British Legacy

The British rule had a lasting impacts on the lives of the Indian people. They
exploited the Indian territory for their own interests and left the land in more disorder
and confusion.

Thomas Macaulay (a man who is seen as the father of education system in

subcontinent) gave suggestions to the British government that, ”we must form a class
who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of
persons Indians in blood and color but English in taste, in opinions, in morals and in
intellects”.

Education was not made easily accessible for all Indians. Their attitude of
superiority shattered the confidence of the Indian people. 70 years after
independence, Pakistan remains very much a third-world country. These days the
youth of the country sometimes expresses a belief that we would have been better off
under British colonial rule. These thoughts regarding our undeveloped status clearly
shows that we are unable to menage our own affairs, and are basically promoted by
western propaganda. Our developmental and creative thoughts regarding state have
been totally demolished through this propaganda. Because at the time when India was
united the Britishers select only those people as their officials who seems to be like
them in culture, language and in taste etc

British ruled the subcontinent for a long time. They played different tactics in order
to establish British rule over the entire Indian Subcontinent. They succeeded in doing
so by playing the dirty tricks of “divide and rule”. When Pakistan got independence
from the British rule, it inherited its colonial masters’ influence. Therefore, the
country was deeply influenced by the British legacy in political and economic
spheres of life.
After the end of British rule, two countries emerged – India and Pakistan. Pakistan
was created to protect cultural, religious and political interests of Muslims of the
subcontinent. Despite the freedom from the Britishers, Pakistan remained in the grip
of their influence. In the political sphere, Pakistan since its inception, made no
serious efforts to make its Constitution; rather Pakistan adopted Indian Act of 1935
with certain amendments as an interim Constitution. However, Pakistan took nine
years to adopt its first Constitution in 1956 which was mostly been copied from 1935
Act. 1973 constitution constitution is also more like that.

Let’s discuss some impacts on Pakistan’s constitution.

 The federal type State..

 The Parliamentary type of government.

 Local government setup

 Administrative setup ( Divisions, District, Tehsil and villages)

 The nominal Head ( President)

 Article 246 (1973) center, province and concurrent list of powers.

 Still four provinces as divided by British

 Economic system (capitalistic)

The 1956 Constitution was abrogated by Iskander Mirza in 1958; then President

Ayub Khan gave the 1962 Constitution which could not survive beyond 1969.

However, in 1973, Bhutto gave a unanimous Constitution to the country. Zia ulHaq

held the Constitution in abeyance from 1977 to 1985 and then Pervez Musharraf led

the country in his own manner from 1999 to 2008. These Generals inherited the

British legacy of usurping power by the use of force.

The attitude of bureaucracy and the civil servants remains indifferent. The British

colonialists introduced the civil service in the Indian subcontinent to recruit the civil

servants and to use them for suppressing any rebellion arising against the colonialists.

This tradition is still in practice in bureaucracy. Bureaucrats rather than being the
civil servants and serving the people, are involved in malpractices disregarding their

responsibilities.

Furthermore, we inherited cultural and English language influence s well. Despite

having been written in the 1973 Constitution that “steps will be taken to make Urdu

as an official language within ten years” and the Supreme Court’s recent direction to

the Federal government to fulfill this Constitutional obligation, we are still running

after English medium schools for our kids are feel apologetic in using our national or

regional language.

That’s why we can say the British rule had a lasting impacts not only on our lives but

on our culture.