There's a problem that you've overlooked. History. India was colonized by Britain until the Indians revolted and kicked their butts out in 1947. To this day India has little use for the British.
Quinn
I'm afraid you're misinformed, to put it politely. Â Probably you watched Gandhi though? Â Well you can start here:
http://history.eserver.org/ghandi-nobody-knows.txtThe British, having made "India" out of a collection of petty principalities and given it a civil service, a railway system, a telegraph system, a financial system, a sound military, a judicial system based on common law rather medievalism, the beginnings of an industrial base, a common language and made attempts to alleviate the grossest human abuses of the caste system (resolutely opposed by Gandhi by the way), were not "kicked out" of anywhere.
The British, unlike the French and certain other countries we could name, had the sense to leave when the time came.
As you are probably no doubt aware, as soon as they left India returned to the kind of religious and ethnic genocide she was used to; 2-4 million killed in 1947-49.
Oh, and maybe you should go and read your old National Geographics to see what kind of reception the Queen gets in India.
As for your co-workers, well, I guess they figure they can tell you whatever they want and you'll have no way of evaluating it. Ask yourself how the British were able to rule when out-numbered a hundred to one? Indira Gandhi was killed by her Sikh bodyguards. In the 1880s Queen Victoria was posing with her Sikh aides de campe. Just her and them out on the lawn. They all had their swords if they wanted to do her in, no one could have stopped them.
It's easy to kick the Lion when he's down, isn't it?