For the last three years, an old word has been renewed, not without sufficient reason, “tyranny”. A very close relative is “intolerance”.
Much has been made of this word by historians and politicians when discussing British rule in India (1757-1947). But as I wasn’t born then, I wouldn’t know.
On the whole, though, I think the British, by simply leaving 99.9 per cent of the population alone for 99.9 per cent of the time, couldn’t have been all that tyrannical. They might have been greedy, rapacious, hypocritical, racist and all of that.
But tyrannical? Hardly. Tyranny happens when the government intrudes and controls
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