Hi Andras,

Thanks for the information.

My husband has been telling me for ages that the
British are a mongrel nation because of all their
"invasions". I personally don't think that's a
bad thing.

...don't think that's a bad thing.
Foxy,
Which, the invasion part or the feeling about the British ?

individual,

Both.

As I keep saying - the British Empire was not
close to perfect - there were plenty of mistakes
and injustices. But it was not the cruel and evil
and inhumane force that many today may think it was.

Foxy,
I'm of the same opinion. Too many people judge our forebears with the benefit of a lot of available hindsight thanks to those "bad' peoples" record keeping of good & bad incidents.
Many of the knockers of a past laden with ignorance, hardship & cultural differences being misinterpreted would not themselves nowadays record their own failures. One just has to look at the mobile phone "evidence" these days & how heavily footage is selectively edited to imply an opposite to fact & truth picture in order to further their own agenda at the expense of at times utterly innocent people.
Only today I heard of a female ABC journalist being fined $80,000 for posting an untruth on social media about a politician.
Many people with such mentality have been allowed to infiltrate our historical records & they are very selective in providing records to people interested in history. I will never condone cruelty just as I will never condone the invention of historical incidents.
I have been asked many times during debates whose side I was on & I always reply I'm on the side of decency & integrity & I support the side that displays the most of the two.
As for Britain, I can only say that as much as they were a colonial outfit they've also done more than any other nation to compensate for their wrongs. They have opened their doors to the descendants of the lands they colonised & for that they're now paying the price many times over. Germany is in the same boat !
Her's a link to Northern Australia http://anglicanhistory.org/aus/torres/white/

individual,

Thank You for sharing your thoughts on this subject.
Well said.

Foxy,
I meant to ask you how many of the Indians that you spoke to were adults under the Raj?
The old women that I spoke to, in their native tongue, were emphatic that the British governed far better than the then crop of politicians.

I have personally seen and heard a modern Minister driving at the highest speed possible in Mumbai with his outriders waving sub-machine guns and screaming at the top of their voices.
Any dings to the vehicles as they muscled their way through repaired at the taxpayers’ expense and any damage to anyone else at their own expense.