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Throughout history, wars have left an indelible mark on human psyche. Serious debates have been held on the morality of and the strategic necessity for war. And yet, like every dark cloud that has a silver lining, wars too at times leave a society wiser.
India is no stranger to wars. And there are many lessons to be learnt from each of those battles -- management lessons, to be precise. Here we present the fourth in a series of articles on management lessons drawn from Indian history. This one looks at the Battle of Plassey. Read on. . .
The Battle of Plassey (1757 AD)
Mir Jafar, alias Sayyid Mir Muhammed Jafar Ali Khan, is to India's history what Benedict Arnold is to that of the United States.
Mir Jafar came to Bengal as a traveller and took up a job in the army of Ali Vardi Khan, then Nawab of Murshidabad (near Kolkata). He fought many successful battles for the Nawab. This earned him a promotion and his career saw a meteoric rise under Khan.
Apart from showering many favours on Mir Jafar for his service to him, Nawab also married off his half-sister to him. This helped him gain an important position in the Nawab's court.
But Mir Jafar's thirst for power was not satiated by this 'meagre' progress. He had his eyes on the Nawab's throne. Ali Vardi's state had weakened considerably because of its constant conflict with the Marathas.
Mir Jafar wanted to make the most of this situation and conspired to murder and overthrow the Nawab. But unfortunately for him, the Nawab came to know about his plan and stripped Mir Jafar of all his powers.
Lesson: No management should let an incident of misconduct or treason pass. Unethical conduct by any person warrants eviction. A routine step like job rotation or transfer doesn't help. An immediate disciplinary action, on the other hand, sets a precedent for others. No organisation should tolerate any behaviour not aligned with its policies.
Image: Mir Jafar
Also read: Management lessons from wars in India
The author, based in Bangalore, is the managing director of an IT multinational firm. He has also written two books: Offshoring Secrets, and the forthcoming Myths & Realities @ the Office.
Disclaimer: Since history is replete with different versions of the same event, chances are that some of the stories written here might not match with the version that the reader is conversant with. However, the article has been written not with the intention of being unerringly accurate on the historic account, but to use the event as a source of information from which to draw strategic management lessons.
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The BJP’s game plan was to divide the people of West Bengal. It was adopting “double standards,” as it had supported a resolution passed in the Assembly opposing any division of the State — one that was endorsed by all parties, he said.
“The BJP is following the imperialist design of divide and rule. It is an exponent of dividing the people of Darjeeling district as a whole,” said Mr. Bose, who is also chairman of the Left Front Committee.
The BJP is to contest from the Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency with the support of the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), which is demanding the creation of Gorkhaland, comprising Darjeeling district and areas in the Dooars of north Bengal. The BJP president declared in New Delhi that Jaswant Singh would be the party’s nominee for the seat.
Mr. Bose said that for the sake of getting votes, the BJP was trying “to create discord among people and divide them along linguistic, religious and ethnic lines.” Its decision would provide momentum to divisive forces that were trying to undermine the unity and harmony among the people of the hills and the plains in Darjeeling district
Reiterating the Left Front’s resolve not to allow any further division of West Bengal, he criticised the GJM’s writ that parties opposed to those forces that supported the creation of smaller States would not be permitted to campaign in the Darjeeling hills. Only the Trinamool Congress, the Congress and the BJP were being allowed to do so.
Mr. Bose declined to comment on the candidature of Mr. Singh for the Darjeeling seat. “I do not know whether Mr. Singh will get a clean chit from the Election Commission to do so,” he said.
Meanwhile, In a snub to Maneka Gandhi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati said on Saturday that if the BJP MP knew a mother's pain, she would not have endorsed the hate speeches of her son Varun Gandhi for which he has been booked under NSA.
Hitting back at Maneka, who had said that the UP Chief Minister did not understand a mother's pain since she was not one, Mayawati said that if she was a good mother she would have inculcated the right values in Varun.
"Had Maneka inculcated good values to her son (Varun) he would not have to spent night in the jail. She must apologies not only to me but for the entire nation for her shameful and unfortunate comments", Mayawati told reporters in Lucknow.
Justifying the action of Pilibhit district administration to charge Varun under NSA, Mayawati said that in case riots had erupted, thousands of mothers would have rendered childless.
Maneka should understand pain of thousands of mothers, she said. "Maneka kewal ek bete ka dard samajhti hain but main karodo beton ka dard samajhti hun" (Maneka only understands the pain of one son but I feel pain of crores of sons), Mayawati said at a hurriedly called press conference.
