same practices in one’s ow n.” As examples, he cites de Tocqueville,
w ho w as critical of certain things in the U S but cast a blind eye
tow ards them in the French colony of Algeria, and John Stuart Mill,
w ho had great ideas about democratic freedoms in England that he
w asn’t w illing to apply to India.
Very far from it. Like his father, the famous liberal James Mill,
John Stuart Mill w as an official of the East India Company. In 1859,
he w rote an absolutely appalling article about w hether England
should intervene in the ugly, dirty affairs of Europe.
A lot of people w ere saying, It’s none of our business. Let those
backward people take care of themselves. Mill objected, on the
grounds that England had such a magnificent record of humane
behavior that it w ould simply be unfair to the poor people of the
w orld if England didn’t intervene on their behalf. (You can see the
same attitude in the U S today, of course.)
T he timing of Mill’s article w as interesting. It w as w ritten not
long after the Indian Mutiny of 1857, w hich w as suppressed w ith
extreme brutality. T he facts w ere w ell-know n in England, but that
didn’t affect Mill’s view of England as an angelic pow er that ought to
help other countries out by intervening in their affairs.
You’ve just been to India for the first time in 25 years. W hat w ere
the highlights of your visit?
I w as there for just nine days, in six cities, so I don’t have very
deep impressions. It’s a fascinating country, very diverse. Lots of
resources, both human and material, are being w asted in a horrifying
fashion.
T here’s extraordinary w ealth and opulence, and incredible
poverty (as there w as under the British). T he slums of Bombay are
just appalling, and some rural areas are probably w orse. India is still
devastated by the effects of British colonialism, but many exciting
things are going on as w ell.
India’s constitution provides for village self-government, but
that’s apparently only been implemented in tw o states, West Bengal
and Kerala [in southw estern India]. Both states are pretty poor, but
because both have had Communist governments (West Bengal still
does) and continue to have extensive social programs, neither
foreign nor domestic investors seem to w ant to put money into
them.
Despite that, Kerala is w ell ahead of other Indian states in health,