Chick Pea mentioned recently that there is a new film opening on Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, who is infamous amongst desis for summarily ejecting Uganda’s 50,000 Asians in 1972. Most of the Ugandan desis got out, and many came to thrive in places like England and Canada. We saw this discussed in Mississippi Masala, and it’s referenced in the writings of M.G. Vassanji. Unfortunately, the 300,000 Africans (most of them fellow Ugandans) who died as a result of Idi Amin’s various military campaigns and programs of internal ethnic cleansing did not have the same second chance. This is a man who caused untold suffering, and who led his country down a truly catastrophic path.
A new film on Amin, called The Last King of Scotland (in reference to one of Amin’s more fanciful titles for himself), starring Forrest Whitaker, recently premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, and seems to be generating a fair amount of buzz. The Washington Post reviews the film, and while it’s too early to really get the film’s slant, it’s a little bit worrisome to me that the director is quoted in the article saying how he really wanted to show Idi Amin as a “complex” character, and his actions as partly justifiable:
“A lot of the things he tried to do were very popular,” said Macdonald, highlighting even the expulsion of the Asian business leaders as something that had resonated with Ugandans who became shopkeepers and business owners for the first time.
The Asians, expelled in 1972, had formed the backbone of the Ugandan economy before Amin came to power.
“Amin made Ugandans feel proud to be African, and proud to be Ugandan. He was someone who tried to get rid of the colonial inferiority complex,” Macdonald said. (link)
That last sentence should be a reminder to people that it’s just as easy to commit injustices in the name of fighting colonialism as it is to do so the other way around. I should also note that it’s distressing to hear the director of the film speaking so appreciatively of a truly brutal dictator. (On the other hand, perhaps he’s simply trying to make the film sound non-depressing for the media.) Meanwhile, in London, the English National Opera is hosting the Asian Dub Foundation’s musical play about Moammar Gadhafi. As with the Idi Amin film, the project seems to be a biographical sketch of Gadhafi that aims to includes the “good” (or at least the “complex”) along with the bad. From the Guardian:
Chandrasonic has been intrigued by Gadafy since reading a book about him when he was a teenager, and sees the opera “not as a factual biography” but as a way of exploring the “modern myth and counter-myth” surrounding a man “who was considered a mad dog and desert scum” by the west, but has ended up rehabilitated and shaking hands with Tony Blair.
In the course of the opera, Chandrasonic hopes to tackle everything from the politics of oil to Gadafy’s attempts to “update the Koran with democratic, radical proposals”. Lockerbie and the Yvonne Fletcher killing “will be dealt with – we’re working out how”, and so, presumably, will Gadafy’s funding of terrorist groups and his more recent change of allegiance from the Arab to the African world.
Alex Poots, ENO’s director of contemporary arts, who commissioned the work, hopes it will go even further, to “explore the bigger picture – the lack of understanding between the Middle East and the west”.(link)
The bigger picture? Maybe there’s a bigger picture worth debating regarding the Middle East and the West, but I’m not sure Gadhafi is the best man for the job. Hm. CNN also has some worrisome quotes:
“It is not exactly opera but it makes the perfect PC (Politically Correct) musical,” The Independent newspaper said.
But composer Steve Chandra Savale of the electro-rap band Asian Dub Foundation said the opera was definitely not intended as a piece of political propaganda.
“It is more about the myth of Gadhafi. It is about the invention of a cult personality and how it fits into the international framework,” he told Reuters before opening night.
“It is about politics as ritual, politics as performance, politics as charisma. This is something that musical theatre can do.” (link)
I’m skeptical. Gadhafi is perhaps a more complex figure than Idi Amin, especially since Gadhafi seems to have “reformed” himself somewhat since the mid-1990s. But I don’t think there is really a “bigger” picture that needs to be looked at, not after Pan Am 103 and Gadhafi’s many years of supporting terrorism around the world (including the IRA, back in the day). And not after Gadhafi’s actions led to international sanctions and unprecedented suffering for the people of Libya.
