Moments of Permanence - Some things make the world a better place

About Some things make the world a better place

Previous Entry Some things make the world a better place Apr. 1st, 2011 @ 10:33 pm Next Entry
The East India Company. The British one. If you know anything about world history in the last, oh, four hundred years, you know of the East India Company. The world's first multinational corporation, the one that conquered entire countries and triggered wars to force widespread drug addiction on others.

It had its own army. It was a major force - at one point it generated half of world trade and was the employer of one third of the British workforce. It more-or-less controlled India entirely.

It is now owned by an Indian.

This? This makes the world a better place and should have been more widely reported, since I only just found out.

Maybe global warming isn't pollution-related at all - maybe it's caused by the friction generated by hundreds, if not thousands, of imperialistic, oppressive, colonialist English East India Company men rolling in their graves.

If I had access to a time machine, I now have a new use I would put it to: finding the most dickish of them (one would be so spoilt for choice), and telling them, preferably on their deathbeds, that one day their company would be owned by an Indian.
Tags: ,

Leave a comment
[User Picture Icon]
From:[personal profile] copracat
Date: April 1st, 2011 02:45 pm (UTC)
(Link)
There never has been and never will be a pwning as awesomely complete as that.
[User Picture Icon]
From:[personal profile] sami
Date: April 2nd, 2011 01:18 am (UTC)
(Link)
I KNOW RIGHT

It's like, he comes across in the article as quite a cool dude, but I don't care if that owner guy is in all other respects a total douche, he is awesome for having done this.

I was grinning so hard I NEARLY UNZIPPED MY HEAD.
[User Picture Icon]
From:[personal profile] lanterne_rouee
Date: April 1st, 2011 03:57 pm (UTC)
(Link)
That is one of the coolest turns of events ever. Good news never gets promoted like it should. Thanks for posting this.
[User Picture Icon]
From:[personal profile] sami
Date: April 2nd, 2011 01:19 am (UTC)
(Link)
YOU ARE VERY WELCOME.

It is so utterly awesome I feel like EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW IT.
From:[identity profile] trs80.ucc.asn.au
Date: April 3rd, 2011 05:16 pm (UTC)
(Link)
Not that it's not a nice story if true, but various sources (yes, Wikipedia among them) claim the company was wound up in 1874 by the East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act. Admittedly parts of that act were repealed in 1960 http://www.vakilno1.com/bareacts/Laws/The-British-Statutes-Application-To-India-Repeal-Act-1960.htm but I don't think that made it come back into existence.
(Reply)
(Leave a comment)
Top of Page Powered by Dreamwidth Studios