Vae Victus

When Brennus the lord of the Gaul army threw his sword upon the scales, he claimed that in defeat people have no right to justice. The vanquished romans acquised. That was in the year 387 BC. Almost 2300 years later, when American politicians latched on to Rudyard Kipling's "White Man's Burden" as a noble pretext for imperialism, the context was perhaps the same. Only this time, the context had taken racial hue.

Racism, and the allied concepts of supremacism, propagates the "feeling" of superiority of one race over another. But for me, this is quite a difficult concept to grasp. For one thing, I don't quite understand the concept of race. For another, I am not sure in which field this "superiority" is being judged. My instinct tells me that it is, perhaps, technological or even cultural practices which creates the illusion of racial superiority. The statistics of asian student in american university is a sure indicator of the fact that technological knowledge cannot be owned by a race. A patent can be owned, but knowledge cannot be contained- or anti-piracy laws can always be circumvented in China.

I have always lamented the "subjugated" history of the nation I hail from. I am alarmed by how a small contingent of European troops conquered the nations and kingdoms comprising India. The british didn't even send their royal troops. We kinda got whacked by the "security troops" of a trading company? Where these europeans truely heroic giants, who smote my people hither and thither? Did they sit astride their magnificent golden steeds and strike fear into the heart of the nawabs and shahs and what-nots ( whose dynasties invaded India a few centuries ago. ) Or where they conniving balding men with gastric ulcer, kissing the feet of our Afghan/Arab/Mughal princes and then corrupting their minds with diplomacy and greed.
I honestly don't know.

But what I do know is that the fate of a conflict is decided by various parameters. And I am of the opinion that the dude with the biggest guns usually beats the crap out of the ethiopian militant with a machette. Unless the dude has been giving very ambiguous instructions by the UN. For e.g. "Seargant Big-Gun! You are a peace keeper. DO NOT open fire! I repeat DO NOT!! IGNORE THAT MAN HACKING YOU TO DEATH!!"

I am sure that there have been instances when the technologically weaker party to the conflict emerges victorious.. leading to many teary-eyed-happy-ending to those underdog war movies.
But, I am forced to ponder how that island the size of Tamil Nadu came up with that ridiculous concept of the perpetual shining sun and all! Industrial revolution, perhaps... or was it the age of exploration?