Lawyer seeking apology in UK for 1919 massacre in India

What this does is, it forces people to check up what crusades were, what colonization crimes we are talking about, and what exactly happened at Jallianwala bagh. Some can really get disturbed about it, and develop animosity where none existed, whereas those who are made to feel guilty about the crimes they did not commit the issue is naturally resented. Effectively psychological divide is formed. At least, I think so.

@topffer .. I don't understand. If a son goes about raping or killing others, parents are not asked to apologize or become liable for the crime (monetarily). But if parents or grandparents have done something on which the son or grandson had no control, we can still demand apology. Where am I going wrong in understanding this?

@vandana7 I think it is never too late to apologize... and that it is not bad to learn history. I am not always convinced about colonization crimes. For example, Algeria asked us to apologize about them and we apologized. Algeria was divided in French departements and its citizens had the same rights than other French... Its independence has been a drama for millions of people who came in France, and they killed about 1 million people who stayed there, while they had guaranteed that nothing would happen to them, so I am not sure that we are the only ones who should apologize.

When people get this weird, I wonder am I mad? LOL.

@vandana7 I wonder the same thing. Or else the rest of the world has gone mad.

It ended more than 200 years ago in French colonies (we had no slaves in continental France : since the beginning of the 14th C a slave putting a foot in France was freed) and they also ask for reparations for slavery.

@silvermist .. True. Invoking feelings that cannot be expressed.

How true. But I think raking it up has nothing positive to offer.

@vandana7 Yes not only that is useless, it is rather sadistic.

I agree. It is silly to bring it up.

Thanks Valerie. Sometimes, I keep wondering why mature people do something so silly.

@vandana7 It's human nature I suppose.

Will an apology erase all that pain? And were you expecting an apology in the first place? If not, it is a political gimmick like the Ayodhya temple gimmick to polarize votes. As I see it...we as yet do not punish parents for the action of their child, even though parent was in position to monitor the behavior of the child. On the other hand, we want the present generation of Britishers to say sorry for acts of their parents - they had absolutely no control on acts of their parents as is not possible you know. How fair can that be? Mind you in the case of holocaust, most of the country participated in that segregation of jews, isolation of them, watched them die, and even pointed towards home where they were hiding for some monies. Agreed fear was the factor there. Even so, they knew something was wrong! In contrast, O'Dwyer, ordered, his assistant obeyed, the judges erred. Limited set of people who had done wrong. There were many who did right too around the same period! I think mindset of people changed after Nuremberg trials. Countries became more humane in their approach. When they have adopted that humane stance, we can't take them back, and tell them, well, you did that, feel guilty about it. We can recall our pain. We can't demand apology. If our pain moves them, then apology would be voluntary. Like love, feeling sorry should be voluntary. It can't be forced. Otherwise, it is just lip service. Would that satisfy you? Is sorry the word that helps the people? Or justice would be in helping people who have lost bread winner stand on their feet? Have Indians not gone and settled in the UK? We could be indignant and seek apology BEFORE going and settling in their parts of the world. Once we have settled there, we can't say ..now say sorry. Locals will resent, hey why do you think we let you step into our country and usurp our jobs. We felt guilty that is why. Merely because the word was not uttered didn't mean, we did not apologize. You can't demand more guilt from us. There has to be settlement of historic debt, which has happened with the acceptance of wealth jobs and whatever that Indians have taken by settling there. Forgotten in the sense, they are not as much in pain as possibly Nirbhaya's folks are. People do not remember their great grandfathers so much. I don't remember my grandfather even once in a year at times. By bringing up issues we remind people look back in history this is what happened. Agreed a lot happened. Few British women were killed around that time, which possibly led to the crime.

@Daljinder . ..But sigh they are not the abusers!!! They are not the abusers...that is what I am trying to say. A few members of their country were. But there were few good members too. A O Hume did good, Annie Besant did good. Lord Bentinck abolished sati. Then Dalhousie ..yeah the same man ...who killed Jhansi ki Rani, built railways and set up schools. Do you know that Jhansi ki rani's adopted son survived and lived in a state of poverty? And we remember Jhansi ki Rani watch tv serials and movies, but hey, Damodar's great grandson is working as a clerk in private company in Indore. We sure remember 1857 and Jhansi ki Rani. Isn't it? Even after independence we did not go in search of that family but allowed people in film industry to make money on history. Just because the wall with bullets is there does not mean we remember them with grief. It is a momentary thing. Time heals. It has healed. Living in present allows us to ensure that what is happening today can be corrected so that in future there is nothing to look back at.

@vandana7 You are missing the point. Pain of losing someone can't be erased. What they seek is atonement. For them to admit. How does it feel when an abuser says that abuse never even occurred or just shut you up because it was in the past? Put yourself in their shoes for a moment You can only bury the past when there is a past and according to them there wasn't.

It is so silly actually. I am left to wonder why couldn't the energies and efforts have been devoted towards a more fruitful objective.