Shashi Tharoor's Oxford Union speech

Shashi Tharoor's Oxford Union speech on 28 May 2015 was in favour of the motion, "This house believes Britain owes reparations to her former colonies". Shashi Tharoor was the seventh speaker on his team and was allotted eight minutes to speak. In the end, Tharoor's side won the debate with 185 votes to 56. Once the debates were uploaded onto the official Union YouTube channel on 14 July 2015,[1] Shashi Tharoor's speech went viral, especially in India, where it was widely shared, discussed and attributed.[2][3] Narendra Modi, at an event in the Parliament of India in July 2015, responded to the debate by saying that "what he spoke there reflected the sentiments of the citizens of India" and that the debate "shows the importance of saying the right thing at the right time". The video has over 7 million views on YouTube (as of July 2020)[4] and is Oxford Union's most watched debate speech.[5] Following the response to his speech, Shashi Tharoor wrote a book expanding upon the debate.[4][6]

The Oxford Union debating chamber

Background

The Oxford Union debate in the 'Debating Chamber'[7] was held on 28 May 2015 at 8:30 p.m.[8] The motion of the house was, "This house believes Britain owes reparations to her former colonies", and the premise was[9][8]

We have recently seen former colonies demanding reparations for centuries of abuse: from the Mau Mau survivors in Kenya to descendants of slaves in the Caribbean. David Cameron made controversial remarks on the issue in Amritsar; William Hague said outright that there should be no post-colonial guilt; and Ken Livingstone gave a heartfelt apology for London's role in the slave trade. Do British politicians owe more than just their words?

— Trinity 2015 Termbook, pg 16[8]

The team speaking for the proposition included Jamaican High Commissioner Aloun Ndombet-Assamba, Ghanaian economist Dr George Ayittey and Indian politician Shashi Tharoor.[9][3] The opposition included British politician Sir Richard Ottaway, British historian John MacKenzie and American historian William Roger Louis.[8][10] Shashi Tharoor was the seventh speaker on his team and was allotted eight minutes to speak.[3][9]

Speech
Video
Dr Shashi Tharoor MP – Britain Does Owe Reparations Oxford Union video speech (14 July 2015)

Shashi Tharoor's speech was called "witty" and "passionate" among other things.[11][12] The Time magazine wrote that apart from the insight, it was Tharoor's "rapier barbs" that got everyone's attention, such as the line "No wonder that the sun never set on the British Empire because even God couldn't trust the English in the dark".[3] Shashi Tharoor opened up with an analogy to Henry VIII's the last wife: [13]

[...] now finding myself the seventh speaker out of eight in what must already seem a rather long evening to you, I rather feel like Henry the VIII's last wife. I more or less know what's expected of me but I am not sure how to do it any differently.[14]

— Shashi Tharoor

While Tharoor himself did not provide attribution to his speech, some columnists have tried to verify the facts he cited.[11][15] The speech itself gave insight into the impact of colonial rule on the economy of India, how India contributed to the world wars and how it impacted India, and how the British never cared about the starving in India, directly mentioning Churchill and the Bengal famine as example.[2][16][14] Tharoor took the examples of Robert Clive as a colonialist who looted India, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, and the mutilation of weavers by the British, and concluded that the infrastructure built by the British in India (such as the railways) was not a "gift" to India but a means to loot India even more.[17] Shashi Tharoor focused on the principle of owing reparation rather than how much was owed:[14]

The proposition before this house is the principle of owing reparations, not the fine points of how much is owed, to whom it should be paid. The question is, is there a debt, does Britain owe reparations? As far as I am concerned, the ability to acknowledge your wrong that has been done, to simply say sorry will go a far far far longer way than some percentage of GDP in the form of aid. What is required it seems to me is accepting the principle that reparations are owed.[14]

— Shashi Tharoor

In the end, Tharoor was on the winning side of the debate, taking 185 votes to 56.[9]

Impact and aftermath

Within a week of the speech, the video became Oxford Union's fifth most-watched YouTube video.[9] The video has over 7.5 million views on YouTube (as of December 2019),[4] and is Oxford Union's most watched debate.[5] It was a trending topic in India for a number of days, being shared on a number of platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and Whatsapp.[9][18] Rebuttals were being written and published by media houses.[18] A review in India's Livemint commented, "Tharoor's speech at Oxford was neither great nor entirely original; however, it was an articulate, well-reasoned, witty and, at times, passionate criticism of the British Raj."[12] An article in The Week backed up a number of statements that Tharoor had made with research from British economists Angus Maddison and Colin Clark, British writer William Digby and American historian Will Durant.[15] WSJ asked over 2000 of their India Real Times readers "whether Britain should pay reparations to India and its other former colonies" and a large majority said yes.[19] Some Indians around the world showed sudden anger to British colonialism in various articles and social media posts.[12] There were calls for the return of the Kohinoor started by British Indian MP Keith Vaz.[18][20]