It’s always dangerous to condemn art you haven’t seen, and I don’t wish to do that here — though one can respond to what an artist says about his or her subject in the media, and make an educated decision about whether it’s worth one’s time. I will definitely go see the Idi Amin film to see what they do with it, but somehow the descriptions of the ADF hip-hopera on Moammar Gadhafi don’t pique my curiosity; I’d rather go see, I don’t know, Talladega Nights. Still, it is perhaps worth discussing the fact that this is being put together by Brit-Asians (as opposed to people of Arab descent), and the actor playing Gadhafi, Ramon Tikaram, appears from his name to be South Asian as well.
Also a documentary (Shame) premiering at TIFF about Mukhtaran Mai, done by a Desi-Canadian director from Montreal (we need good news about Desi Montrealers today)
Ramon Tikaram is indeed of South Asian descent and is most well-known here in the UK for his role as a gay biker-messenger in the gritty 90s BBC lawyer-drama This Life. He also had a lead role in the film Kama Sutra, alongside Naveen Andrews etc.
Wikipedia article here.
He’s also the brother of a singer called Tanita Tikaram who was famous for a while back in the late 80s, as some of you may remember.
yeah that’s why he died pretty much alone in exile in Saudi Arabia (who offered him exile mostly to keep him quiet, because they believed he was harming Islam’s image)
Amardeep, I saw the trailer for this Idi Amin movie the other day, for a showing of Talladega Nights as a matter of fact. I was shocked at first that such a thing could even exist. I would not want to see it, it is too disturbing, but I would be still interested in seeing the portrayal of the complexeties of such a character. After all, what does make monsters of men? It is a challenging project and will be worth seeing just to see how the story is told.
idi amin affected my family along with tons of other asians who were born and raised in that fantastic country…and kapala–the city of 7 hills.. a few members were killed off… and they were given 1 week to pack up and get out… mind you all the banks were closed, their money was not recovered, and they had to take one suitcase… women who were wearing their mangal sutras and jewelry had it torn off their bodies before entering the plane…from what i hear.. it was utter hell..
refugees shipped off to foreign lands… close knit extended families separated into nuclear aggregates…
it devastated our family…
my grandfather had a heart attack and passed shortly after the coup and the separation of his 9 children and their families… to have everything taken from you… and take nothing with you… both my parents have none of their childhood pictures… their keepsakes that they wanted to share with us… yet…thankfully…they are not bitter… yes, my mom had a few tears in her eyes when she saw her house for the first time in over 30 years a few years ago…and seeing it in a shattered/tattered state…but as they say… ‘we shall overcome’..
most were taken in my the UK… a few were taken in by Canada…and all those with MD’s were taken in by America (yeah, America was cheeky on who they gave citizenship too…) but that is for another day…
a few of the links are some of my own perspectives about amin….
it’s somewhat disturbing…since idi amin–isthe only reason why I was born here in the states… Scary thought if you think about it. It’s a mix of being grateful and pure hatred for making my loved ones suffer… It’s a weird dichotomy of feelings. Anger…thanks…evil vs. good.
A lot of my family was exiled from Uganda in 1972…to hear them talk about it is so sad. They lost EVERYTHING…arrived in places like the UK and Canada with the clothes on their backs. The part of my family that went to Canada, were the stragallers, they didn’t believe it was really happening (much like the father in Mississippi Masala). They showed up in Canada in November with nothing but short-sleeved shirts, pants, saris (for the women).
yes.. my folks had the clothes on their back..and knew nobody when they were dropped off in the UK… imagine being ‘dumped’…. taken away from all that you know…
but the beauty is, is most people survived.. it shows the beauty of resiliance…almost everyone started again from scratch… had to overcome financial hardhsips, familial hardships, and lots of dire times…and yes, some people dream about the ‘good old days’ and what could’ve, would’ve, should’ve… but it does show the human spirit and the fire inside to the deepest core…
I mean stragglers not stragallers
Did you know when it all happened, the town of Leister put out a full page add telling the Ugandan Asians NOT to come there, because they were already “full”
This actually backfired because then the name leister stuck in people’s minds, and many desis Asian refugees went there.
In 2002, on the 30 year anniversary, the mayor of Leister appologized for the advert and thanked the Asians for coming and working hard and making Leister what it is today 😛
It seems like there is a skeptical and even condemning tone about how the Idi Amin film is portraying his policies. The policy of kicking out the Indian business elite was popular for Ugandans, especially their businessmen and entrepreneurs. Indians did the same thing when the British left their country. Just because the British weren’t kicked out by military force, doesn’t mean that wasn’t a popular sentiment amongst Indians at that time. If there was a film portraying that sentiment, I don’t think there would be such a condemning tone.