Maneka had attacked Mayawati on Friday for targeting her son and attributed political motive behind the move to keep him in jail during election time.
"Ma ka dard samajhne ke liye ma hona zaruri nahi hai. Mother Teresa bhi ma nahi thi lekin unhone pyar pure vishwa ki janta ko diya". (Its not necessary to be a mother to understand her pain. Mother Teresa was not a mother but she bestowed her love on the people of the entire world)," Mayawati said.
The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said that no one would be allowed to vitiate law and order situation of the state irrespective of their parties and position.
29-year-old Varun was held under NSA in connection with his hate speeches in Pilibhit last month. Varun had subsequently surrendered before a local court in Pilibhit and was sent to the district jail there. He was later shifted to Etah jail.
Varun, the BJP candidate from Pilibhit, had moved the Supreme Court challenging the charges against him under NSA.
'Ram Sene won’t support any party, not even BJP'
Chennai Sri Ram Sene, which shot into limelight after the January 24 attack on women at a Mangalore pub, ruled out supporting any political party in the coming elections, including BJP which it accused of "using Hindutva only to come to power".
"They (BJP) are using Hindutva only to come to power," Sene founder Pramod Muthalik told reporters on the sidelines of an interaction organised by 'Hindu Makkal Katchi', a Hindu outfit.
Asked whether the BJP government was backing the outfit in Karnataka, he said while his entry into Mangalore was banned, some of his supporters were jailed.
The Sene activists had stormed a pub in Mangalore in January and attacked women in an act of 'moral policing' against pub culture, triggering nationwide condemnation. They had also threatened to disrupt Valentine day's celebrations.
Referring to the attack, he said, "Our intentions were good and was for a cause, but the method adopted was wrong."
In a sequel to the pub attack, he said the Sene would "target" liquor manufacturing units in future. He also said his outfit would strive to create awareness among Hindu voters on a 12-point agenda which included demands for hanging of Parliament attack case mastermind Afzal Guru and implementation of Uniform Civil Code.
Varun's hate speech disturbing: Azhar
New Delhi Describing Varun Gandhi's hate speech as "disturbing", former Indian cricketer and Congress candidate from Uttar Pradesh Mohammad Azharuddin said on Saturday that it will send a wrong message to the youth.
"It is quite disturbing for a person of his calibre -- really well educated and coming from an affluent family – to say something like that," Azharuddin, who has been fielded from Moradabad Lok Sabha constituency, told reporters in New Delhi.
"He has sent a very wrong message to youth," the former skipper said, adding, "nothing of this sort should happen again."
Asked whether invoking of the NSA against Varun was correct, he said, "I do not know the nitty gritty of it. I am not a lawyer."
On the party giving him ticket from Moradabad instead of his native place Hyderabad, Azharuddin said, "it was party decision...I am very happy. People gave me a good response at Moradabad."
He said that he would be happy if Congress which does not have "any great strength there (in UP)" gains with his joining the party.
Reacting to his rivals tagging him as an 'outsider', Azahruddin said "nobody is an outsider in India. I am eligible to fight elections from anywhere. I am from Hyderabad... but as a player I used to go everywhere to play."
Asked whether he would campaign for the party in other parts of UP as well, Azharuddin said, "sure...I will do it if my party asks me to do so."
About his experience on the political pitch, he said "I feel it is a different field. I am playing on a different grass. I am very happy to be associated with common people."
"I am very happy to join the party. Congress is a party which will take India forward and way ahead," he said.
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Battle of Plassey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Battle of Plassey (Bengali: পলাশীর যুদ্ধ, Pôlashir Juddho) was a decisive British East India Company victory over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies, establishing Company rule in India which expanded over much of South Asia for the next 90 years. The battle took place on 23 June 1757 at Palashi, West Bengal, on the riverbanks of the Bhagirathi River, about 150 km north of Calcutta, near Murshidabad, then the capital of the Nawab of Bengal. The opponents were Siraj Ud Daulah, the last independent Nawab of Bengal, and the British East India Company. The battle was waged during the Seven Years' War (1756–1763) and in a mirror of their European rivalry the French East India Company sent a small contingent to fight against the British East India Company. Siraj-ud-Daulah had a numerically superior force, and made its stand at Plassey. The British, worried about being outnumbered and not above some bribery, reached out to Siraj-ud-Daulah's deposed army chief - Mir Jafar, along with others such as Yar Latif, Jagat Seth, maharaja Krishna Nath and Rai Durlabh. Mir Jafar thus assembled his troops near the battlefield, but made no move to actually join the battle, causing Siraj-ud-Daulah's army to be defeated. Siraj-ud-Daulah fled, eventually to be captured and executed. As a result, the entire province of Bengal fell to the Company, with Mir Jafar appointed as their puppet Nawab.