The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, at an event in the Parliament of India in July 2015, responded to the debate by saying that "what he [Tharoor] spoke there reflected the sentiments of the citizens of India" and that the debate "shows the importance of saying the right thing at the right time".[21][22] The Telegraph also reported on the speech, saying that India's Prime Minister 'endorses the call for reparations'.[23] The headline in The Guardian was "Narendra Modi endorses Britain paying damages to India for colonial rule", adding that the Prime Minister had praised an "opposition MP".[22] Modi's praise was rare as he and Tharoor belong to rival parties.[24]

Following the response to the speech, Shashi Tharoor transformed the speech into a book, titled An Era of Darkness: the British Empire in India, and later published in the United Kingdom and United States as "Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India".[4][25][26] Tharoor went on to win a Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award in 2017 for the book as well as a Sahitya Akademi Award in 2019.[27][28] In 2016 Tharoor had written in an article that "the book is not intended to have any bearing on today's Indo-British relationship. That is now between two sovereign and equal nations, not between an imperial overlord and oppressed subjects."[29]

Opposing perspectives

John MacKenzie, a professor of history, countered Shashi Tharoor in a BBC piece on 28 July 2015.[30] He stated that Tharoor "overstated the case" and that "Britain does not owe reparations to India". With regard to the British plundering of India, MacKenzie stated that even before the British came, India was ruled for the benefit of the rulers. He took the example of the famines and deaths during the period of the Mughal Empire, even during the construction of the Taj Mahal.[30] MacKenzie countered various other points put forward by Tharoor in his speech.[30] Jonathan Foreman also wrote a similar statement in his commentary in Politico, "Oddly enough you never hear calls for reparations for Moghul rule."[31] Tharoor responded in an interview by noting that "the Muslim rulers were unlike the British, because they stayed and assimilated here, married into Indian society and made this country their home [...] The fourth Mughal was seven-eighths of Indian blood [...] whereas the British drained our resources for the benefit of their faraway homeland."[18] During his rebuttal, Sir Richard Ottaway maintained that "to ask today’s tax payers to finance reparations to the free citizens of independent states merely assuages at 21st century guilt."[32]

British historian Patrick French also countered Tharoor in an article titled "Sorry, Shashi Tharoor, but Britain doesn't owe India any reparations". He noted that while the speech was "witty and entertaining", Tharoor's points were built on "insecure foundations".[21] British politicians like Gordon Brown and more recently Nigel Farage have advised not "apologizing for Britain's colonial past and concentrate on delivering a better future".[33][9] William Dalrymple said that the debate was "the first time I've ever heard the word reparations ever used" between the two countries, but pointed out that it was not an official speech. Dalrymple said that reparations are not the answer, instead urging education of the British on both the good and bad things in their history. He further noted that "there's hardly a single reference to the British empire as a whole in the English education curriculum."[24]

