Two events this week recalled India’s British connection; one, directly, on May 4 and the other, indirectly and tangentially, the following day. In different ways they showed the complexity of Indo-British ties in their myriad legacies and current contours. The May 4 matter, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart Boris Johnson’s virtual summit, related to independent India’s foreign interaction; that on May 5, the swearing in of Mamata Banerjee as Chief Minister of West Bengal for the third time, entirely concerned the country’s domestic sphere.
So, why was the oath-taking ceremony of Mamata Banerjee a reminder of India’s historical contact with Britain? West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Jhankar gave oath of office to Banerjee at the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata. The Raj Bhavan was constructed between 1799 and 1803 during the period Arthur Wellesley was the Governor-General of East India Company’s possessions in India. The building epitomises the expansion of British power in the Indian sub-continent leading to the establishment of the British Raj in 1857 and of the decades since till the imperial power decided to transfer its capital from Kolkata (then Calcutta) to Delhi in 1911. There are, of course, numerous buildings all over India which carry the memory of British rule even if they are animated today by the spirit of Indian Republic’s democratic moorings but Kolkata, a city established by the British, and its buildings evoke special, if painful, memories of colonial domination.
If the building itself is a remnant of British power the oath-taking ceremony was a manifestation of the will of the citizens of the Indian Republic demonstrated through the electoral process. Each election is an affirmation of the success of the Republic but its roots are in the soil of the Indian Renaissance whose first stirrings were witnessed in Bengal. The Renaissance gradually began the transformation of a feudal society and polity to modernity. That process is still under way but what has been achieved is of great global significance. Importantly, the Renaissance gave confidence to a conquered people that they were heirs to great civilizations and that they would rise again and, in the process, shake off foreign rule and after independence become committed to rights and freedoms and socio-economic progress. India may have initially adopted some governance systems based on the British model but by now they have evolved embodying the spirit and stamp of India.
If all this was an indirect reminder of the British connection, Modi’s virtual summit with Boris Johnson was an endeavour to define India-British relations over the next decade. This came in the backdrop of Britain leaving the European Union, a development which is compelling it to examine the basics of all aspects of its foreign relations. Its imperial past is long gone though its special relationship with the US endures. And the many small Commonwealth countries find the British connection useful. But, all in all, it has to mark its place in the world anew, despite all its projection of confidence and its strengths in some diverse areas such as science and technology, global finance, law and some aspects of soft power. In this process it wishes to enhance its ties with India and the summit meeting was, for the British, a step in this direction. It is also significant that external affairs minister S Jaishankar went on a visit to Britain coinciding with the summit to attend, as a guest, a G7 foreign ministers meeting and also undertake a bilateral visit.
During the summit Modi and Johnson agreed on a Roadmap to take bilateral ties comprehensively forward during this decade. It focuses on building people-to people contacts and relationships between institutions, including those in the academic area. It also wishes to exponentially enhance cooperation in trade, finance and the economy, in space and the nuclear energy, in the defence and security domain, in adaptation and mitigation of climate change and in health and medicine. There are diverse contacts between India and Britain still owning to historical reasons but Indian interests and relations have evolved. Hence, instead of spreading the net so wide it may have been preferable to sharply focus on a few areas of mutual strength.
As the two countries go on to translate the Roadmap into reality Britain would have to be conscious that as India approaches seventy-five years of freedom the island country simply does not occupy the same space in the Indian imagination despite whatever the remaining Indian Anglophiles and people of Indian origin in Britain may feel or say. Britain has therefore to put in far greater work to attract meaningful Indian attention and be far more forthcoming on matters of concern to India. One of these relates to returning alleged economic offenders like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi. In his briefing on the summit the concerned Indian official stated “Prime Minister Modi said that the economic offenders should be sent back to India at the earliest for trial. Prime Minister Johnson said that he faced some legal hurdles because of the nature of the criminal justice system in the UK but he was aware of it and they will do whatever possible to make sure that these people are extradited at the earliest”. Johnson words obviously show a lack of seriousness and it is strange that India is not telling Britain that it cannot be business as usual if economic offenders are allowed to use the loopholes of British law to escape justice.