Can What Has Happened In India Be Blamed On The Empire?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/29/clash-cultures-india-women

/// Much of this violence is linked to the tensions generated by change. This is compounded by the extraordinary isolation of the political elite, which has remained locked in the 1920s in terms of accountability, transparency and communication. ///

[jno]

given the length of time India was ruled from Britain, I can't see how Britain can avoid responsibility for good things and bad. But only some of the responsibility; Indians have been independent for many years, and have to sort out the way their country is now run.

[anotheoldgit]

The headline states:

/// A clash of two cultures as women are left out of India's bright new future ///

We in this country now have a 'clash of many cultures', how are we now to accommodate these?

[Zacs-Master]

We gave them government and a transport infrastructure which they failed to build on. We can't be blamed for that.

[boxtops]

Do "we" have to accommodate them, AOG?

[anotheoldgit]

boxtops

Well 'we' are constantly told that is what we must do, boxtops

[atalanta]

You forget that the British Empire stopped Indians from forcing their widows to become " suttee". The Brits rightly regarded this - chucking widows on their dead husbands' funeral pyres to get rid of what they regarded as parasites on the family - as barbaric in the extreme. This shows that the Indian attitude to women used to be even worse than it is now. Stopping suttee was a small start, but no further major moves towards improving the treatment of women seem to have occurred. Can't see that that was down to British Imperialism, though.

[naomi24]

From the link. //Much of this violence is linked to the tensions generated by change.//

Perhaps it is, but it isn’t the change that’s implied. The tensions are generated by a culture that, in an increasingly forward-looking world, prefers to remain in the Dark Ages and hence resists change – especially when that change means women being recognised as people in their own right. I agree with Atalanta.

[whiskeryron]

Until India moves into the 21st century & actually moves from the caste system it is never going to get any better. To actually regard some people as untouchable & beneath contempt is absolutely wrong these are human beings like you & me & I think that all other fair minded countries should let the Indian ruling parties know this in no uncertain terms.

WR.

[anotheoldgit]

Isn't it also a fear that some of this 'Middle Ages' culture has also been allowed to be imported into Britain, due to the lax multi-immigration system?

[Zacs-Master]

Please provides some examples.

[emmie]

Honour killings, forced marriages, and Female circumcision, which isn't only practised in some parts of Africa.

[emmie]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01dxzzv

[emmie]

you don't have to look far for examples, and i don't have to look far at the women who live in our area, many dressed head to toe in a black burkha and often veiled.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18900803

[ummmm]

They haven't brought their culture here as such, they've kept their culture. Hopefully the barbaric side to that culture will die out.

[anotheoldgit]

ummmm

/// They haven't brought their culture here as such, they've kept their culture. /// ??????????????

Then surely if they have 'kept their culture' and then moved to this country, they have in fact 'brought their culture' with them?

/// Hopefully the barbaric side to that culture will die out. ///

I very much doubt it, the widespread abductions of young white girls, along with their rapes and other mistreatments, are a prime example to the fact.

[ummmm]

I meant in a way that their cultures will not be adopted by us.

It's the female circumcision and honour killings I was referring to. Abduction and mistreatment on young girls is not a cultural thing. It happens by white British men (and sometimes women) as well.

[anotheoldgit]

ummmm

/// Abduction and mistreatment on young girls is not a cultural thing. ///

That is a matter of opinion,

/// Former Labour MP Ann Cryer provoked a fierce in 2003 when she said the traditional culture of arranged marriages could have caused a criminal minority of Asian men to target vulnerable young white girls for sex. ///

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1344218/Asian-sex-gangs-Culture-silence-allows-grooming-white-girls-fear-racist.html

[237SJ]

AOG - I think you`re confusing India (where the population are only 15%) Muslim with Pakistan with regards to a lot of these customs.

[anotheoldgit]

237SJ

Yes I realise that, I only included these cases to highlight how the mix of different cultures are not always a good thing.

The original thread was regarding what happened to that poor women in India, due to the culture where women are classed as second rate beings, hence the disturbances on the streets of Delhi, fighting for change.

Perhaps we have no right to interfere with practices that have been the norm for centuries in other countries, but we do not want such treatment of women importing into Britain.

[naomi24]

AOG, lax immigration laws have nothing to do with the culture of people coming to this country. People going to live in foreign lands retain their culture – that’s understandable – so yes, people who embrace the culture we’re talking about are coming to live here. However, as Ummmm rightly says eventually these practices will die out because those born here will be educated into a culture of freedom and equality. Added to that, it is quite obvious from your link that many people in India no longer accept the old ways without question – hence the demonstrations – and the same thing happened in Pakistan when the little girl was shot by the Taliban for wanting an education. The world is changing for the better – so chin up! It’s not all gloom and doom.

Ummmm, //Abduction and mistreatment on young girls is not a cultural thing.//

I’m afraid in some instances it is – as the subject of this thread demonstrates.