This is judged to be one of the pivotal battles leading to the eventual formation of the British Empire in today's South Asia. The enormous wealth gained from the Bengal treasury, and access to a massive source of foodgrains and taxes allowed the Company to significantly strengthen its military might, and opened the way for eventual British colonial rule, mass economic exploitation and cultural domination in nearly all of South Asia. The subsequent battles that followed, strengthened the British foothold in South Asia and paved way for British colonial rule in Asia.
Pôlash (Bengali: পলাশ), an extravagant red flowering tree (Flame of the forest), gives its name to a small village near the battlefield. A phonetically accurate romanization of the Bengali name would be Battle of Palashi, but the anglicised spelling "Plassey" is now conventional in English.
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India Votes 2009
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Varun Gandhi has chosen the shortcut to fame. Until yesterday he was an ordinary member of Bharatiya Janata Party [Images]. Today he is a nationally important leader in this party and in the same league as L K Advani [Images] and Narendra Modi [Images] for subscribing to virulent communal views.
For a leader of BJP to have said the kind of things that Varun Gandhi [Images] said was not very surprising. The BJP's USP is its anti-Muslim or anti-minority ideology. Remove the anti-Muslim, anti-Pakistan or anti-minority plank and BJP or the larger Sangh Parivar will face an identity crisis.
In this sense the Hindutva organisations are basically reactionary. They have always used vitriolic language to attract attention and used violence to make their presence felt. Starting with Mahatma Gandhi's [Images] assassination, the Babri Masjid demolition, the nuclear test, the Gujarat massacre to the Orissa and Karnataka anti-Christian violence there are plenty of examples. They don't have a constructive or positive agenda. They tried to project an 'India Shining' slogan of their achievements in the last general elections which backfired.
What was surprising was that these communal statements came from Varun Gandhi. Born to a Sikh mother and having a Parsi grandfather one would not expect Varun to be a hardcore Hindutva activist. Why did he say the things that he said? Did he say them himself or was he coached? Was it a case of a new convert trying to prove more faithful? Or, the BJP is using new fodder in the old cannon? The BJP, which was feeling rudderless before the general elections with infighting and uninspiring leadership, suddenly has got a shot in the arm. The party has been electrified.
Suddenly it is back to its basic anti-Muslim agenda after trying very hard to project itself as a genuine progressive alternative to the Congress party. Narendra Modi tries very hard to sell the image of Gujarat as a model of modern development and doesn't like the 2002 genocide of the Muslims to be remembered.
In the last assembly elections the BJP chief ministers preferred to talk about their development achievement rather than focus on Congress' failure to handle the Mumbai [Images] terrorist attack. But it finds that like a drug addict the only thing that inspires its cadres is the anti-Muslim venom.
The RSS must realise that the communal card cannot be played over and again. Human being by nature is a pacifist and likes to live in harmony with other human beings around him. He may get carried away once or twice by communal frenzy but sooner or later he realises that it ultimately harms him. It was easy to gather people once to demolish Babri Masjid. It is difficult to bring them again to Ayodhya for the construction of the temple. Most of the sadhus and mahants in Ayodhya are now opposed to the Ram Mandir construction campaign as this movement has destroyed their peace and income.
Modi cannot afford to repeat the 2002 massacre. The hate speeches of Sadhvi Rithambara or Uma Bharti don't move people any more. Hence the BJP was looking for a new leader who could spew fire. But it must realise that Varun Gandhi cannot sustain in politics if he keeps repeating what he said in Pilibhit [Images]. People will stop going to his meetings after a while.
The reaction to Varun Gandhi's communal statements in Pilibhit was that was shock from within and without his party. Even though some leaders of BJP, who now want to capitalise on his statements, have started supporting him. His cousins Rahul and Priyanka also expressed dismay. But then the Congress party has used the communal card whenever it suits them.
