The spiritual head of the
Church of England has launched an extraordinary defence of the British Raj
Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who
officially leads nearly 80 million Anglicans worldwide, told a British Muslim
lifestyle magazine that the British experiment in India was an example of caring
colonialism.
On Sunday, the comments were criticised by observers as
a patronising justification of imperial Britain's grip on
India.
Sources said it was surprising that Williams, a long-term
critic of the Anglo-American 2003 invasion of Iraq, was getting into dangerous
historical territory such as the British Raj.
It is one thing to take over a territory
and then pour energy and resources into administering it and normalising it
He added that "it is another thing to go in on the assumption that a
quick burst of violent action will somehow clear the decks and that you can move
on and other people will put it back together – Iraq, for example".
clipped from: timesofindia.indiatimes.com