As for Gadhafy, the debate between the West and the Middle East is well… if you say you wanna bring democracy to the Middle East, and you capture Saddam, but then you open diplomatic negotiotians with the second oldest dictator currently ruling (after Castro) for oil purposes, I think that says something about the Western governments at least.
Also, thirdly, I’ve enjoyed reading the discussions on this site. However, I’ve observed that there is a lack of a leftist or I don’t know an alternative to the mostly right wing fascist (a lot of Hindutvadi types in here)or Milton Friedman Wall Street journal free market idealists on this site. There are a couple of cultural studies types and that field tends to present an alternative at times bot for the most part this is a very conservative and middle class/upper middle class urban professional type of atmosphere. For example, there is a lot of generalising of South Asia’s rural villagers anytime a Western journalist exposes some “backwards” practice in India or Pakistan. There seems to be a lot of shame and an attempt at distancing oneself from these people. I think that’s a shame and also the generalising of these peoples lives a bit unacademic. Anyway I’ve always wanted to say this about the site and I only hope it improves with more diverse opinions.
Peace
kenyandesi: it’s Leicester not leister… and my grandparents moved there after the coup…they had the best diwali celebrations where the close down the streets and have a fantastic fireworks show…many south asians live there..
Indians did the same thing? Any references? You might want to note that even a newspaper like The Statesman was run by Englishmen for years after Independence. Under the industrial policy of Nehru, foreign ownership was discouraged but this is a far far cry from what Idi Amin did. And popular or not, what Idi Amin did was wrong and there’s no excusing that.
Ghazali, just so you know, I am normally accused of being in thrall to the “Islamo-fascists” and the left-wing socialist “pseudo-secularist” agenda. So this is a pleasant change.
In your case, I can’t understand your comment. How is opposing Idi Amin’s genocide and forcible expulsion of 50,000 people a form of “right wing fascism” or “free market idealism”?
Also note that India did not do this — as I recall, there are passages in the Indian constitution guaranteeing rights for Anglo-Indians. Most of the Anglo-Indian community who left India after independence left completely of their own volition.
I suspect this is going to be a thread similar to the Ghandi in Uganda post by Ennis 🙂
It’s interesting you say this, because my brother and I feel quite the opposite. We grew up in PARADISE. Ask an East African Asian (EAA) who grew up there, and 9/10 times they’ll say they had the best childhood ever. We thank God that the Kenyan government didn’t kick our parents out, as many feared at the time. I can’t imagine growing up in America, or the UK or Canada. I’m so grateful to my parents for staying and struggling (they both declined lucrative private sector jobs to work for the government) so that I could call that little piece of heaven home.
But I do agree that opportunities abound here, in a way that they don’t there. Not that they don’t exist. Just that you have to struggle that much harder to find them. A number of my friends have studied abroad and then gone back, and they can’t imagine leaving, raising their families anywhere but home.
But that is the nature of “home” right? You cna’t imagine anything else/better?
I always misspell it 😛
It might actually be insightful to see as Amin as a complex character. I recently saw ‘Der Untergang'(Downfall), and though I was initially of a movie that potrayed Hitler as a real, complicated person, it actually turned out to be quite a wonderful and insightful experience.
I do not know anything about the situation in Uganda back then, but I do not see a contradiction between the expulsion of Asians having public support, and it being the wrong thing to do. People often have prejudices they are ashamed to admit, but if someone they admire comes and shouts them out from a dias, they suddenly feel vindicated, and feel that they ‘knew it’ all along. A good example again is Germany.
Kenyandesi, thanks for reminding me about that thread; I had forgotten. (It’s here, in case anyone wants to go back)
most of my cousins who remained in kenya went to england and abroad for further studies.. my dad had to go to india to get his college/post graduate degrees… my mom had to go to england for hers…
i think it is a land of opportunity and what you make of it… but never in my parents wildest imaginations did they believe they would be living in the USA… back then it was just a land ‘where the streets are paved with gold ;)’
africa is africa, home is home, swahili is swahili, and mogo and matoki are mogo and matoki… i consider myself… a myriad of indian/african/american… a trifecta of ideas…
so do i 😉
And ironically, not just in the name of fighting colonialism, but as an extension of colonialism itself. Unfortunately, that remains the colonial legacy in many parts of the world, including the subcontinent. A phenomenon, as it were, on which the sun never sets. One might imagine a similar film — in form and approach — about Indira Gandhi. (Note to flamethrowers: I’m NOT saying that Amin and Gandhi were equivalent.)
