The Hindu Business Line : A museum for colonisation

The headquarters of the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) or the Dutch East India Company, now part of the University of Amsterdam…There is a need to house our memories and artefacts for posterity

C. Gopinath

Zimbabwe’s economy is in bad shape with inflation of 3,700 per cent, non-existent human rights, and vast numbers migrating to neighbouring countries in search of food. But quite often, President Mugabe harks back to how the country, during colonial rule, experienced separate development policies for blacks and whites and that he is still trying to correct the problem. That is debatable. Zimbabwe’s minority white government nominally declared independence in 196 5, but most blacks consider 1980 as their year of independence when majority rule was established. That’s pretty recent, and the blight of colonisation as a reason for current problems might still hold sway.

Colonisation is not easily forgotten, for the impact it made on the people was significant. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh chose to remind his audience at a speech given at Oxford University on July 8, 2005, that ‘our grievances against the British Empire had a sound basis.’ He also attributed the ‘deep distrust’ of Indians towards the outside world to the legacy of colonisation. Some commentators stretch the argument and warn us that signing the nuclear agreement with the US presently being debated is akin to modern-day colonisation.

When you look down the list of the countries today, the legacy of colonisation is truly vast. About 65 countries were, at one time or another, British colonies. At least 14 islands dotted around the oceans continue to be British colonies. Other major colonial powers that begat countries of today are France (39), Spain (29), Portugal (13), and the Netherlands (9).

The minor colonial powers included Japan, Belgium, Italy and Germany. Being a colonial power can be intoxicating. Having been a colony, you would think the US would shy away from being a colonial power but it also fell under the spell holding Philippines for a while and still holding Puerto Rico at arm’s length. If we add up the numbers of former colonies, they account for an overwhelming majority of the membership of the UN. Some had brief stints, but others, like Ireland and the Canary Islands, were subjects for over 500 years.

MNCs as colonial powers

Colonisation is out of favour today, although some left-wingers would accuse multinational corporations of being imperialistic and treating the countries in which they operate as their colonies. Nick Robbins in his engaging book, The Cor poration That Changed The World, (Orient Longman, 2006), looks at the East India Company (EIC) as one of our earliest multinationals that lost its commercial focus when it found it was easier to generate profits through land revenue than trade in goods. That was the beginning of its downfall as a company.

Even recent multinational companies, with a similar loss of focus have fallen on hard times. Latin America has seen its share of crooked US companies who were fond of interfering in the politics of the country, and triggering coups too ensure a favourable government. Even in the 1960s and 1970s, many MNCs earned a bad name for shipping off outdated technologies to the developing countries and believing that only expatriate management knew how to run an enterprise. Colonisation takes various forms.

Dr Manmohan Singh, in his talk, pointed out several benefits of our colonial experience that includes the rule of law, free press, modern universities, and a professional civil service. Others would point out the lack of self esteem among the people, the process of de-industrialisation of the country, and imposition of a different set of values as the negative consequences of colonisation.
Unanswered questions

Faced with venal bureaucrats today, some citizens even hark back to the colonial days as being ‘better.’ The debate continues. Many books have been written about the good and bad that colonisation did to the countries that were ruled. Yet, there are so many unanswered questions that the subject can keep several generations of PhD students busy mining it for theses subjects.

Some would perhaps like to forget the EIC. Robbins points out that the headquarters of the East India Company does not exist anymore. It has been pulled down and another building erected in its place. There is nothing to mark the location where the EIC was headquartered for over 200 years.

With time to spare in Amsterdam last month, I walked up and down Oude Hoogstraat, looking for the Ost Indische Huis, the headquarters of the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, (or VOC, the Dutch East India Company) and could not locate it. Getting thirsty, I walked into a bar and while satisfying my thirst, engaged the barwoman. She had not heard of the place. Giving up hope, I walked out of the store and there, right in front of me on the other side of the road, was a sign (see picture). The building I was looking for was now part of the University of Amsterdam.

The VOC went on to profitably rule what is now Indonesia. Giles Milton’s Nathaniel’s Nutmeg (Penguin, 2000) romanticises the dismal beginnings of Dutch rule there. Just like the EIC, the VOC also lost its focus and shift ed away from mercantile interests to governance and began its downfall. It was dissolved in 1800 and what is now Indonesia began to be ruled directly by the Dutch government. Once independent, both India and Indonesia began to grow at faster rates than their colonial masters.
An ideal location

Even as we come to understand the impact of colonisation more closely, there is a need to house our memories and artefacts for posterity.

With the EIC building gone, and the VOC building spoken for, we need to put up a new building to house a Museum for Colonisation. India would be an ideal location to house one since it hosted the French at Puducherry and Karaikal, the Portugese at Goa, the Danes at Tranqebar, and the English elsewhere. Verbal histories of those who experienced colonisation first hand, photos, a library, documents, etc. need to be collected and preserved to remind us of a significant era of the history of the world. Any takers?
(The author is a professor of international business and strategic management at Suffolk University, Boston, US. He can be reached at cgopinat@suffolk.edu)

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