What do British school history books say about the British Raj and colonialism in general? Are Jallianwalla Bagh and the various famines even mentioned? If so, how are they depicted? I am curious to hear from those who have lived through the British education system.
They have sophisticated ways to disclose their sins and sound unapologetic at the same time. Its not a jobs of simple minds to read what they say/teach and what they mean.
Eton, the Raj and modern India
By Alastair Lawson
BBC News
"While we hold onto India, we are a first rate power. If we lose India, we will decline to a third rate power. This is the value of India." So spoke
Lord Curzon, one of 11 viceroys of British India (from 1898 to 1905) who was educated at Eton College, one of England's top private schools.
The Eton display will feature the good, the bad and the ugly
The school also prides itself on providing five governor-generals who served in India, and three high commissioners after independence.
Now the strong links between the famous "playing fields of Eton" - attributed as a key reason by the Duke of Wellington for Britain's victory in the Battle of Waterloo - and the Raj will be celebrated at an exhibition at the school, due to be staged in April.
The aim of the display is to reveal the benefits of the Raj - while exposing its warts as well.
Benefits of colonialism
"Eton has had a link with India since the early days of British colonialism to the present," says the event organiser, Andrew Robinson, who teaches history at the school.
"Those links have been various and have worked both ways. Since the middle 19th century, Indians have come to Eton, and many do so now.
"India has been the place for the Raj, and for business, and for mission - it remains the case that many Etonians wish to travel there, possibly to put something back so far as the relationship has gone," he said.
Mr Robinson says that he sometimes encourages his pupils to look upon British rule in India in much the same way that contemporary Britons should look upon Roman rule in most of what is now England and Wales.
Colonial rule in both cases brought benefits, he argues. In India the positives included a unifying influence in the country, a functioning civil service and a basic infrastructure.
"I like to think in India I find traces of what some have called the love affair between our two countries, stronger and more durable than the at times violent relationship of rulers and ruled.
ETONIANS' VIEWS
In pictures: Young Etonians talk about the Raj
"In teaching British India at school, it is important not to obscure the warts in the portrait, but we should not perhaps ignore the plus points either, " he says.
Mr Robinson has been gathering documents, photographs, memorabilia and film footage - from old boys or their families - for next month's display.
Artefacts and documents rarely before seen in the public domain have been unearthed, including a picture of the Viceroy, Lord Linlithgow, riding his horse in 1939 - the day that he announced that India, like Britain, was at war with Germany.
Lord Linlithgow did not consult the Indian army before making his announcement.
Mr Robinson did not have to look too hard though to find exhibits for his display.
About turn
The school itself already has a large collection of portraits, sculpted busts and private correspondence from old boys who served in India.
Eton's connections with India continue to this day
It all amounts to an intriguing record of Old Etonians who served in India over the centuries.
Lords Curzon's pith helmet, lent by his family, is in the exhibition, as are artefacts relating to Lord Cornwallis, Governor General of India after defeating the forces of Tipu Sultan in 1792.
That victory represented a major about turn in Cornwallis's career, because he was blamed by many Britons for losing the Battle of Yorktown in 1781 which led to American independence.
Also on display are invitations to 4 June parties - traditional school functions - held by Lord Curzon in Simla, the British summer capital.
In 1901, 14 Old Etonians attended.
"But it would be misleading to say that Eton provided the people who ran the Raj: we certainly provided our fair share of leaders, but the day-to-day work of administering British India was not done by Old Etonians," Mr Robinson says.
The exhibition features an interview with Gaj Singh II, Maharajah of Jodhpur, who attended the school in the 1960s.
There is a memorial at Eton to Princes Victor and Frederick, Maharajah Duleep Singh's two sons who were at Eton in the 1870s.
The Punjabi maharajah was much admired by Queen Victoria. "Those eyes and those teeth are too beautiful," she is reported to have written.
Good, bad and ugly
Photographs have been discovered of Kumara Mangalam, chief of staff of the Indian military in the 1960s.
There is also correspondence from Peter Lawrence, an Eton teacher who taught at The Doon School, one of the best known private schools in India during the 1930s and 1940s. At that time the school's headmaster was AE Foot, also an Etonian.
Portrait of Field Marshal Lord Roberts of Kandahar
Eton has links with many other private schools in India today, such as Mayo College in the state of Rajasthan.
"The display features the good, the bad and the ugly," says Mr Robinson.
There is the diary entry from 1858 by a young man who had been at Eton, who wrote: 'What fun it is to shoot mutineers. It's almost like shooting partridges.' "
There are old photographs of Etonians going on tiger shoots, alongside new photographs of Etonians taking time during their gap years to help in poverty alleviation projects.
"It is this kind of work, the work of the future - rather than the successes and failures of the past - which most pupils now want to devote their energies," says Mr Robinson.
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