But Amardeep, maybe this isn’t so troubling — maybe painting a more “complicated” picture in both of these works serves to reveal the very point that you make. If the film about Amin, for example, were a more straightforward depiction of him as evil, then one wouldn’t necessarily see the way in which anti-colonialism itself can internalize and perpetuate these sorts of injustices. Of course, if he means to glorify Amin, that’s a different thing altogether.
Thanks for the post, Amardeep.
Yes, but the proper desi pronunciation is “Leeester” or “Lissesster”. Like Peugeot (the car) becomes “Peejo”.
😉
My parents came to the UK straight from India but we do have relatives here who were originally from Kenya. A lot of the older generation are very nostalgic indeed about “Nairobi”, “Kampala” and so on. And don’t get me started on Safari Suits again 🙂
it is also thought that “dada” had “visions” (the reason he says he expelled the Asians*) because he had untreated syphilis:
Wikipedia:
Partly on the basis of his “visions” and erratic behaviour, Idi Amin is often believed to have suffered from neurosyphilis: Deborah Hayden makes the case for this hypothesis in her Pox: Genius, Madness and the Mysteries of Syphilis.
*There are many stories surrounding why he expelled the Asians, including one where he asked for a desi girl’s hand in marriage and was refused…this one especially is used by some indigenous Africans to “prove” that Asians are an insular community and should leave Africa…
I have a two-fold argument: 1. it’s not a racism thing entirely. This was an era when the Shahs would not marry Patels, would not marry Sikhs, would not marry…etc…etc. and
yes there was some of this pride, but it lasted about a minute. Until Black Africans realized that they were not getting a piece of the Asian-owned business pie unless they were cronies of Amin, until they realized that he was a crazy man intent on killing may of them, until he declared war on several of his neighbouring countries, dissolving any East-African unity, destroying what was called the pearl of Africa….
“Africa is for Africans, Black Africans.” -Okelo to Jay, Mississippi Masala
Anyone else cry at this line?
chai just came out of my nose (the fluid, not the blogger)
this is really asinine. it sounds like the guy was staking a claim to some babe and was rebuffed. early signs of megalomania i’m sure. maybe he was a scientologist.
wow!! i didnt know that. btw – someday there should be a post here on dr. ambedkar who literally crafted the indian republic. visions come and go – the constitution remains – compare and contrast the evolution of where nations are, after sixty years, and i am sure india isnt doin too badly.
other random thoughts – echoes of mugabe in the sketch above – what do desifriques have to say to that?
kinda like the way opposing saddam has become right-wing. the lefitists are either using the “enemy of my enemy” argument or implying that such regimes are a direct result of rightist foreign policy so the chickens are coming home to roost anyway. leftists are among the biggist apologists for muslim terrorism (though they are really vigilent about christian terror). just try bringing up the issue of the treatment of women, minorities, or homosexuals in islamic republics and watch charges of racism fly.
When she mentioned the fascists and free market idealists I thought Ghazali was referring to the commentors and not the bloggers, and more in a general sense than specifically about this thread. In any case, Ghazali I hope you stick around…
India’s lower house of Parliament actually has two seats (out of 545) reserved for Anglo-Indians. This deal was worked out because unlike other communities based largely on language, Anglo-Indians didn’t have their own state or territory in India.
one of my aunts had all her $hit jacked by that guy, and ended up in the US. She had an MD. Maybe there is some truth in the assertion that the US was “cheeky”.
The Ugandan Indians are one of the most successful immigrant groups in the UK – they came with nothing as refugees and re-built their lives more or less from the bottom up and have excelled in many areas of commerce and the professions. Mostly Gujaratis I believe but a fair number of Punjabis amongst them too. The city of Leicester in the east midlands and Wembley in north London are two areas where alot of the refugees settled and they helped to make the economies of those areas especially thrive. I really admire them.
