Chat Ed : Right. We'll get cracking :) Welcome Maria!
Maria Misra : Hi, I'm Maria Misra, I'm an Oxford University lecturer and I hope you enjoyed the programme.
Chat Ed : OK, first question:
Harijan : Did the British set out an agenda to exploit or to civilize India?
Maria Misra : I don't think that they had an agenda right from the start. I think that initially the British who went out there with the East India company did go to make money but they made it in partnership with Indians. The idea of civilising India, I think, comes much later in the 19th Century.
David : Good series; is it going to be shown in other countries ?
Maria Misra : I don't know. That's a question for Channel 4. I hope so though.
Harijan : Do you believe that the expansion of the East India Company's activities into the British Raj during the 18thC was explotative or justified?
Maria Misra : I don't think it was justified. I think that it became increasingly exploitative as we showed in the first programme. It was really the work of freelance British traders and soldiers; it wasn't British government policy.
nawab : how does dr.misra believe that the east india company and the culture which it fostered has affected modern indian business culture?
Maria Misra : I don't think that it's had that much influence, although the East India Company did establish a lot of monopolies,and certainly in the last 30 or 40 years Indian business has tended to become rather monopolistic. But I don't really think that it the direct result of the influence of the East India Company. I think something that has always been central to Indian business life, from the company period on, has been a very close connection between politics and business.
Richard : I was interested when at first mixed marriages were promoted during the time of the east indian company, was was the exactly date or cornerstone that changed this situation around to the opposite
Daniel Brett : You mention a lot about the elites. How much interaction was there between ordinary Britishers and Indians on a cultural level?
Maria Misra : The turning point in race relations comes in about 1793 when the company officially stopped employing Indians and there was an effective race bar from then on. There was a lot of contact between ordinary British soldiers and Indian women throughout the entire period up until Independence. The result of that was a very large Eurasian or mixed race community who are still in India and who, quite interestingly, were recruited by the British to run the railways and post office.
Anita : I really enjoyed your programmes- it gave me an alternative perspective to the British Raj? How and when did yoiu become interested in it?
Maria Misra : I've always been interested in India. My Father is Indian and I spent time in India with his family when I was a child. I became very interested in the history of it when I came to University and I wrote a research thesis on India, about 10 years ago, and now I'm working on A New History of India, for Penguin.
Shaun Lawson : I'm struck by Maria Misra's reinterpretation of both Robert Clive and Warren Hastings. Are these merely her ideas, or have other historians reached similar conclusions?
Maria Misra : They are not just my ideas. A lot of historians have done research on 18th century India in the last 20 years. There is controversy still, not everybody would probably agree with exactly what I have said, but most historians probably would agree that Robert Clive didn't deserve the very good press that he used to have and that Warren Hastings didn't deserve such a bad press.
Jatinder : Maria do you end the series when the british defeat the marathas to becpme the leading indian power or do you go on to the anglo sikh wars?
Herrai : Does your program go into detail on how the British behaved with the Sikh Raj?
Maria Misra : I'm afraid that we don't. We don't really look at the Maratha or the Sikh wars in any detail but we do go on and look at the causes of the 1857 rebellion, where the programme ends.
Donzo : What eventualy happenned to Col Kirkpatrick and Kairunnissa? Where did they end up?
Maria Misra : He died quite young and is buried in Calcutta. I think Keranissa stayed in Hyderbad. But if you want to find out more about them there is more in the Channel 4 book by Archie Baron and it's called An Indian Affair.
jim : As someone who learnt at school about the 'Black Hole' of Calcutta, and how 'the British gave India the railway' I find this series wonderful and enlightening. Thank you very much! This should be shown in schools and maybe in India too!
Maria Misra : Thanks jim, it would be great if it was shown in schools.
jane : Do you feel that India has just kept the worst elements of British rule and Britain hasn't learned anything from their time in India?
Maria Misra : I don't think that India has just kept the worst aspects of Britain. I think that in some ways Indian and British culture blended rather well. India is a very plural society and it values certain kinds of rights that I think have come, to some extent, from Britain. Such as freedom of speech, a free press, an independent judiciary and quite a strong commitment to democracy. And I would like to think that Britain has learnt a certain humility from its experience. I think that the British now are much less arrogant and much less inclined to feel superior to other cultures.
David- : Maria, your presentation is very pro-British, what reception has your book had from the people of India today?
Maria Misra : I don't think it's pro-British. I think it's trying to give a different picture. It's trying to give a side of the British in India that isn't well-known. I'm trying to show a much more tolerant and open-minded attitude personified by someone like Warren Hastings. The programme hasn't been shown in India yet, but I have had some e-mails from viewers of Indian background back here and they have been very appreciative of the presentation of the different view. In particular they felt that my interpretation of Robert Clive, in programme one, was actually very different from what they had been taught in India.
alan brown : When I visited S. India an Indian businessman said that the end of the Raj was a disaster for india as it saw the beginning of a corrupt and elitist system, which the Raj was not. Do you think that is accurate?
Maria Misra : There have been problems in post-independent India because it was a very ambitious state but it was also a very bureaucratic state. Many of these officials were poorly paid and certainly used their positions to make money. But, there was some corruption under the Raj and in some ways you could say that the extreme bureaucracy of India has been partially inherited from the British. I would also like to put it into perspective, to point out that the Indian economy has grown much more rapidly under independent Indian government that it did under the Raj. In 18th century Britain, when the British economy was starting to develop very rapidly, there was a lot of government/business corruption.
Chat Ed : Our half hour with Maria is nearly up now, so last two questions now, thanks....
suraj : does this also mean that a rewriting of the history of india is in order
Maria Misra : Yes I am re-writing it; it's coming out with Penguin next year.
Chat Ed : And lastly:
Diogenes : Superb programme Maria.......are you going to do any follow up series?
Maria Misra : I hope so, but you have to ring Channel 4 and tell them to commission it!
Chat Ed : That's it! Thanks for that Maria, great stuff! Thanks for joining us tonight everyone. You can buy the book to accompany the show from the Channel 4 Shop: www.channel4.com/shop !
bbaggins : thank you maria for your time and effort...a superb and informative program and discussion
Archi : Fanatstic insight Maria, thank you
kusum : well done on a wonderful programme, maria
David- : Maria, very good, interesting programme.
Maria Misra : Thank you very much everyone. I've enjoyed the questions, they were very good. And I'm sorry if I haven't given better answers!
ANita : Great
alan brown : brilliant series Maria - thanks very much
Jatinder : thank you maria
Maria Misra : Goodbye for now.
Maria Misra leaves the room