The only difference between the BJP and the Congress is that the former is ideologically communal and the later is opportunistically communal. Rahul Gandhi [Images] who would now like to be seen as a more moderate and liberal member of the Gandhi family needs to be reminded that it was not long back when campaigning in UP assembly elections he had said that if there was a prime minister from the Gandhi family in 1992, the Babri Masjid would not have been demolished, raising doubts over the secular credentials of other leaders within the Congress party.
Worse still, and probably as crude as Varun Gandhi's, was his statement that his grandmother Indira Gandhi [Images] should be given the credit for dismemberment of Pakistan. There were objections raised by Pakistanis on this statement. What was the need for Rahul Gandhi, who otherwise appears a very sensible person, to say those communal things? Was he any different from Varun Gandhi is making those statements?
It is a symptom of a disease which afflicts the India politics. The politicians don't mind playing with the sentiments of the people if it can help them fetch votes no matter what the consequences. They can say and do the most atrocious things and know that they enjoy certain immunity so that they'll never be punished. Navjot Singh Sidhu got back his Parliamentary seat after being convicted for a murder.
Other criminals hope that their crimes will be pardoned by the courts so that they may remain active in politics. Politics, in fact, provides immunity from punishment. On top of it Varun Gandhi is trying to gain mileage from this incident by trying to project himself as a martyr by getting arrested. This is sheer desperation.
The interesting fallout of the Philibhit incident is that now the two most upwardly mobile young leaders of India 's two major parties are members of the same family. Or is one cousin being used to check the rise of the other who most certainly will be India 's PM one day? Whatever may be the reason behind Varun Gandhi's pronouncements he has degraded Indian politics down to one more level. He and his party may stand to gain in the short run but the Indian politics in the long run is the loser.
One only hopes that the damage caused by him will be contained and he will not become a model to be imitated by other youth in society. If his performance from political stage were to be repeated by lesser mortals in real life it could cause havoc with peace and harmony in society.
The author is a Magsaysay award winner, member of national presidium, People's Politics Front, heads the National Alliance of People's Movements
http://election.rediff.com/column/2009/apr/01/guest-what-varun-gandhis-pronouncements-mean.htmGuest Columns
| http://election.rediff.com/column/2009/apr/02/guest-why-varun-gandhis-voice-may-be-stilled.htm | |||||||||||
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Move over, Narendra Modi [Images]. The new Hindutva mascot, Varun Gandhi [Images], is here. Going by the requests that are pouring in from the BJP's candidates for Varun's appearance at election rallies, his stock is now evidently higher than that of the former Hindu hriday samrat.
It isn't only his crisp articulation of the pet peeves of the saffron audience which has enhanced his appeal. There is also the dynasty factor. For a member of one of the most celebrated of the country's secular political families to voice the innermost feelings of the BJP's core group of supporters is a novelty beyond compare. The use of the common contemptuous term for circumcised Muslims by the great grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru is obviously too thrilling to be missed.
Nothing that Modi says can match this -- not even his spiteful slogan of hum panch, hamare pachis underling the exponential breeding potentiality of a Muslim and his customary four wives. Modi also faces the difficulty of being the holder of a constitutional position, which must make him wary of letting his true emotions run away with him lest his entry to the US should be prohibited for a longer term.
True, Modi is known more for his deeds than words. The pogrom of 2002 is his badge of distinction in the eyes of the Hindutva lobby. Even in supposedly Leftist-oriented Kolkata, historian Tapan Ray Chaudhuri was aghast to hear Modi being praised at parties of the affluent for showing the Muslims their place. However, after leaving an indelible mark on the Gujarat and national scene, Modi has been holding his tongue.
But Varun faces no such problem. He is a newcomer, who has arrived with a bang following in the footsteps of other saffron rabble rousers like Uma Bharati and Sadhvi Rithambara. Since he has been arrested, his appeal will go up since it will further convince Hindutva aficionados that a member of the majority community cannot even say what he wants to -- a disadvantage underlined by the Shiv Sena [Images] in its praise of Varun.
The bull run, however, may not last as long as the BJP may want. The reason is that, first, there will no more secret recordings and hazy visuals of Varun's first few speeches when he spoke freely. Instead, there will be any number of TV channels dogging his footsteps and planting their lights, cameras and microphones as close to him as possible so that not one of his words is missed.
