Love-hate bond between England & India In human history, there seems to be no other example of a very strong love-hate bonding between the UK (England in short as it is addressed) and India. Love for the qualities of His Majesty’s servants, hate for the conduct against the perceived qualities of those servants, who took to barbarism. Great Britain not only lost the empire because of those servants of the Crown but a potential best friend in the world. It is time for the UK to critique its attitude to India since 1947, which was an unwise continuation of pre-1947 mentality. Should the UK not have been India’s friendliest trade partner in these more than 7 decades? The British had the most valuable information about India, an ancient, big, culturally rich and oldest knowledge society. The Americans never had that kind of knowledge on India. Most European countries had bits of information. All of them generally suffered coloured view of India and Indians. Their view, perception and even understanding was tainted by petty missionary campaigns and narrow-mindedness. Politically they were heavily wagered on communal divide in India. They encouraged partition of India, under the illusion that it would serve their national interests in future, believing that a small nation will be loyal to them forever or at least many decades. They ended up laying down the foundation of terrorism in the world, which has harmed the UK like none other, not even America, as its Prime Minister has been living a life of a protected witness in a crime after operation Iraq. Had they acknowledged the power of non-violence advocated by Mahatma Gandhi, the world would have been different today. Humanity today is threatened with an imminent atomic war any time! The UK has lost another valuable opportunity to mend ways by strengthening the Commonwealth apparatus. However, I am on another issue today. The UK is the repository of valuable information on India. If it corrects its attitude to India from an Empire-Colony framework to two Great Nations and Two Great Friends it can have the most beneficial Trade Agreement now. It is now or never! The UK Leadership must listen to Prime Minister Narendra Modi respectfully to evoke equal respect from Indians, who are bound by the strange kind of love-hate bonding I am discussing. If they err now, Indians are bound to give up on them. The reason is that Indo-UK relations are 90% intellectual and 10% trade etc. India-UK relations in this spirit can make the UK one of the most liked nations in the world, unlike the long list of hated ones.

M L Gupta