Amardeep, my friend went to see the Gadaffi opera and said it was terrible, a mess, and put it down as an attempt by ENO to justify their massive public subsidy by doing something street-cred to show they too are in touch with multicultural England. Reviews were at mostly poor, this editorial summing up feeling quite well.
I should also note that it’s distressing to hear the director of the film speaking so appreciatively of a truly brutal dictator.
I can’t speak for what Macdonald is thinking when he says those things, but I didn’t read any of that as complimentary. Being popular is not a good thing. Being proud is not a good thing. Colonial inferiority complexes are bad and so in the abstract getting rid of them is good. In practice, though, there’s the question of what that inferiority complex is being replaced with. I’m sure that making people proud was part of the “seductive element” that Macdonald talks about. People love to feel proud, especially when they’re told to feel proud about where they’re from or what color their skin is, rather than anything that they’ve actually done. That’s the easiest kind of pride, after all. (“I might appear to be a total loser but my skin’s the same color as Shakespeare’s so suck on that!”) Macdonald’s statements apply equally well to Hitler (mutatis mutandis) but that shouldn’t make Hitler look any better to anyone.
Chandrasonic has been intrigued by Gadafy since reading a book about him when he was a teenager, and sees the opera “not as a factual biography” but as a way of exploring the “modern myth and counter-myth” surrounding a man “who was considered a mad dog and desert scum” by the west, but has ended up rehabilitated and shaking hands with Tony Blair.
I can’t say it with certainty but I’m pretty sure that Tony Blair still thinks that Gadafy is scum. Lots of scummy dictators have gotten to shake hands with important people. It’s one of the side benefits of owning your own country.
In the course of the opera, Chandrasonic hopes to tackle everything from the politics of oil to Gadafy’s attempts to “update the Koran with democratic, radical proposals”
How wonderful. I’ve always thought that if there’s one thing dictators don’t do enough, it’s attempt to create their own religions.
I agree with you, Amardeep, that it’s unwise to criticize a work of art before actually seeing it but…I’m not holding my breath for this one. (“Chandrasonic” is an awesome name though.)
PS. Personally speaking, I’m looking forward to seeing both The Last King of Scotland and Talladega Nights.
yeah, the US is ‘cheeky’ on who they gave greencards/citizenship to…
and as for seeing the ‘last king of scotland’.. i don’t know if i want to… might save it to see with the family sometime in the future.. don’t know how my parents will take to it…they just got back from their trip to africa last week…and uganda is in tatters…
First off, I don’t think it’s a bad idea, if done responsibly, to explore the complexities of an individual who, by most accounts, was truly evil. By responsible, I mean that one hopes the director is trying to explore Amin’s personality in such a way as to try to describe the circumstances under which his hatred was formed. On a personal note, my sister worked in Uganda for a year in 1998. Kenyandesi or Chick Pea might be able to shed some more light on this, but my sister’s experience was that many desi entrepeneurs returned to Uganda after Idi Amin’s departure, though I don’t know what there situation is now. Also, at that time, my sister observed that there were internal tensions on several levels. There was ethnic tension amongst the indigenous Africans, tension between the locals and the south asian business class, and tensions between both those groups and the remnants of Amin’s government. To sum up, it looked like a pot that was about to boil over.
Sakshi has a good point. I’ve seen the trailer twice now (after the Illusionist and Hollywoodland, go figure) and it seems like it might very well go through the whole swathe of monstrosity. That someone is horrible is not so surprising. That they are charismatic enough to implement their malice on a large scale requires more examination. I want to see it, if I think I can stomach it.
many desi’s from india went to uganda afterwards in the 90’s since their economy went to shit. right now there is tension between africans/asians in uganda…but it is more severe in kenya where in nairobi my uncle has 2 24 hour guards with ak47’s at his front doorstep… asians are killed/raped/robbed everyday… i know several families who have been affected… i remember when i visited in ’99 we were drinking coffee in a hotel in nairobi across the street from the hard rock cafe… it was 2pm, broad daylight..and i wanted to go to the HRC to buy a tshirt or something… my uncle told me, no way in hell was i walking across the street to get something… he was that vigilant about security… it sucks to be a caged bird in a beautiful country…
those that fleed, almost none went back.. when someone kicks you out… you don’t tend to go back.. there are a lot of bad/sad memories…
I had tried to write a post on this film last week but it didn’t happen. While searching for desi-related hooks (besides the obvious) I noticed that not a single actor listed on the IMDB site was desi. That tells me this movie will be more about the persecution of other Africans and probably not have too much about the Indian community in it.