Their very presence, too, will be a constraining factor in the matter of the exercise of the freedom of speech. The party, too, will no doubt advise caution. As it is, Modi is persona non grata to nearly all of the BJP's 'secular' allies. Even in a state like Orissa, the BJP has had to drop its earlier plan to start the party's campaigning with Modi lest it antagonise its former ally, whom it apparently expects to return to the fold after a while. There is no question, therefore, of Varun being sent there, or to Bihar, where Nitish Kumar lost no time to voice his displeasure at what the young man had said.
Such built-in restrictions in the National Democratic Alliance will compel Varun to campaign only in the BJP-ruled states -- though not in Punjab in view of his unflattering references to Khalistan. But, speeches by him only in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh [Images], Chhatisgarh and such states where only the BJP runs the show will be like preaching to the converted even if he occasionally takes the risk of transgressing the limits of decency. In all likelihood, therefore, Varun's foray into politics may turn out to be a one-shot affair just as Rithambara hasn't been able to repeat her blood-curdling call for a communal holocaust -- one last khoon-kharaba -- in recent years.
However, one possibility cannot be discounted. In case the BJP fares poorly in the elections, it will no longer feel obliged to act under the various restraints imposed by the NDA partners and the legal system.
A second defeat after 2004 will mean that the BJP will have to resign itself to playing a much longer period out of power than it thought before the last general election. A longish spell out of power removes the shackles of responsible conduct. It is worth remembering that the BJP discovered its faith in Ram after sinking to its lowest point in electoral politics in 1984 when it won only two Lok Sabha seats.
It was then that its fiery sanyasins and uninhibited demagogues like Vinay Katiyar and Ashok Singhal appeared on the scene to galvanise the Hindu voters. That it had a considerable measure of success was evident not only from its first step in the corridors of power in Delhi [Images] just over a decade after 1984, but also from the anti-Muslim diatribes which float around in the cyber world to underline the durability of its support base. In the event of it stumbling in this summer's electoral hurdles, there is every possibility, therefore, of the BJP unleashing Varun, Pravin Togadia and others to recover lost ground.
It goes without saying that their endeavours will have the backing of not only the Shiv Sena and the Hindu Mahasabha, which have already expressed their support to Varun, but also of the RSS, not to mention the even more combative VHP and the Bajrang Dal. There will also be no one from the old guard to check this charge of the virulent brigade. While L K Advani [Images] will begin to fade away after a defeat, Atal Bihari Vajpayee is too ill to try to restore sanity in the organisation.
Will stay in Gujarat if NDA voted to power: Modi
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How long will Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi [Images] remain in his present position? Does he harbour ambitions to move to New Delhi [Images], perhaps even make a bid for the prime minsitership some day?
These were some of the questions rediff.com editors posed to Modi during an hour-long interview at his home in Gandhinagar on Thursday.
"I have to deliver the goods, it is my commitment to the people of Gujarat, and if anything new is there I will have to learn, I will learn it," he said in response to a question about his continuance in the politically critical state.
Welcoming the Congress party's decision to name Dr Manmohan Singh [Images] as its prime ministerial candidate if the United Progressive Alliance were to be voted back to power, Modi said, "It is a good thing, the people can now decide in whose hands they will entrust the nation."
"You may compare the two leaders' experience and see for yourself. Manmohan Singhji has himself said he is not a leader; we all know that India needs a leader who knows its people, and its various regions intimately," the Gujarat chief minister added. "Advani [Images]ji has spent at least a night in each of the 400 zillas in the country, he knows the nation. Manmohan Singh has not even visited some states in these five years."
About his own chances of becoming prime minister, Modi said, "But no one has said I should become PM! You please go through the various statements carefully, no one has said this outright, so you don't expect me to react to non-statements."
Asked about the opinion expressed on the Rediff message boards that he should be made prime minister, Modi laughed and asked rhetorically, "But has anyone put a timeline on it?" and answered it himself: "Time is in the hands of the people, but as for myself I have no such ambitions. Whenever I say Advaniji is our prime ministerial candidate, there is so much applause, people are so happy about it."
Asked what role he will play if the National Democratic Alliance were to be voted to power, Modi said, "I am the chief minister of Gujarat, and I believe I will not be removed as CM."
About how long he sees himself in Gujarat, Modi ducked the question, saying, "I don't even worry about what is going to happen in the evening, so how can I be expected to know what will happen in the future."
Declaring that coalition governments were here to stay in India, Modi felt the path was shown by then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and that was the way for national parties to accommodate regional parties and govern through consensus.
