Prof Emeritus Aslam Syed has said that British colonialism was certainly a far more traumatizing experience for colonial subjects than their colonizers as they suffered poverty, malnutrition, disease, cultural upheaval, economic exploitation, political disadvantage and a sense of social and racial inferiority.
He observed this while addressing as guest speaker at Webinar on Discourse of History on Indo-Pak History from Antiquity to Modernity XIII: End of British Rule in India here on Sunday.
Prof. Emeritus Aslam Syed has been serving the Centre for Religious Studies, Ruhr Universität, Bochum, Germany. He remained Chairman, Department of History, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad and also served the NIHCR as its Director.
Responding to a question, Prof Syed said that the British rule developed through a combination of military force and alliances with Indian rulers of princely states. India was perhaps the most important to Britain of the territories in the empire; it was run in a different way from most other parts of the empire because it was different from other parts of the empire, he said.
The Webinar arranged online by the National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research (NIHCR), Centre of Excellence, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, was attended by over 700 participants ranging from students, teachers and researchers to have greater insights into the valuable views of the guest speaker.
Replying a question, Prof Emeritus Aslam Syed said that the British rule developed through a combination of military force and alliances with Indian rulers of princely states. British signed treaties and made military and trading alliances with many of the princely states that made up India, he said.
It was the 32nd consecutive session on the Discourse of History, a brainchild of the NIHCR Director Dr Sajid Mahmood Awan.
This activity inculcates interest to learn more and more about history not only among students, scholars and historians as well as among ordinary people belonging to any field of life to know about nations’ ways of running their States in a journey from antiquity to modernity.
Replying a question, Prof Syed said that when the British arrived in India in the 1700s they found out that India was highly populated. It was economically developed. There were states with governments that were just as complex as Britain, he said.
To another question, he said that by the later 1800s British rule in India was strong.
However, there were only a tiny number of British soldiers and administrators in India. Indian civil servants did the majority of the day-to-day work that allowed British rule to operate, he said.
Prof Syed to a yet another question observed that by the later 1800s there were many thousands of middle-class Indians who worked in the administration, who spoke English and who had an English education (often received in India).
The NIHCR Director Dr Awan conducted the Webinar by triggering a dialogue with Dr Syed for substantiating this discourse.
This inclusive activity has been taken up every week for the benefit of students in general and capacity-building of the teachers and researchers in particular, he said.
