BBC too partisan to expose its own government’s dark past

British rule in India was a monumental disaster as it effectively destroyed the country's flourishing economy. BBC has seldom worked objectively to enlighten the masses about the inhuman misdeeds of its own imperialist government in the past.

A fundamental assumption in a democratic system of governance is that there would herein be a free, non-partisan press - a Fourth Estate - to disseminate the news of the larger public interest across a given society. This would keep the masses well-informed about the state of affairs and enable them to contribute to the process of creating an enlightened governance focused on all-inclusive multi-faceted development.

Regrettably, the nature of the media has, by and large, remained too private and capitalist to perform such a role in the democratic part of the contemporary world. Like it or not, the media, even in the developed West, continues to be owned by certain individuals or groups thereof. The media proprietors have had their own interests to promote. To do that, they are often aligned with the ruling political elites. They employ such journalists as would read their minds and act - right from the selection of new items to their interpretation - in the ways that would please the ruling elites.

One finds the functioning of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), one of the most popular media groups in the world, conforms to this pattern only. Observers say the BBC has seldom worked objectively to enlighten the masses about the deeds of the British government. Sometimes, apparently, it does seem to raise the issues of democracy. But this has been at a highly superficial plane. The BBC has refrained from exposing the undemocratic conduct of its own government.

Authentic studies reveal British rule in India was a monumental disaster. Britain effectively destroyed India's flourishing manufacturing sector. Prior to colonisation, India happened to be one of the largest industrial producers in the world. It would export high-quality textiles to almost all corners of the world. All this began to change when the British East India Company assumed control of Bengal in 1757.

The colonial regime in India practically eliminated Indian tariffs. It allowed British goods to flood the domestic market. It created a system of exorbitant taxes and internal duties. This prevented Indians from selling cloth within their own country, let alone exporting it. This kind of unequal trade regime crushed Indian manufacturers and effectively de-industrialized the country.

British colonisers established a system of legal plunder. Britain taxed the Indian population and then used the revenues to buy Indian products - indigo, grain, cotton, and opium - thus obtaining these goods for free. These goods were then either consumed within Britain or re-exported abroad. The revenues thus generated would be pocketed by the British State and used to finance the industrial development of Britain and its settler colonies - the United States, Canada and Australia.

The British system drained India of goods worth trillions of dollars. The British were merciless in imposing the drain, forcing India to export food even when drought or floods threatened local food security. Tens of millions of Indians died of starvation during several considerable policy-induced famines in the late 19th century.

Extreme poverty in India increased from 23 percent in 1810 to more than 50 per cent in the mid-20th century. The period from 1880 to 1920 - the height of Britain's imperial power - was particularly devastating for India. The death rate increased considerably during this period, from 37.2 deaths per 1,000 people in the 1880s to 44.2 in the 1910s. Life expectancy declined from 26.7 years to 21.9 years. Britain's exploitative policies were associated with approximately 100 million excess deaths during the 1881-1920 period.

But the BBC, the observers say, has glossed over such deeds of the UK government.

(Jagdish N. Singh is a senior journalist based in New Delhi. He is also Senior Distinguished Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, New York)

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