Amardeep, I was speaking in general terms about the right wing and free market types. I should have clarified that when I wrote.
As for India, you’re right, the comparision between the two countries is not really something that is really…well..comparable. However, there were “aggressive” movements and sentiments in Bengal, amongst some Muslims, and other groups. People wanted to kick out the British. So therefore if there was a movie about that aspect of independence, I don’t think I would see any complaints is what I’m saying.
As for the Anglo-Indians, I don’t beleive their place in the colonial economy of India was as major as Indians in Uganda. There might have been similarities as to how they were percieved by the indigenous population but not in terms of economic impact.Correct me if I’m wrong however.
Also, I hope I did not give off the impression that I am a leftist. I just wanted to mention the lack of that perspective given the fact that India has such a large leftist history and presence.
Also, the little disclaimer when you post where it says “no anti-secular comments.” I assume its a joke, but if its not isnt that sort of ironic? Aren’t secularists usually calling for freedom of speech and expression? I mean Gandhi wasn’t a secularist and his critiques of secularism are quite interesting. Just something that I always saw that I wanted to comment on.
Peace
I’ve been reading this site from day one and can tell you that that it is a skewed perspective. There are an almost equal amount of left and right commenters (maybe even more lefties), although, and it pains me to say this since I am left of center, only the lefties leave comments whining about how the site isn’t leftist enough. A better option than whining is to leave comments yourself. They are appreciated.
Saddam Hussein was a secularist. Did he believe in freedom of speech? This is a secretive cabal bent on world domination. Freedom of speech isn’t the only consideration.
Funny story. I was actually born in Tripoli, Libya. A few months later, Reagan decided to bomb the crap out of the country. Somehow, I survived even though I lived in the cities that were bombed. I think it was Benghazi, Tripoli, and some other place. I left there after the age of three so I know nothing about that place, although I’d like to go back some day. There I just told everyone my life story. You may all stalk me now.
A topic like this and I waited till mid afternoon to comment..shame shame shame.
To those that are interested, Kenneth Matiba is a freedom fighter and one of the guys behind Kenya becoming independent. Yet, in the mid nineties, he was the same guy who tried to instigate educated but jobless into ‘kicking out the muindis(indians)’ out of their country. Thankfully, nothing crazy like that happened and people like my parents etc are still leading safe and happy lives there.
Idi Amin was crazy and stuck in the fantasy of his mind but I do believe that it would be interesting to try and see what made him tick. He has to be complex for wanting to kick out a particular kind of people in order to make way for another? What made him think like that? What goes behind the mind of any crazy person out there when they do atrocious things to fellow humans?
Yes, Sriram. Some asians went back in Uganda after Museveni promised them their land etc. In fact, our next door neighbours are there now and have made bank. Though I will also add that years of corruption, bad blood and plain extortion have reduced some countries in africa to poverty statistics and not much more else.
Chickpea, I feel that the sense of insecurity is something that we will find in any country where the educated and able find it impossible to feed themselves. Of course, having grown in kenya makes me biased! My american born husband found it stifling to be behind barred balconies and windows while I relished the rest of the experience. Noone in my family has ever been attacked or abused (touchwood) and my dad would have to be bribed up the wazhoo to make him come live here. I have friends who still go overseas for their education but go against their folks to go back and live in Kenya. Cannot say that I blame them…I too was headed that way once.
KenyanDesi..hear hear for a childhood in one of the best places ever!
daycruz,
I was also born in Libya! A small city called Ziliten, actually. I remember going to the rooftops of our apartment buildings and Gadhafi would be dropping balloons with his pictures on them for the heck of it. Damn, that guy is a looker! 😉
We left in 1982- when I was a wee child, right before much of it was blown to bits. Would still love to go back some day. Wonder if my memories were true or just concoctions of stories my family told me.
PS: Do you have a vaccination scar on your upper (outer) left thigh and foot? Please say yes, otherwise my brother is right, and I was adopted from the dungeons of Chimichanga! 🙁
Ghazali,
Do us all a favour and read some Indian history before posting. The strand of the freedom movement (in Bengal) which was violent for the most part involved Hindus like Surya Sen, Pritilata Waddedar, Kalpana Dutta, Khudiram Bose and others. Which “violent” Muslims are you talking about? Secondly, what Idi Amin was after Uganda’s independence, so why you are comparing post-independence Uganda with pre-independence India?
