On Friday, 9 February 1996 at 13:30:00 UTC+5:30, Arindam Banerjee wrote:

Picaresque Tales of an Indian Publicsectorman - 12
PT12: Dining with Imperialists
Arindam Banerjee
Disclaimer: My employer is not responsible for my opinions
Disclaimer: No person living or dead should be associated with the characters presented in this or any other material I have written earlier in the PT series.

Several months ago at a dinner party I met an imperialist. He looked exactly as an aged imperialist should look. He was tall, big, very white with touches of
pink. He was erect, had watery eyes, and appeared to be in the mid-seventies. The party was on to celebrate the "poitay" ceremony of a friend's son. Most of the guests were Bengalis. The imperialist was there because he had been
so fortunate as to marry a Bengali lady.
He complimented me on my height, and I said that it was hereditary. My father was even taller than I, it ran in the family. His eyes glistened.
He embarked upon his version of the Aryan invasion theory. According to that, I was descended from the Vikings, as he himself was. The Vikings and the Jutes
were great sailors, very brave and very cruel. They had been everywhere, to Canada and even Australia, long before Colombus.
I got the impression he believed that the roving predatory instincts
of his Viking ancestors had created civilisation as we know it.
So he and I were actually related somehow. He had also lived long in Bihar, my birthplace. We talked together for a long time.
He had been an officer in the Indian Army, fighting the Japanese in Burma. He talked about the low morale of the English troops there. "The Japanese soldiers were told that once they got to India, they would get houses, land and women. Our soldiers were told that they would have to leave India."
Yet they fought, they fought for India, and they won.
What did he think of the Indian troops, I asked. He had the highest praise. In hand-to-hand combat under equal conditions, an Indian battalion had completely wiped out a Japanese battalion.
What did Indians think of the British?
I replied that all politicians blame all evils upon the British. They robbed us, and left us poor. Only at the individual level could you find some appreciation for the good they had done.
He seemed quite familiar with this line. He then said "The British empire
was the only empire which did absolutely nothing for its own people. The Romans at least built colosseums for popular entertainment. The money the aristocrats got from the Empire was hardly invested in England. It was
always used for more expansion, or private pleasure."
His point was that the common Englishman had got nothing much from India.
I felt there was something in that. The upper classes of England would
send their offspring for a cultural tour of Europe as an essential part of their education. That cost money, and meant that the Continent through hotels, gambling, theatres, etc could get rich without any risk whatsoever. If you were low-class, you could be kidnapped legally and forced to serve
Her Majesty as a slave in her Navy. Once the high dose of racism given as
an antidote wears off, there may be found more commonality between such slaves, and those forgotten millions in Bengal who starved to death when
the buffer foodstocks were confiscated by the ruling British in 1944-45.

We then talked of present matters. What would happen to India?
I said that we had a predominantly socialist outlook. Even our rightwing parties had socialist thinking. This meant that we were keen to wipe out hunger and absolute poverty. We would do that within 10 years. We could become
an economic superpower after that, within 25 years.
Was that not being too optimistic? What about caste, religion, regional issues?
I boasted about the quality of young men and women of India. They were
keen, well educated,very adaptive, well-behaved, and had high moral standards. Caste issues were not vanishing, but losing their nastiness. Religion in
India did not so much bind people in superstition as before. Regional issues were often threatening, but could be handled by superior political management.
My comments appeared to give him a sense of relief and even exhilaration.
But Bihar, I said sadly, needed a lot of attention. Improve Bihar, and you improve India drastically.
We agreed on this point. Suddenly he took on a new tack. He talked about
how wonderful the United Kingdom still was. How they still had a great deal of nuclear weapons. How their workforce was now rated the most efficient in the developed world. How their creativity was still matchless.
Now why was he telling me all that? Then I realised that he could not
help himself. He had to show that England still mattered to India, that the relationship should continue. England could not be just another country so far as India was concerned.
I felt him thinking "You are our creation. Nothing will ever change that."
I thought he felt proud. Did he see in me a reflection of himself?
Had I been an imperialist?
Are Indian publicsectormen imperialists? They, who serve the cause of India, the only genuine empire in the modern world, if by empire we mean not just vast geographic dimensions, but also the cultural dimensions whereby people of different languages, religions and ways peacefully intermix under broad and uniform principles sustained by a singular political entity.
My imperialist carried himself in our midst with aplomb, as if he knew
that he was indeed dining with imperialists.
I met him again a few months later. This time it was at our yearly Durga Puja, compressed into one day. He had motored down a few hundred kilometers at the urging of his wife. He told me of his happy life in central Victoria, how he could roam in peace among thousands of wooded acres behind his home, with absolutely no one to disturb him. His joy was fishing in the streams there.
So that was how he satisfied the roving predatory instincts inherited from his
Viking ancestors.
What did he catch? European carp? We had caught a big one in an unforgettable fishing trip to Echuca with some Bangladeshi families.
No, he did not fish for carp, though he did catch very many. He did
not like carp, unlike his wife. (The carp, an introduced species, is hated
by Australians as it has taken control over fresh waters in many areas.
To Australians it is inedible, though we find it the only sort of fish with any taste.)

But it was not European carp (he added), though that is what they said, since it did come from Europe. It was actually Indian in origin, having made its way from India to Europe, and now to Australia.
Disclaimer: My employer is not responsible for my opinions

After so many years, I saw the serial "Vikings". Are some Bengalis descended from Vikings who made it to India by sea?

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