In the eighth episode of Imperial Receipts, ‘Hangover’, to be aired this Monday, Dr. Shashi Tharoor and Runjhun Sharma explore the lasting impact of colonial rule on modern-day India and the world. They discuss neo-colonialism in its digital or ‘data’ form. When it comes to technology and global finance, Dr. Tharoor argues, the North continues to dominate because these systems were built by them in the first place. As recently as a decade ago, Belgium still held more voting power at the IMF and World Bank than China, he says. But unlike the colonialism of the past, its newer forms are more reversible in the modern world.
The episode also covers India’s ongoing efforts to shed its colonial legacy, including renaming cities like Bombay to Mumbai, which Dr. Tharoor opposes, as it also destroys the brand. Dr. Tharoor adds that he personally uses ‘Bharat’ when speaking in Hindi, but ‘India’ in English, and suggests that others should do the same.