Lessons of Empire: How to Unravel an Unchecked Superpower
Two villagers who left their mud and wood huts last month to travel to London -- Kumuti Majhi and Phulme Majhi -- were a stark contrast to the 212,000 wealthy Indians who visited Britain last year on shopping expeditions where they outspent Japanese tourists. The villagers' mission, rather than the acquisition of designer clothing or the latest electronics, was to try to save the livelihoods of their small tribe that grows millet, fruit and spices in the lushly-forested Niyamgiri hills in eastern India.
On August 1, 2007, the Majhis spoke out at the annual general meeting of Vedanta Resources PLC, a British multinational that is poised to dig a new bauxite mine that threatens the village of Jaganathpur. While Vedanta is incorporated in Britain, it is owned by Anil Agarwal, the world's 230th richest man according to the Forbes 2007 list, a former scrap metal merchant who was born in eastern India. (See Vedanta Undermines Indian Communities, by Nityanand Jayaraman.)
The timing of the Mahji's trip to Britain and the protests back in India have a much wider significance. 2007 is marked by a trinity of anniversaries that recall India's conquest, first struggles and eventual liberation from British rule. On August 14th, India celebrates 60 years of independence. Earlier in the year, commemorations took place for the 150th anniversary of the great rebellion against British rule in 1857 -- known in the UK as the 'mutiny' and on the sub-continent as the 'first war of independence.' This trinity of historic milestones is completed with the 250th anniversary of the pivotal battle of Plassey in June 1757, when the private army of Britain's East India Company (which was often referred to simply as the "Company") defeated the forces of the Nawab (ruler) of Bengal (in eastern India), ushering in first corporate and then imperial domination.
It is this legacy of collusion between global corporations and the expansionist state that makes this year so poignant and full of enduring lessons. Its history provides timeless lessons on how (and how not) to confront corporate power with protest, litigation, regulation, rebellion and, ultimately, corporate redesign. Many of today's corporate struggles are prefigured in the resistance to the Company's rise to power. Again and again, "the return of the East India Company" is used as a catch-phrase to describe the recent influx of multinationals into India, whether global mining corporations or foreign business more generally.
And the Mahji's journey follows in the footsteps of others who have travelled to London to seek redress from corporate abuse. In August 1769, for example, two Armenian merchants, Johannes Rafael and Gregore Cojamaul arrived at London's docks. The two were rich men and had made their fortunes in India's most prosperous region, Bengal. However, Rafael, Cojamaul and two others had been summarily arrested by the Company's chief executive in Bengal, Harry Verelst, who then held them for more than five months under guard. When they were released, they found that the Company had pressured its puppet, the Nawab of Bengal, to change the rules of the game and ban all Armenians from the Bengal market. Sailing around the world to where the Company was headquartered, Rafael and Cojamaul appealed to its board of directors, complaining of their "cruel and inhuman" treatment.
The striking continuity of protest over the centuries is largely buried in today's celebration of India's surge to economic prominence. Tata's acquisition of Anglo-Dutch steel group Corus earlier in the year has been seen by many as symbolizing the end of Britain's era of industrial supremacy. Tata had already bagged the UK's iconic tea blend, Tetley, and its automotive arm may be lining up a bid for Land Rover. Writing recently in the Financial Times, Malvinder Hohan Singh, the chief executive of Indian pharmaceutical company Ranbaxy, caught the mood: "500 years ago, a company was formed in London that directly led to British rule in India [and] there appears to be some concern that there is evidence of a reverse trend."
This theme of reversal has also influenced India's popular media, most strikingly in a TV advertisement for Rajnigandha pan masala. Set in London, the ad shows an Indian tycoon stopping his car in front of the East India Company's headquarters and announcing to his secretary that he wants to buy the firm: "They ruled us for 200 years, and now it's our turn."
Friday, 22nd August 2008
Learning the lessons of history
Peter Hoskin 3:50pm
I popped along to the History Channel debate '50 Things You Need to Know About British History' last night. 'Twas an excellent event - more than capably chaired by Iain Dale, and with an engaging panel consisting of Diane Abbot, Douglas Murray, Dominic Sandbrook and Polly Toynbee. The catalyst for discussion was the list I've included at the bottom of this post, and which will form the basis of a forthcoming TV series. But things swiftly moved onto the topic of how history should be taught in schools - whether issues are more important than personalities, and whether pupils have a good enough all-round knowledge of British history.
