Are Indians still obsessed with the Raj?

Or was that big yawn at the coronation for real

A man puts bunting up in south London ahead of the coronation. Photo: Rashmee Roshan Lall

On this substack Joining the Dots, my former BBC colleague Henri Astier offered a sharp and insightful riposte to my earlier piece on India’s pointedly big yawn at Charles’ big moment.

“From this ‘don’t-mention-the-coronation’ mentality,” Henri wrote, “I conclude that Indian nationalists are still obsessed with the Raj. If they were truly over it, they would not make a point of ignoring these ceremonial vestiges of empire.”

It’s hard to disagree. We all know that indifference is always more hurtful than hatred, so why isn’t India schooling itself to ignore Britain? More to the point, why isn’t it automatically attuned to ignoring its former colonial master?

Considering that India now meets Britain as an equal (or possibly, as the rhetoric goes, as superior to the old coloniser) why are Indians not more blasé about ol Blighty? Or, to use the idea advanced by writer, former diplomat and politician Shas…