Now, I will not deny, that certain characters (cough Churchill cough) behaved awfully, especially with the Bengal Famine. But we need to consider the impacts short term and long term. Others here have already talked about Africa so I’m going to keep focussed on India and maybe China to an extent.

Now in the short term, events like the Indian Mutiny, The Bengal Famine and the Opium wars would do damage to these countries, no one can deny this. However we need to consider the fact that this is a continued phenomenon throughout human history. You would be hard pressed to find a single country today without millennia of bad actions.

You yourself are Chinese, should you now walk on by and kiss the feet of the Tibetans?

Man oppressing man is no unique to the imperial powers. What is however is the vast and amazing changes in wealth that transformed the world during this time period. Steam shipping, telegrams, electricity. China herself benefits heavily from technology it has copies of the West, particularly in its car industry. Should we get repatriated for them copying our idea? No.

Conclusively this one dimensional narrative of “Imperialism Bad” is erroneous. But regardless of its moral value it is still not a justification for people to live in our countries nor for repatriation. The sins of the father are not the sins of the son and no one deserves anything.
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