Indian independence/partition and being British

[Indiaorigin]

My parents emigrated from India to the UK and I was born here and always lived here. I don’t feel Indian.

My school was not multicultural at all. I’m not sure how to feel when I see the dreadful things that the British empire did in India and it’s other colonies.

Im embarrassed and guilty m that my country was responsible for or just stood by and watched such violence and human suffering of partition. Yet of course it was nothing to do with my ancestors (or the vast majority of the British people at the time who were not powerful either).

Does anyone else feel like me or am I just odd?

Still, I was pleased to read your post and wish more people thought like you. I was so humbled by a trip to Berlin and how the German people and Govt. approach their history.

@Indiaorigin - As a daughter of immigrants from SE Asia and a Muslim, I don't feel like anywhere is really home. You are not alone and can feel united in that!

I saw it late last night. Didn't know the board existed.

I think a lot of us feel like your SIL but it's not the acceptable view now.

what bothers me is when someone decides to give a label based on origins, especially when they dig for ages to find out what they are.

my grandfather in partition caught the end of a knife fight. But it's like digging through the history of any conflict - why do people want to point a finger and hold a grudge?

My boyfriend is Hungarian and surprised to find how many don't accept me as English, he wants our DC to just be English. Well, they will be! His country also has history, as do all of ours, that many of us just don't want to focus on.

anger about the past doesn't help anyone, does it? What's done is done. Do we have any hope of harmony if we keep raking it over?

the only thing my GPs miss India now is their local English church, because churches are all a bit...well I don't know, but even I feel a big change in church since say, ten years ago. Like all the comforting bits got thrown away and every sermon is about something political.

PS Julia, just tell people you've got south Asian heritage somewhere and boom, you're allowed to post! 😂

My grandparents came to the UK during partition.

My grandad never spoke of the horrors he witnessed, he used to be a teacher in India and loved and respected by his community irrespective of religion.

My grandparents came to the UK with nothing but what they could carry and built their lives up from the ground up. Both my grandad and grandma had two jobs in factories, my grandma once worked in a jam factory, she used to tell me stories of the time the jars all exploded and she ended up with glass embedded in her arm.

I never realised till I was much older the courage and determination it must have taken to build a life from the ground up as an adult in a country where you don't speak the language, where the food, weather and culture are so completely alien, having left all your friends and extended family behind.
I totally admire my grandmother especially, our house growing up had refugees and people travelling through to other countries constantly, they'd know my grandad from his reputation from back home. Everyone was always welcomed with open arms.

I personally feel neither British nor Indian.

Ah, I have also realised my mistake. Didn’t see which board this was. Will bow out now too. Sorry for the mistake.

I'm Pakistani- British and TBH I feel like I'm a mishmash of 2 cultures. I was brought up to be very aware of my Pakistani heritage and history (including the partition). It doesn't make me any less British to be connected to the south asian part of me.

I am Indian Muslims. I was born in London in the early 60s.
What concerns me is not the past but the present situation in India. There is a nationalist Hindu government which is persecuting Muslims.

All of human history is littered with atrocities, injustice and exploitation, empires seeking power and wealth, elites playing political games which have grave ramifications etc. Hardly unique to Britain.

India has lots of deeply entrenched religious and cultural issues of its own, which can be ripe for exploitation by any political power. It's a big country and has always been ruled by its own power-hungry Hindu and Muslim elites that inflicted suffering on its people. It's not like the subcontinent was some peaceful garden of Eden that had never experienced conflict and strife until white people showed up.

Our globalised present has been shaped by countless historical actions (and inactions) and decisions - some good, some bad, some terrible. We have all benefited in various ways from the exploitation of others, past and present.

There are some terrible legacies of the British empire, along with some good ones. Ironically, some Indians found opportunities to escape the awful caste system and make a better life for themselves and their descendants - something they couldn't do previously.

I don't think feeling excessively guilty about historical events we don't have any control over is productive. There's so much going on today - like the horrible exploitation of South Asians in rich, Middle Eastern countries - but no one likes to talk about that.