पुस्तकात बोस्टन टी पार्टी आहे पण फूमेन अफू पार्टी का नाही?.. Humen Opium Party@184

 #HumenOpiumParty184

विकिपीडिया सांगतो:

"The destruction of opium at Humen began on 3 June 1839 and involved the destruction of 1,000 long tons (1,016 t) of illegal opium seized from British traders under the aegis of Lin Zexu, an Imperial Commissioner of Qing China..."

 सौजन्य : विकीपिडीया

माझ्या ९वीच्या इतिहासाच्या पुस्तकात (१९७३-७४) बोस्टन टी पार्टी, १७७३ बद्दल पुष्कळ माहिती होती पण मी आयुष्यात फूमेन (उच्चार सुद्धा नक्की माहित नाही) अफू पार्टीबद्दल कधी वाचले नव्हते.

२०१७साली ब्रिटिश साम्राज्यावर घणाघाती हल्ला करणारे पुस्तक ('Inglorious Empire') शशी थरूर यांनी लिहले.

फायनान्शियल टाइम्स (FT) चे व्हिक्टर म्यॅले (Victor Mallet) त्या पुस्तकाच्या परिक्षणात लिहतात :

"...Summoning evidence from British and American historians as well as Indian thinkers, Tharoor charts the destruction of pre-colonial systems of government by the British and their ubiquitous ledgers and rule books; the punitive taxation of farmers and mismanagement of famines in which millions died; the imposition of laws against homosexuality and sedition used to this day by authoritarian Indian governments; and the extreme protectionism (in everything from textiles to shipbuilding) that crippled India’s world-class manufacturing sectors and its pre-existing international trade networks. “Britain’s Industrial Revolution,” he writes, “was built on the destruction of India’s thriving manufacturing industries.”

The statistics are worth repeating, the more so because India is now often neglected in favour of China when historians recall the economic dominance of Asia. When the East India Company was established in 1600, Britain accounted for 1.8 per cent of global gross domestic product and India for 23 per cent. India was one of the richest and most industrialised economies. In 1750, India and China together accounted for nearly three-quarters of world industrial output, but India “was transformed by the process of imperial rule into one of the poorest, most backward, illiterate and diseased societies on earth by the time of our independence in 1947”. By then, India’s share of world GDP was just 3 per cent, while Britain’s was three times as high..."

त्याच ब्रिटिश साम्राज्याने मुंबईतील मूठभर व्यापारी हाताशी धरून चीनला अफूचे व्यसन लावले. अमिताव घोष यांनी त्याविषयावर तीन कादंबऱ्या लिहल्या (opium war trilogy).

घोष म्हणतात:

 “The first opium war was a very Indian war. It was fought by Indian sepoys and largely funded by merchants from Bombay, using many weapons developed by Indian soldiers and kings such as Hyder Ali, fighting against the British army. Yet, the opium war is hardly talked about in India, unlike China, where the war is remembered and so is the Indian contribution…

... We have forgotten the Opium Wars, if ever we remembered it. But China has not. They are a civilisation with great historical consciousness, it is something they pay great attention to. The war is extensively memorialised in China. And they are intensely aware that Indians participated in the war, and against them.”

म्हणजे भारत-चीन मधील प्राचीन काळापासून चालत आलेले सौहार्दपूर्ण संबंध ब्रिटिशांनी अफूच्या व्यापारापोटी बिघडवून टाकले, ज्याची किंमत आज स्वतंत्र भारत मोजत आहे.