Since the subject of Anglo-Indians has come up, let me note that Anglo-Indians were mixed – the technical definition was that they were the descendants of a marriage/liaison where the male was British and the female Indian. (The opposite did happen, for instance, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy’s father was a Sri Lankan Tamil and his mother British. This was infrequent but their offspring were not dubbed Anglo-Indians.) As Amardeep noted, most Anglo-Indians have migrated out of India and a considerable number have settled in Australia. The Anglo-Indians were represented in India’s Constituent Assembly by Frank Anthony and his book “Britain’s betrayal in India” is a standard reference on the subject.
Incidentally, a small number of British – not Anglo-Indians – opted to stay on in India even after independence. As I noted, the newspaper “The Statesman” was edited by Englishmen for a number of years after independence. The anthropologist Verrier Elwin was another who opted to stay back. A long time back – in the eighties, I think – the magazine India Today did an article on the survivors. For the most part, I think they opted to stay in the “hill stations” of India like Simla, Ooty etc. Some works of the Hindi writer Nirmal Verma, himself from Simla, feature such characters – as for instance, Mrs. Joshua in his novel “The Red Tin Roof.” To the best of my knowledge, those who stayed behind were not discriminated against in any way.
on an unrelated note, hisham matar’s “in the country of men” (just shortlisted for the booker) is a pretty impressive debut and is set (for the most, and most well written, part) in tripoli. the novel describes gaddafi’s brutalities as seen through the eyes of the nine year old narrator and, perhaps surprisingly, works very well as both a political and an intensely personal novel. billed as “the libyan kite runner” it has some similarities with that work but is far more introspective, spare and has none of the redemption narrative that drives hosseini’s book.
I lean towards agreeing with the comments of the filmaker on Idi Amin. My dad is from a small African country called Malawi. It was colonized by the British. According to him (and other Africans from East Africa) Indians took the place of the British. In many African countries Indians are almost always part of the elite class. Unfortunately, most Indians are known to look down on Africans and rarely socialize with them. Idi Amin may have been crazy (absolute power always corrupts), but he tried to address an age old problem. He was trying to better the lives of the oppressed and lower classes (the majority of Ugandans). Forcing Indians to leave the country was not the answer, so what would any of you suggest? A foreign ethnic group can only rule economically and oppress the native ethnic group for so long. When this happens what usually results? Violence and irrationality.
I saw Mississippi Masala too. I remember the scene where Jay is talking with other Indians in a club/bar and they are lamenting the fact that they must leave. In this scence Jay admits that some Indians had a hand in being forced out of Uganda due to their behavior, views, social standing, etc.
I do enjoy this site. I did attend the TIFF this year, but I went to see KANK and Shah Rukh Khan. Next time I will be sure to see other controversial films.
Many of the victims of Idi Amin were “Africans” if it comes to that. The Indians – most of them British passport holders – escaped with their lives for the most part. The Africans – about 300,000 to 500,000 of them lost their lives in Idi Amin’s brutal rule – did not have that choice. Are you sure you know the history of Uganda under Idi Amin? A google search should help you.
Secondly, the Indians were providing a service through their entrepreneurial activities – “oppression” is hardly the appropriate word – and the Ugandan economy collapsed following their departure. After the overthrow of Idi Amin, the next government (under Museveni?) did try to get the Indians to come back. Some did but most stayed put in places like Leicester. It is true that the Indians were doing better than the Africans but it hardly follows that they were “oppressing” the Africans. I am sorry to say this but along with history you might just want to brush up on some economics.
It’s true that relations between African Kenyans and South-Asian-descended Kenyans (I’m just going to use desi from now on, if I may) haven’t always been good, and have sometimes (1982) been poisonous. I think, though, that things are now as good as they’ve been since the late 60’s. One reason is that there’s been a lot more mingling, at least in the professional classes; another is that desi contributions to Kenyan history are becoming better known. (see Awaaz, for a start) Cautious optimism is the right story, I think. (I should mention that I’m a black Kenyan)
Ghazali:
People wanted to kick out the British government, not the British people. C&L distinctly mention in Freedom at Midnight that there was no violence against the British who decided to stay behind around or after 1947. This sounds idyllic but unfortunately this was partly because Indians were too busy with internecine bloodshed.
