#Brexit

The flavour of the day be it on Whatsap groups or social media or even MSM, is the news that Britain is leaving the European Union. There has been much hand wringing, abusing, predictions of dire futures, commentary of Left, Right, Centre policies and some have even extended the arguments to racism, casteism, religion, anti minorityism and what have you.  51% of the people think the future will be great and 49% think its going to be bleak. 

But those who think that the 51% are wrong also swear by democracy. Funny. If you believe in democracy then it means that you disagree with them, but accept the majority verdict. But many especially Indian MSM stars have been abusing the 51% with choice words – directly or indirectly – mobs, scoundrels, haters. Listen, what the UK citizens want to do is their business, those amongst us who have and do business with them  – live with change. Change is the ONLY constant in the world even if it is not what you espouse, but don’t believe in.

Folks let us step back for a moment and ponder. Let’s look back in history since after all history they say is a great teacher.

Britain or United Kingdom or England – call it whatever name you want, but here let’s just call them Brits.  These Brits have a nation that’s hardly 243,000 sq kms in size, smaller than the state of Oregon in USA and just 5.7 % of the size of the India of pre 1947. Probably the entire country can be bombed out of existence in 24 hrs, I mean that’s how small these guys are.

But yet look, here below you can find the list of countries that have gained independence from and after having been ruled by the Brits.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_that_have_gained_independence_from_the_United_Kingdom

Seriously, these Brits have ruled over almost everyone in the world from Afghanistan starting with A to Zambia ending with Z.  Almost the whole bloody alphabet list if you can say so.

Unlike the Romans, Greeks, Mughals and such who conquered territories using force, armies, wars these Brits used Trade and Economics to take over the world. Sure, they did use force to keep things in check but hey that was not how they conquered. So the Brits know what is globalisation, global economy, global trade and all those fancy buzz words that we read about. They knew and used those centuries ago and shaped the world as we know it from a commerce point of view.

The industrial revolution happened in Britain. The Steam engine, Textiles, Coal mining, Electric motors, Internal combustion engine, concept of a modern Navy, Submarines, Drainage systems, Electric bulb, concept of Computers, Vaccines, Telephones, Forensic science with Finger prints, Carbon fibre, ATM's and so many more all happened in this tiny place. And lest we forget two of the foremost Economists in the world - Adam Smith & John Maynard Keynes are Brits and today we use their economic theory to tell the Brits that they are wrong. Come on folks let’s give those Brits some credit for their  brains and capability.

Just because some heir to a throne in Austria got assassinated, the rest of the world led by the Brits started World War 1 and went on to win it. When Hitler went on a rampage it was again the Brits who led the counter offensive on behalf of the world. But for the Pearl Harbour bombing by the Japanese, USA would have maybe stayed out of that war. But they did get in and with the Brits again won World War 2. So these Brits, puny as we have seen them to be, have led and won the only 2 World Wars that have occurred.

The Brits gave this world the English language which even today is the link language globally and they also gave this world Shakespeare, Tennyson, Wordsworth, Keats, Shelly, Kipling, Byron, Eliot, Wodehouse and many such luminaries who are probably unknown and un-understood by over 90% of the world. But then every single supporter who wants that Britain stay within the EU probably waxes eloquent about these worthies – the liberal, intellectual, educated class as we know them.  

At last count the Brits alone had won about 129 Nobel prizes compared to about 380 from the rest of the folks comprising the EU that is about 25%. No small feat this.

Amongst other things the Brits also gave this world Tea, Fish and chips, Poached eggs, Scrambled eggs, Sheaperd’s pie, Muffins, Toast and a unique sense of humour that’s even today enjoyed globally. If there is anyone who can laugh at themselves it’s the Brits. Just remember “Mind your Language”, “Yes Minister”, “Allo Allo”, “Are you being served”. Moving on to more serious stuff who can forget the ever green, all time favorite, the one and only “James Bond”. 

Last but not the least the Brits gave us Cricket. I mean, where else in the world can you have a game that made people sit glued to their Radio's, TV's or in stadiums for 5 days, 6 hours a day with no guarantee of a result in the end. They convinced whole generations to do this when not playing cricket and we made it our national sport. Look at it this way - it was tough to get a kid to sit through a 45 minute lecture in school but, we, the same kids sat through 5 days of this game and got excited once in about 2 hours because something happened. You must hand it to the Brits for achieving this.

So before we berate the Brits for #Brixit lets not consider them unintelligent by any means.

Wherever they have ruled, the Brits have left behind a rich legacy of enduring systems, legal, education, irrigation, railways and of course the legendary bureaucracy. When you consider that they established an organisation for safety in India way back in 1898 and even today after 118 years we still don’t follow safety rules in India, it speaks volumes about their vision and our resistance. And before we forget, they taught us and much of the world the dictum – Divide and Rule – and we in India have perfected this into a science and made bureaucracy an art – nobody understands it.

However in quite a few places globally, the critical places if one may say so, they have left behind a rip roaring mess that even after decades continue to fester as open wounds that never heal. Whether it is the Middle East or the Indian sub continent they have shown themselves to be intelligent enough to convince people to accept a mess as the manna from heaven solution.

Look at the Indian subcontinent. The Brits who introduced textiles to the world and India were defeated by a man wearing nothing more than a loin cloth even when he met them for meetings in chilling cold England.

Today the same Brits have statues of the man who defeated them with peace. Remember, that, unlike every other empire the Brits conquest of the world was using trade and economics which meant peace and not war and the only man who used their own weapon against them was MK Gandhi. A Roman or Greek or Mughal ruler would have simply bumped off Gandhi long before he could become known amongst his people. But the Brits even if they killed many did not take this harsh step against any of the prominent Indian leaders be it Gandhi, Nehru, Patel or Jinnah. There was a certain “code of honour” they followed which again is uniquely Brit.

But look at what they did. These great leaders who are revered almost to the level of God by many Indians were made to accept the most hare brained solution possible when partition happened. You had a West Pakistan and East Pakistan where the 2 parts of the SAME country were separated by over 2000 kms of land and 3000 nautical miles of sea. Then, you had another huge tract of land that was actually India but which was separated by another huge distance. India had to travel 1500 kms to reach its territory when it was hardly 330 kms away.  Why partition did not happen differently we will never know. Why this most hare brained solution was accepted by the great leaders of India/Pakistan we will never know. 

The Orange was India and the 2 Greens was Pakistan till in 1971 East Pakistan became Bangladesh.

Sure, we will find historians giving us their sermons on this issue but if I were to be sitting across the table I would laugh this solution out of the table as the most inane and impractical idea possible. But yet our semi god leaders of those times accepted this, lived with it and we even after 69 years still continue to try and resolve the royal mess if I may say so. That the Brits thought up this solution and then got it accepted is testimony to their brains. They must have laughed all the way as they sailed to England over endless cups of Tea, Muffins and Sandwiches – post 1947.

So in short don’t just discount the intelligence of the Brits. Historically they seem to know what they are doing. But then history doesn’t always repeat.  In history the Brits have been voted or booted out by someone else across the world but for the first time in history the Brits have voted and booted themselves out for a change. Now that is indeed unique. They can finally add their own name to the list above where they can claim that they obtained independence from themselves in 2016. Whether they are doing so by leaving behind on themselves a festering wound that will continue to fester and hurt them with time is something that only the future can tell.  So till then say Cheers and watch the developments as they unfold. Here are a few cartoons to smile further.

Note : This is meant to be a tongue in cheek reaction to the seriously, serious debates that I see raging on groups and social media about #Brexit. Pictures used from the net and thanks to whoever claims rights.