Public Comment

The sun has long set on Britain’s former empire. Its comeuppance is long overdue.

The bungling pinstripe-bowler hat brigade of elite British public schools and universities have long poured over world maps searching for ever greater conquests.

Dialing back the pages of history, novelist, Paul Scott reminds us of the utter decadence and destructive nature of the former architects of the British Empire who hastily withdrew and partitioned India into illogical member states. The handsome but ethically challenged last viceroy Mountbatten was accurately described by historian Andrew Roberts as a “mendacious, intellectually limited hustler.” Britain looted India of much of its wealth, destroying its garment trade to promote the sale of inferior British goods.

It’s ironic that Mountbatten, who was derided in British circles as “Master of Disaster,” was put in charge of the “jewel in the crown” robbing India of its enormous potential.

It is mindboggling to understand the callousness of how Britain chose to dismember India. 

Originally Britain announced its exit from India on June 1948. But Mountbatten hastily preponed the date to Aug. 15 1947. In an unguarded moment he admitted that it was a “ludicrously early date.” It was left to a little known lawyer, Cyril Radcliffe to draw up the boundaries of a country he had never visited. The result was sheer insanity. Punjab lost much of its former territory and historic temples to Pakistan. Pakistan was further subdivided into West Pakistan inhabited by Punjabis and East Pakistan inhabited by predominantly poor Bengalis. The ‘Blood telegram” sent by US diplomat, Archer Blood accurately describes the massacre in east Pakistan by General Yahya Khan with weapons supplied by the US. 

In a stunning turn of events, following its messy divorce from the European Union Britain now faces the prospect of its own partition. 

Following decades of bloodshed between northern and southern Ireland, religious passions have cooed and the desire for unification is growing. Scottish nationalists are also agitating for independence. 

The Brexit debacle was started by former Prime Minister, David Cameron who recklessly gambled in a disastrous referendum to pacify rebels in his own party. The opportunist Remainder Boris Johnson, sensing the winds of change, quickly switched to become an ardent Brexiteer winning a thumping majority in the recent election.Following the Trump charade, “Make Britain great again” is quickly morphing into a looming economic and political disaster. 

Are the British being punished for their past misdeeds? The law of Karma is unforgiving.