Are you surprised? I know the Indians controlled a disproportionate share of the economy, and were seen as insular and closeted. I will not be surprised if there was a subtle racism involved. But this does not take away their basic rights. Besides they had been running the country for so long, it was stupid to throw them out when there were so few trained Africans to take their place. I am quite certain India would have descended into anarchy, if the British had not left behind enough Indians trained to push files through the corridors of North Block. Is this not the problem in Iraq too, that they have thrown out the Baathists, but there is no one to take their place? (I am NOT comparing Baathists to Indians in Kenya and I am not saying they were European lackeys. I am just pointing out they were the elite in Kenya). Lastly, what constitutional/legal precedent does it set in a newborn coutry where citizens are given 90 days to leave because the President does not like them?
There a lot of left-of-centre people here. Only they do not shout as loud :).
I like this site because most people comment based on their own experiences, and do not just burp out ideological sandwiches they ate for breakfast.
Yes, the generalizing is a bit unacademic. But I did not find any distancing. Rather, I think people generalize because sometimes they feel more familiar with the ‘material’ than they might actually be.
You brought a new perspective to the issues today. As Vivek said, I hope you stick around.
I lean towards agreeing with the comments of the filmaker on Idi Amin. My dad is from a small African country called Malawi. It was colonized by the British. According to him (and other Africans from East Africa) Indians took the place of the British. In many African countries Indians are almost always part of the elite class. Unfortunately, most Indians are known to look down on Africans and rarely socialize with them
Somehow the really terrible atrocities that were carried out on Indians in Uganda, Kenya, South Africa and in particular Fiji have to be mitigated by the left’s manufacture of indigenous grievance. Would there have been a similar attempt to understand such inhumane behavior if the perpetrators were White? A cliche, but it’s called the soft bigotry of low expectations. Even if some Indians looked down upon Africans, doesn’t what happened to them later qualify as a disproportionate response? Since when did disproportionate response become acceptable to the left?
Indians just settled in these lands as they did in other parts of the world. Usually they started with nothing but with enterprise and hard work they made themselves rich. There are several instances of immigrants arriving and economically leapfrogging the majority natives. This has often led to resentment. Even in India the Marwaris in Bihar for example. However if this resentment leads to expulsion, looting, murder and rape then it just needs to be condemned.
suresh,
If the word ‘oppression’ does not sit well with you how about ‘maintaining the status quo’
If you do not believe people can be excluded from economic opportunity maybe it is you who may need to brush up on economics.
What would you have done to equal the playing field between economically between the haves and the have nots of Uganda before Idi Amin?
Has anyone else actually read the book, “The Last King of Scotland?” If not, I’d heartily recommend you do so before jumping on the “hate it!” bandwagon.
It’s definitely not about romanticizing or even lessening Idi Amin. It’s very much about living with, and working for, a crazy man who terrifies the bejeezus out of everyone around him, and how one man in particular, through an odd kind of opportunistic butt-kiss, winds up in a position of favor.
Read it. See how it stacks up against the movie.
And since when does trying to understand atrocity have anything to do with race? Americans are fascinated by atrocity because we’re also fascinated with being the good guy. So Hotel Rwanda, Schindler’s List, and pretty much any movie that has to do with attempts at genocide is guaranteed good viewership.
The book, at least, deals with this particular subject at some length.
jilted manhood,
Unfortunately, when one ethnic group is oppressed by another ethnic group(s) they become desparate and end up supporting the loudest, most radical crackpot (in this case Idi Amin) and the result is almost always their own destruction.
Sometimes the ethnic group does not support such a crackpot, individuals outside of the ethnic group and outside of the country sometimes support such people (even in Idi Amin’s case) because they have their own agendas. Again, that ethnic group ends up suffering tremendously.
No doubt, there was and is built up resentment among some native people when immigrants succeed. This is wrong and is nothing but jealousy.
Even though there may have be instances of ‘leapfrogging,’ what about instances of exploitation? Was it O.K. for Indians to take the place of the British in many African countries and maintain the status quo just because they were given the opportunity to?