Revisionist History

Aditi Bhattacharjee

I want to [   ] wake up to [   ] a day

my people are [   ] not  [   ] mourning

has become second  [   ]  nature

   is full        of dying [   ] and becoming

mulch in my garden so [   ] rich

      with [   ] loss and tears

from [   ] the gods

who know only to [   ] cry

not [   ] protect 

the sovereign   they say [   ] over and [   ] over

come morning    come when [   ] the sun

is behind    the clouds and all     they 

will say is [   ] God save the [   ] Queen

    taught us     to be    [   ] proper humans

drink tea        and stop [   ] worrying

is a fool’s errand       is for   [   ] fools

fight    back while history     is written

by winners who [   ] steal       Kohinoor

cotton  indigo  opium  blood  poppy        

 [   ] rice  tears  spices

make everything           better [   ]

       in a matter of [   ] moments

when I wake up     to watch [   ]  mothers’

peace returning I'll say [   ] don’t worry        

all of our [   ] struggle was [   ] not

for naught       we are the  [   ] cool kids

tomorrow will figure out  [   ] they

wanted      what [   ] we had

so they snatched [   ] all they could

       to test  [   ] our resilience

is our [   ] privilege is [   ] our karma

is at their door        asking [   ]

for its pound         of flesh      now

is the [   ] time    for our [   ] reckoning

   up [   ] will find      that they are still [   ] wanting

what    we have [   ]

Over a 200-year period, the British government stole from India through the presence of East India Company. Between 1880 and 1920 which was the height of the British imperial power, 165 million excess deaths happened in India which is more casualty than experienced by the Soviet Union, Maoist China and North Korea combined. 

Setting up a legal measure to plunder the riches out of India they taxed the royal families and princely states of the country to then buy India’s tea, cotton, silk, indigo, jute, gold, rice, spices, gems and artefacts of national and historic importance. Indian lives were so discounted that they caused an anthropogenic disaster, causing the Bengal famine in 1943 which left 2.1-3 million dead on account of shortage of rice as it was being actively shipped out of India, either to feed British soldiers stationed in various fronts during WWII or to earn through exports to other countries.

Over the years post-independence, several national and international delegates have raised the question of an apology and reparations due by the British government but nothing has been forthcoming so far.

Aditi Bhattacharjee is an Indian writer, currently pursuing an MFA in Writing at The New School, New York. Her work has appeared or is upcoming in Lunch Ticket, Evocations Review, Vagabond City, The Remnant Archive, Pile Press, SLAB and elsewhere. She is interested in war histories and fun space facts.