Mr. Bernard Wijeyasingha USA

The post world war 20th century takes its roots from the Colonial era when Christian nations of Europe created empires which reshaped the world. Out of them the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, French and British Empires stand out. Each in its own way pushed Christian values upon the nations they subjugated. When the Portuguese set out to create a Colonial Empire their nation was in the throes of the Inquisition which was a group of institutions within the judicial system of the Roman Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy.

This fire brand version of the Catholic church went to extreme levels of intolerance towards the lands they conquered and brought with them the Inquisition. India faced the full brunt of it in the area of Goa where every single holy structure that was not Catholic was destroyed and non Christians were subjected to the terrors of that system.

The Dutch and French were not that better. Under Holland’s rule the level of intolerance of pure brutality in Indonesia led to to the mass suicide of members of the Royal families where 600 members first engaged in a final dance and then commited suicide while the Dutch soldiers watched with fascination. It was emblematic of the general treatment of the native Indonesians by the Dutch rulers. France and Spain being of the Catholic faith showed an extreme level of intolerance. When many of these nations finally achieved independence France in particular was merciless, as seen in Algeria, Vietnam, and Morocco.

But the defining empire was the British Empire whose holdings were a quarter of the world. Its Empire contained both Egypt and India, two of the greatest ancient civilizations. Before the European Colonial Empires India’s GDP was 25% of the worlds economy. When the British left the Indian sub continent India’s GDP hovered around 1% of the world’s economy for many decades.

During the British Empire the thriving textile industry of India was systematically destroyed and shipped to England, particularly to Manchester. India dropped from being a nation that exported finished textiles to exporting the raw materials of cotton, silk and wool to the mills of Manchester who then sole them back to India. During this time the British also engaged in a reckless movement of peoples. Sri Lanka became victim as the British imported Indian Tamils to work the tea estates they created in Sri Lanka and going by their “divide and rule” concept gave the most lucrative government jobs to the Sri Lankan Tamils which then led to ethnic rivalry after the British gave Sri Lanka her independence. It was even worse for India where the British deliberately used the “Muslim card” as an excuse to divide a nation known for her diversity which by and large coexisted till the exit of the British. Pakistan was not a concept of Ali Jinnah but a concept brought up by the British.

When the British finally gave India her independence Great Britain made sure that a Muslim state torn out of India, be formed. This alone has pegged India down since her independence as a mini cold war continues in the sub continent. Most of the wars of Africa to Asia have roots to the British Empire. But the most destruction the British did was that she had the power to rewrite history. It is through the British historians that the Western world gets their opinions of the former colonial nations. Biased and racist the British version of history of Asia and Africa continues to define the world organizations created by the (Christian) European nations. From the UN to the UNHRC to the Geneva conference to even the IMF the old bias has shaped the policies of the West.

But this is changing in the 21st century where the shift of power from the West now allows the former Colonial nations to revise the history written by the British and echoed across the Western world. Now with the rise of China, Japan, India, to the Middle East old twisted concepts are being revised and the organizations set up by the Western world are dying due to a severe case of moral turpitude. No nation will honor any organization whose policies are biased, racist and down right ignorant. That is the problem with the league of nations which ultimately failed and now is the same problem with the UN.