MOEED PIRZADA is a highly respected and upright Pakistani journalist who had to flee from Pakistan due to his strong criticism of the corrupt and neo-fascist regime there. He now lives in America.
Moeed Pirzada
However, while he is upright, his understanding of political matters is totally superficial and inane. For instance, in this video, Moeed praises British rule in India (see from 34 minutes onward).
In this video, Moeed claims that India was not a united country before the British arrived; instead, there were only numerous small princely states (riyasats or rajwaaras) with people speaking different languages. In other words, Moeed implies there was no united India before the British came and that it was a fragmented land.
This perspective mirrors what Sir John Strachey, a high official of the British Raj, stated. Speaking at Cambridge University in 1880, he said,
“This is the first and foremost thing to learn about India, that there is not, and never was an India, or even any country of India possessing, according to European ideas, any sort of unity—physical, political, social and religious—no Indian nation, no ‘people of India,’ of which we hear so much.”
This statement was taught to all British civil servants coming to India and became the official British doctrine, as it contributed to their divide-and-rule policy.
Was this statement by John Strachey, which Moeed has parroted, correct? I submit that it was not.
Perhaps Moeed is unaware of the Mughal Empire, which preceded the British and united most of India, even including Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh (except for the southern tip of India). Moeed also seems ignorant of the fact that the Mughal Empire accounted for over 25% of the world’s GDP and world trade:
Moeed talks of the British building railways, roads, bridges, etc., in India, and making laws and creating an administration here. But did that benefit India? This question, Moeed never considers.
The fact is that from a highly prosperous country under Mughal rule, India became a highly impoverished country under British rule, as this article explains in detail.
It is high time that people like Moeed start studying and going deeper into issues before making fatuous, puerile, and uninformed comments. 
Markandey Katju
Justice Markandey Katju is former Judge, Supreme Court of India and former Chairman, Press Council of India.
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