The exchange on the last of these points struck me as particularly politically relevant. The worry is that the current approach to history teaching - generally centred around grand themes rather than specifics, and full of empathetic comparisons of the "what it was like to be a charwoman in Victorian Britain" variety - does not give pupils a sufficient knowledge of British History as a whole. In other words, the latest generation of school-leavers may be able to talk about subtexts and metanarratives but they couldn't tell you the first thing about 1066 and all that. Lists like that put together by the History Channel are meant to redress the balance, but what can - and should - schools do? Toynbee's solution was that they should give pupils as full a grounding in British history as possible until the age of 16, and then concentrate on nunace and more detailed analysis after that. Sure makes sense to me.
But whatever you think about the current balance - and some participants last night argued that the empathetic approach is better than the checklist approach - it throws up some important questions for policymakers. The current movements in British schooling are towards decentralisation and choice. Of course, Ed Balls has done all he can to centralise the academies programme, but the academies are still a more indpendent breed of state school. And Michael Gove, with his Swedish-style reforms, would effectively put academies into overdrive, taking things further and further from state control. But what would Gove and his ilk do about the teaching of history? On the one hand, things could carry on much as they are already - and pupils will continue to be unaware of so much in British history. Or the Government could follow the History Channel by saying that "This is what you need to know about British history", and imposing curricula left, right and centre. But doesn't that latter method bring things closer to the state? Who would be deciding on the list anyway? And how long could it get?
Of course, you could respond that the choice agenda sorts things out by itself. If, by and large, you leave schools to it, some will veer towards the empathetic/thematic approach and some will veer towards to the "need to know" approach. Parents can then choose which they'd prefer their children to attend. To which I'd say: but parents probably don't choose schools on the basis of the teaching of one subject. In the end, I suspect it's a grey area, somewhere a delicate balance needs to be found. It's up to policymakers to find that balance.
P.S. Here's the History Channel's list of the '50 Things You Need to Know About British History'. Are there any items CoffeeHousers would add or remove? For me, the 1832 Reform Act is a glaring omission.
-- Stonehenge 2200 BC
-- Roman Invasion and Civilisation 43 AD
-- St Augustine and Christianity 597
-- King Alfred the Great and the Doom Book 871
-- Battle of Hastings and Norman Conquest 1066
-- Magna Carta and trial by jury 1215
-- Declaration of Arbroath 1320
-- Canterbury Tales 1370
-- Peasants’ Revolt 1381
-- The longbows at Agincourt 1415
-- Religious Settlement 1559
-- Sir Francis Drake and the defeat of the Spanish Amrada 1588
-- Gunpowder Plot 1605
-- Shakespeare 1610
-- Plantation of Ulster 1611
-- Execution of Charles I 1649
-- Glorious Revolution and Bill of Rights 1688
-- The Bank of England 1694
-- Act of Union 1707
-- Britain’s first Prime Minister Robert Walpole 1721
-- Gin craze and British drink culture 1729
-- The East India Company and the Battle of Plassey 1757
-- Longitude 1759
-- Watt’s Steam Engine 1769
-- Arkwright’s Spinning Frame 1771
-- Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations 1776
-- The Siege of Yorktown and the loss of America 1781
-- Nelson’s death and the Battle of Trafalgar 1805
-- William Wilberforce and the abolition of the slave trade 1807
-- Battle of Waterloo and national identity 1815
-- Sir Robert Peel and the British Bobby 1829
-- Factory Acts and the British weekend 1850
-- Dr Livingstone and Africa 1855
-- Charles Darwin and evolution 1859
-- The Red House and ‘my home is my castle’ 1859
-- The laws of association football 1863
-- Suffragettes 1913
-- The Battle of the Somme 1916
-- The BBC 1927
-- Gandhi and Indian Independence 1931
-- The Blitz 1940
-- Frank Whittle and the jet engine 1941
-- The NHS and Welfare State 1948
-- SS Windrush and Multiculturalism 1948
-- The Beatles 1964
-- Monty Python and British humour 1971
-- Britain joins Europe 1973
-- Miners’ strike and Mrs Thatcher 1984
-- The Channel Tunnel 1991
-- The Good Friday Agreement 1998
Friday, 22nd August 2008
Learning the lessons of history
Peter Hoskin 3:50pmI popped along to the History Channel debate '50 Things You Need to Know About British History' last night. 'Twas an excellent event - more than capably chaired by Iain Dale, and with an engaging panel consisting of Diane Abbot, Douglas Murray, Dominic Sandbrook and Polly Toynbee. The catalyst for discussion was the list I've included at the bottom of this post, and which will form the basis of a forthcoming TV series. But things swiftly moved onto the topic of how history should be taught in schools - whether issues are more important than personalities, and whether pupils have a good enough all-round knowledge of British history.
