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THE President-to-be, Dr Abdul Kalam, is never tired of pointing out that India, in all its history extending back to thousands of years, had never invaded any other country coveting its territory or riches, but had itself been a prey to repeated onslaughts by invaders from outside. Well, the Chola kings of Tamil Nadu had, indeed, invaded Sri Lanka, Maldives and the land mass now comprising Indonesia and established the Sri Vijaya Empire. The thing to be said in their favour is that they were ideal rulers, looking upon their acquisitions as a sacred trust. Unlike in the case of other invaders, they did not leave a trail of violence and terror.

Conquerors of history have a tradition of traducing their subjects. The Western colonisers, in particular, had from the very beginning a low opinion of the culture, achievements and capabilities of the people whom they subjugated. Because of their insolence or ignorance, they either left to wither or laid to waste precious assets and literary legacies of many ancient civilisations such as Maya. Well into the last century, even the intelligentsia in their countries was not fully aware of the incomparable greatness of the cultural, scientific and literary heritage of non-white civilisations. In their abysmal ignorance, and exploiting their hold over wealth, military power and the publishing industry in their hands, they revelled in badmouthing countries over which they ruled, and affixing derogatory labels on them.

Rudyard Kipling, the vitriolic mouthpiece of their imperialistic ego-centrism, was the one who first characterised as the "White man's burden" the efforts of colonial powers to civilise the primitives and savages as they were universally seen by the Western conquerors of the 17th to 19th centuries. Kipling's example was soon followed by other jingoists falling head over heels in coining condemnatory phrases: Dark continent, sick man of Europe, yellow peril and black hole are a few early samples.

The part of a town where natives lived was dubbed Black Town, and in their own countries where they lived from times immemorial, they were required to occupy separate benches in parks and separate seats in public transportation, and not to ride a horse or a cycle or hold an umbrella open before the White gate-crashers. The tendency to look down upon anything that does not meet their own standards of what is "propah" has continued in such descriptions as half-naked fakir (Mahatma Gandhi), bottomless pit (applied to India in the 1960s), Iron Curtain, Third World, evil empire (Soviet Union), axis of evil (outwardly limited to three countries but tacitly countries other than the democratic west!) and the like. They can at a pinch paint any country or its leader as a deadly monster if it suits their purpose: A recent example is that of Robert Mugabe and Zimbabwe. Dr Kalam will be right if he said India and its leaders have never tarnished, traduced and tarred others as the Western invaders had done.

B. S. Raghavan

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