based in Mumbai, argues that there was an "untold
> holocaust" which caused the deaths of almost 10 million people
> over 10 years beginning in 1857. Britain was then the world's
> superpower but, says Misra, came perilously close to losing its
> most prized possession: India.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/a ... deepramesh

That sounds like a generational crisis war to me, and Britain
was definitely in a crisis era at that time.