Published 11:33 IST, January 20th 2020
Was East India Co looking for China?: Tarek Fatah slams Saif Ali Khan's 'no India' theory
"I don’t think there was a concept of India till perhaps the British gave it one," Saif Ali Khan said in an interview. Journalist-Author Tarak Fatah replied
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Saif Ali Khan's controversial statement claiming that 'there was no concept of India until the British came' has got everyone's attention on the Internet. Many schooled the actor and gave out historic facts to prove that his statement wasn't right. Journalist-Author Tarek Fatah also took to his Twitter handle to oppose and mocked Saif Ali Khan, 'a self-confessed history buff'.
Saif had said, "But when people say this is history, I don’t think this is history. I am quite aware of what the history was. I don’t think there was a concept of India till perhaps the British gave it one. I don’t think there is really any constructive point in arguing about loudly, provided you yourself know why you’re doing it."
Here's Tarek Fatah's tweet
Fatah has taken a sarcastic line on Saif Ali Khan's statement, raising how the herald of colonial imperialism was the East India Company, with India in its name itself. He also goes on to cite that Vasco D'Gama had sailed east searching for India.
Bollywood ‘history buff’ #SaifAliKhan claims “there was no concept of ‘India’ until the British came.”
— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) January 19, 2020
Yeah right. French East India Company was about China & Vasco D’Gama went to Fiji.
Last time he invoked he invoked ‘history’ he named his son ‘Timur’
pic.twitter.com/pyZXERUQy0
Touché!
— Aarti Tikoo Singh (@AartiTikoo) January 19, 2020
Saif triggers debate
Saif Ali Khan's statements have triggered an almighty debate online, with netizens highlighting various technicalities while agreeing that India - as a concept or otherwise - has a long and rich history.
You present poor logic while trolling him. He is right there was no India. There is no coherent India. It was bits and pieces of different nations and then a term of convenience used by British commonwealth, a misnomer nonetheless
— Kashmir Deserves Freedom (@Basheer62967081) January 20, 2020
Tbh! Both of you are partially correct, Europeans used to call the region India, arabs used to the call the people living east of Indus River call hindus, but the people living here never saw themselves as a country until the late 19th century.
— Pavan (@indianfromhyd) January 19, 2020
This conceptualisation of a "nation" only happened around independence. India as a geopolitical entity with boundaries and states only came into being after the independence and the partition.
— A (@sklubaskaswenn) January 19, 2020
Before that there were independent kingdoms that existed under the British empire. How is that unclear is beyond me? This constitution was adopted by accessing all these independent kingdoms into a nation state. And it's consistent history was only conceptualised around/post 1947
— A (@sklubaskaswenn) January 19, 2020
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11:33 IST, January 20th 2020