Thread by @vakibs

August 15, 1947: The day when solid imperialism transformed completely into liquid imperialism.

Solid imperialism is armed occupation, bureaucracy, state institutions.

Liquid imperialism is through elements that are exchanged between people: language, money.

https://twitter.com/crimesofbrits/status/1029580577723310082

Liquid imperialism is more effective. Solid imperialism needs to physically overpower a people, breaking their bones if necessary.

Liquid imperialism engulfs from all sides. Drowns them. No direction is free. The liquid routes through all crevices, even from opposing sides.

The thing with British occupation of India is that it was mostly liquid, even from the earliest stages. The country was occupied through currency manipulation. It was facilitated by a Mughal tax break.

indiafacts.org/mughal-tax-bre…

Even when occupying through trade, Britain focussed on the commodities most critical for enslaving other people apart from Indians: gunpowder and opium.

2ndlook.wordpress.com/2010/06/18/ind…

The artificial famines engineered to murder millions of Indians (mostly in Bengal and Bihar) by connecting the Indian food market to a (manipulated) global market were *essential* to consolidate the grip of the empire in India, its tool to enslave the wider world.

From the very beginning, British occupation of India had adverse ripple effects for the enslavement of all people across the world. This is why Black people in USA understood Indian independence as a significant step in the liberation of enslaved races everywhere, even in USA.

Even the most liquid imperialism needs solid institutions to direct the flow of power. India has certain solid institutions that are British relics, which cement this imperialism to this day.

The keystone for this edifice is the Judiciary: which enforces English.

Jawaharlal Nehru, the 1st PM of "independent" India, addressed the country in English in his very first speech. Implicitly signalling the transition of British imperialism from solid to purely liquid state.

Indian languages were systematically destroyed by his government.

Nehru was the scion of a family that was the 1st beneficiary of liquid imperialism of Britain in India. It made its fortunes on British imposed English language courts, arbitrating disputes between Indian princes.

This was the model for the parliamentary politics of Congress.

Petty warlords from competing castes were manipulated by Nehru ruling family to rule India under a veneer of "parliamentary democracy".

They are still trying the same game. But Indian polity is maturing. After 70 years, the final solid institutions of imperialism are crumbling.

When this happens, when the colonial institutions of the judiciary and the universities are remodelled in an Indian make, speaking Indian languages, that will be the real independence of India.

The liquid imperialism will still remain, but can be controlled less effectively.

This moment will be a critical step, not just for India, but for the whole world which is facing the ravages of liquid imperialism.

The monster which is destroying forests, decimating biodiversity, exterminating languages and cultures, needs to be combated on a global scale.

India will be a key battleground in this war. Every single victory counts. Even the transition to liquid imperialism on the 15th August 1947 was a victory. It needs to be celebrated. But not with complacence.

The war is still raging. (End of thread).