The exchange on the last of these points struck me as particularly politically relevant. The worry is that the current approach to history teaching - generally centred around grand themes rather than specifics, and full of empathetic comparisons of the "what it was like to be a charwoman in Victorian Britain" variety - does not give pupils a sufficient knowledge of British History as a whole. In other words, the latest generation of school-leavers may be able to talk about subtexts and metanarratives but they couldn't tell you the first thing about 1066 and all that. Lists like that put together by the History Channel are meant to redress the balance, but what can - and should - schools do? Toynbee's solution was that they should give pupils as full a grounding in British history as possible until the age of 16, and then concentrate on nunace and more detailed analysis after that. Sure makes sense to me.
But whatever you think about the current balance - and some participants last night argued that the empathetic approach is better than the checklist approach - it throws up some important questions for policymakers. The current movements in British schooling are towards decentralisation and choice. Of course, Ed Balls has done all he can to centralise the academies programme, but the academies are still a more indpendent breed of state school. And Michael Gove, with his Swedish-style reforms, would effectively put academies into overdrive, taking things further and further from state control. But what would Gove and his ilk do about the teaching of history? On the one hand, things could carry on much as they are already - and pupils will continue to be unaware of so much in British history. Or the Government could follow the History Channel by saying that "This is what you need to know about British history", and imposing curricula left, right and centre. But doesn't that latter method bring things closer to the state? Who would be deciding on the list anyway? And how long could it get?
Of course, you could respond that the choice agenda sorts things out by itself. If, by and large, you leave schools to it, some will veer towards the empathetic/thematic approach and some will veer towards to the "need to know" approach. Parents can then choose which they'd prefer their children to attend. To which I'd say: but parents probably don't choose schools on the basis of the teaching of one subject. In the end, I suspect it's a grey area, somewhere a delicate balance needs to be found. It's up to policymakers to find that balance.
P.S. Here's the History Channel's list of the '50 Things You Need to Know About British History'. Are there any items CoffeeHousers would add or remove? For me, the 1832 Reform Act is a glaring omission.
-- Stonehenge 2200 BC
-- Roman Invasion and Civilisation 43 AD
-- St Augustine and Christianity 597
-- King Alfred the Great and the Doom Book 871
-- Battle of Hastings and Norman Conquest 1066
-- Magna Carta and trial by jury 1215
-- Declaration of Arbroath 1320
-- Canterbury Tales 1370
-- Peasants’ Revolt 1381
-- The longbows at Agincourt 1415
-- Religious Settlement 1559
-- Sir Francis Drake and the defeat of the Spanish Amrada 1588
-- Gunpowder Plot 1605
-- Shakespeare 1610
-- Plantation of Ulster 1611
-- Execution of Charles I 1649
-- Glorious Revolution and Bill of Rights 1688
-- The Bank of England 1694
-- Act of Union 1707
-- Britain’s first Prime Minister Robert Walpole 1721
-- Gin craze and British drink culture 1729
-- The East India Company and the Battle of Plassey 1757
-- Longitude 1759
-- Watt’s Steam Engine 1769
-- Arkwright’s Spinning Frame 1771
-- Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations 1776
-- The Siege of Yorktown and the loss of America 1781
-- Nelson’s death and the Battle of Trafalgar 1805
-- William Wilberforce and the abolition of the slave trade 1807
-- Battle of Waterloo and national identity 1815
-- Sir Robert Peel and the British Bobby 1829
-- Factory Acts and the British weekend 1850
-- Dr Livingstone and Africa 1855
-- Charles Darwin and evolution 1859
-- The Red House and ‘my home is my castle’ 1859
-- The laws of association football 1863
-- Suffragettes 1913
-- The Battle of the Somme 1916
-- The BBC 1927
-- Gandhi and Indian Independence 1931
-- The Blitz 1940
-- Frank Whittle and the jet engine 1941
-- The NHS and Welfare State 1948
-- SS Windrush and Multiculturalism 1948
-- The Beatles 1964
-- Monty Python and British humour 1971
-- Britain joins Europe 1973
-- Miners’ strike and Mrs Thatcher 1984
-- The Channel Tunnel 1991
-- The Good Friday Agreement 1998
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