See also

References
  1. "Dr. Shashi Tharoor's official website: An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India (2016)". shashitharoor.in. 1 December 2016. Archived from the original on 21 December 2019. Retrieved 16 May 2020. At the end of May 2015, I was invited by the Oxford Union to speak on the proposition 'Britain Owes Reparations to Her Former Colonies'. [...] In early July, however, the Union posted the debate on the web, and sent me a video copy of my own speech.
  2. "3 reasons why Shashi Tharoor's speech at Oxford is a must watch". Hindustan Times. 22 July 2015. Archived from the original on 14 June 2019. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  3. Iyengar, Rishi (23 July 2015). "Indian MP Tharoor on Why Britain Owes India Reparations". Time. Archived from the original on 10 June 2020. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  4. "Inglorious Empire: What the British did to India | Reviews in History". reviews.history.ac.uk. Retrieved 18 May 2020. Inglorious Empire arose from a speech given by Dr Shashi Tharoor in May 2015 at the Oxford Union in support of the motion 'Britain Owes Reparations to Her Former Colonies'
  5. "OxfordUnion". YouTube. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  6. Balakrishnan, Uday. "The bald truth is — the Raj ruined us". The Hindu @businessline. Retrieved 18 May 2020. His book is, in fact, an expanded take on British exploitation of India that famously carried the day for Tharoor in an Oxford debate ...
  7. "The Chamber | the Oxford Union". www.oxford-union.org. Archived from the original on 20 December 2019. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
  8. "Oxford Union Trinity 2015 Termcard". Issuu. 2015. pp. 16, 17. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
  9. "An Indian politician gave the best explanation of why the UK owes reparations to India". The Independent. 22 July 2015. Archived from the original on 10 June 2020. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  10. Prof. William Roger Louis – Britain Does Not Owe Reparations, retrieved 16 May 2020 (YouTube)
  11. "Shashi Tharoor demands reparation payments from UK for colonial rule". The Economic Times. PTI. 22 July 2015. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  12. Sarkar, Dipankar De (31 July 2015). "Oxford challenge: is India institutionally casteist?". Livemint. Archived from the original on 15 December 2015. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  13. Mohan, Braj (26 April 2019). Understanding Public Speaking: A Learner's Guide to Persuasive Oratory. Taylor & Francis. pp. Chapter 4.5. ISBN 978-1-000-00715-2.
  14. "Read: Shashi Tharoor's full speech asking UK to pay India for 200 years of its colonial rule". News18. 24 July 2015. Archived from the original on 20 March 2019. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  15. VK, Vinod (13 September 2017). "Decoding Tharoor-ian theory on colonial loot". The Week. Archived from the original on 23 February 2018. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  16. Rai, Sarakshi (22 July 2015). "Five lessons we learned about India from Shashi Tharoor's Oxford speech". Firstpost. Archived from the original on 22 November 2018. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  17. Narayani, Nalini (24 July 2015). "8 lessons from Tharoor's electrifying Oxford speech". Rediff. Archived from the original on 23 December 2016. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
  18. Shekhar, Mayank (4 January 2017). "The party of Hindutva has betrayed centuries of ancient Hindu practice in acceptance of sexual deviancy". Elle India. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  19. Bhattacharya, Suryatapa (28 July 2015). "We Asked Readers Whether Britain Should Pay Reparations to India, This Is What They Said". WSJ. Archived from the original on 1 August 2016. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  20. "After Tharoor's Oxford Union speech, Keith Vaz says return Kohi-i-noor to India". The Indian Express. PTI. 29 July 2015. Archived from the original on 13 November 2015. Retrieved 16 May 2020.CS1 maint: others (link)
  21. French, Patrick (5 August 2015). "Sorry, Shashi Tharoor, but Britain doesn't owe India any reparations". www.spectator.co.uk. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  22. Burke, Jason (24 July 2015). "Narendra Modi endorses Britain paying damages to India for colonial rule". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 17 June 2020. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  23. Henderson, Barney (24 July 2015). "India's prime minister endorses call for Britain to pay reparations for colonial rule". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on 21 July 2019. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  24. Shwayder, Maya E.; Pandey, Ashutosh (27 July 2015). "Indian MP Tharoor accidentally ignites debate over UK reparations to India". DW. Archived from the original on 12 June 2017. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  25. Bangalore Literature Festival (15 January 2017), Inglorious Empire, The reality of the British Raj | Shashi Tharoor with Sanjeev Sanyal, retrieved 9 September 2017. (4:40 to 6:20+)
  26. Tharoor, Shashi (4 December 2016). "Does Britain owe reparations to former colonies?". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 24 May 2020. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  27. "Shashi Tharoor wins Sahitya Akademi Award 2019 for An Era Of Darkness". India Today. 18 December 2019. Archived from the original on 9 January 2020. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  28. "Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu presents 12th edition of Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards". Firstpost. 21 December 2017. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  29. Tharoor, Shashi (4 December 2016). "Does Britain owe reparations to former colonies?". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 24 May 2020. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  30. MacKenzie, John (28 July 2015). "Viewpoint: Why Britain does not owe reparations to India". BBC News. Archived from the original on 7 May 2020. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  31. Foreman, Jonathan (3 August 2015). "Reparations for the Raj? You must be joking!". POLITICO. Archived from the original on 15 August 2018. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  32. Malhotra, Aditi (29 July 2015). "The Counterview: Why Britain Doesn't Owe India Reparations". WSJ. Archived from the original on 15 December 2015. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  33. Hope, Christopher (19 November 2019). "Stop apologising for Britain's colonial past and concentrate on delivering a better future, Nigel Farage says". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on 20 December 2019. Retrieved 16 May 2020.

Further reading
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