JAI HO- THE PREQUEL

Following the astonishing success of the movie ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ at the Oscars, Danny Boyle has decided to make a sequel to the movie, which however should be referred to as a prequel to the ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ since it narrates the story of how the slum in Mumbai, which incidentally is the star of the movie, came into existence.

Since the post has been able to obtain the story of the proposed movie, by means we would not like to disclose, we would like to share it with the readers of the post. This way we get saved from watching the movie once it gets released and therefore do not contribute to making Danny Boyle a Millionaire at the expense of a poor India.

Clever! Isn’t it?

The story starts in the year 1757, and the battle of Plassey between nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah and the forces of the East India Company led by Robert Clive.

The British win, as they have applied the time tested formula against the Indians- the formula of stoking the greed of an opponent of the King, who back stabs the king at the crucial moment. Do the name of King Ambhi, Jaichand, Mir Jaffar ring a bell?

What follows is an open plunder of the resources of Bengal.

Robert Clive, who came to India in 1744, at the age of 18, as a ‘writer’ in the East India Company, went back to England in 1760, with a fortune of at least £300,000 and the quit-rent of £27,000 a year. He infact gave his commanding officer in his formative years a stipend of £500 a year for the rest of his life.

Remember we are talking about 1760 A.D!!

Before we begin to wonder what a ‘writer’ was supposed to mean, let me clarify that a ‘writer’ was how a clerk was designated in the East India Company. And no friends, we will not be raising the issue of the contrast of his pay and the disproportionate wealth, since we are narrating the story of a movie and not a documentary.

Anyway life was proceeding smoothly for the English rulers till the battle of Buxar in 1764. Not that it did not proceed smoothly after Buxar, but a war is a war, after all!

The English, glory be to them, won again.

Before 1764, zamindars in Bengal, Bihar & Orissa had been functionaries who merely held the right to collect revenue on behalf of the Mughal emperor and his representative or diwan in Bengal, who in turn would supervise their activity closely and ensure that they were neither lax nor overly stringent.

However, the East India Company, on being awarded the diwani or overlordship of Bengal by the empire following the Battle of Buxar in 1764, found itself short of trained administrators, especially those familiar with local custom and law. As a result, landholders found themselves unsupervised or reporting to officials; consequently the extraction of revenue proceeded unchecked without any regard for future income or local welfare.

The result was that the rulers became detached with the ruled and the intermediaries fattened their bank balance at the expense of the ruler and the ruled. In order to make up for the loss of revenue, the British or the East India Company introduced the Permanent settlement act.

The Permanent settlement act envisaged that the land tax was fixed for perpetuity, irrespective of the vagaries of nature, on which the Indian agriculture was based. So come Rain, famine or high hell, the land holder and the zamindar had to pay the fixed tax. By ensuring that lands were held in perpetuity and with a fixed tax burden, they became a very desirable commodity.

The payment of a fixed tax inspite of the yield from the fields resulted in many zamindars immediately falling into arrears.You could not collect taxes when the flood had washed away everything, could you?

The Company's policy of auction of any zamindari lands deemed to be in arrears created a market for land which previously did not exist. Many of the new purchasers of this land were Indian officials within the East India Company's government. These bureaucrats were ideally placed to purchase lands which they knew to be underassessed, and therefore profitable. In addition their position as officials gave them opportunity to quickly acquire the wealth necessary to purchase land through bribery and corruption. They could also manipulate the system to bring to sale land that they specifically wanted.

Therefore, the Indian farmer who till then produced enough to feed the country and his family, since land was religion and not a commodity, started looking towards avenues other than agriculture. Even the zamindars who had been attached with their lands, started their drift towards other sources of income.

In short, the agricultural land had now become a commodity.

The seed of the Indian slum had been laid.

Slowly but steadily the East India Company spread its tentacles all over the country. Farmers in Bengal were forced to sow Indigo, which although commercially viable for the British industry had no value for the Indian farmer. Untold misery was unleashed on the poor farmer, who was made to work under bondage and forced labour. The cultivation of Indigo ensured that the land was now unfit for any other cultivation.

The farmer who was the backbone of the Indian economy was now under enormous debt. People were looking towards the cities, since at least there could work as menial labors as there was nobody who could recognize them. The question of status and family pride could not be ignored in a status conscious socierty as India.

The coming of industrialization ensured that India from a producer economy, got converted into a supplier economy. Indian cotton fabric, which was renowned for its texture and handwork was surpassed by British machine made goods, which were mass produced and therefore extremely cheap. The British further did not provide a level playing field as unjust duties were introduced on Indian textile articles entering Britain while the British machine made goods were exempted from any duty in India.

The term 'unfair trade practices' was unknown in those days.

The sun was setting for the Indian cotton Industry.

The slums were filling up.

Danny Boyle gets lots of slum shots at this stage. Lots of poor, undernourished children and malnutrition parents.

The Indian economy was reducing the slums in London, and the slums in Mumbai …….well!!!

Dadabhai Naoroji, the great freedom fighter who made the first economic treastise on this drain of Indian money, summed it up presciently, “the English were like the sponge who sucked up the Ganges and let it off on the Thames.”


Wonder whether Danny Boyle knows about Dadabhai Naoroji? But anyway, since this not a documentary, why bother!


Then came the two World wars.

India which never had an option was dragged into a war which was fought far away from its lands and being fought for Imperial purposes. But subservient people don’t have a voice do they?

Men and material were drained away for the purpose of fighting this war. Good that nobody has made a study on the material drain in these two wars, otherwise we might have to traverse the path of documentary.

Kashmir was left as a last act of vengeance by the deceit (or intelligence, depends on your choice, movie or documentary) of the British. An act which keeps two neighbours at the throat of each other and diverts resources which could have stopped further slums from prospering.

Finally the story comes to its climax.

The interplay of greedy politicians, indifferent citizens, insensitive bureaucracy, ensures in the climax of the report of the United Nations World Food Programme in 2009, which states that 230 million people in India are undernourished, malnutrition accounts for nearly 50% of child deaths in India.

The report places India at the 94th place in the Global Hunger Index amongst 119 countries. It further informs that 43% of children (under 5 years) in the country are underweight. The figure is much higher than the global average of 25% and even higher than the sub-Saharan figure of 28%. More than 70% of the children (under 5 years) suffer from anemia.

Imagine the close up shots of under nourished children, their face emaciated, eyes sunk in holes and the standing ovations at the Kodak theatre and the number of Oscars.

The best part for this movie will obviously be the acclaim it receives from the media and the movie stars who starve for six months to get a ‘zero figure’. Unlucky people, these stars I tell you. Imagine starving for six months to get a 'zero figure' whereas a vast majority attains it as a matter of routine(facts above, in case of disbelief)

Slum dog India sells, and sells hot.

And no, we will not tell anybody that Danny Boyle is as British as the East India Company or Robert Clive, since this is not the story of a documentary film where you discuss the origin of a problem, but the story of a commercial film where you simply sell what is being demanded by the audience. Here the story of a sex worker is sold as a voyeuristic thriller.

JAI HO