AWARD winning writer and historian William Dalrymple has critised prime minister David Cameron over his visit to Amritsar, the site of the massacre of Sikhs by British troops in 1919.
In a recent interview with the Times he reportedly said: “I don’t think he should have gone to Amritsar on a trade mission. That was a mistake and it would have been a catastrophe if he had apologised while trying to sell goods to the Indians. It would have looked very cynical.
"But having gone there, he should have said nothing, rather than just calling the massacre a ‘monstrosity’. My Indian friends all thought it was all an exercise to sell more British fighter jets,” Dalrymple, who lived on a farm outside Delhi for ten years, said.
Dalrymple, one of the co-founders and co-directors of the annual Jaipur Literature Festival revealed that India's young generation have changed their view on Britain and is now looking to America: “They regard us as a spent force. In reality we may still be a fairly major power but the Indians prefer to think of us as has-beens.
"They believe we have had our day. There is pleasure in seeing Britain’s power dwindling and the old Empire being humiliated. They almost enjoy our decline. They loved the Olympics but, equally, just before the event, there were endless articles about how our facilities wouldn’t be good enough.”
