A curious thread over at SM...some brown readers are surprised that the acts of the famous Amritsar Massacre were carried by brown soldiers.

There are two issues here, first, the notion that a sense of "India" existed nationally (as opposed to among an educated literate, and often Anglicized, native elite). I will disregard that, and focus on the fact that brown did kill brown (to rephrase a maxim in the last "Planet of the Apes" film). Throughout history the enemies that are greatest are those near to you. In the case of Bengali Muslims for example, prior to 1947 those enemies where their co-ethnics, the Bengali Hindus (in particular the upper caste elite of Calcutta). In the 1940s the main redoubt of the Muslim League was in eastern Bengal where local Muslims voted their resentment against religiously different, but ethno-racially similar, people. After 1947 the "enemy" changed into the Punjabi elite of West Pakistan, co-religionists who were ethnically and racially different. My personal observation within my family is that older individuals, those who have experienced "the boot" of Hindu bhadrolok ("gentleman") domination tend to be almost nostalgic for Pakistan. In contrast, young people, especially those born after 1947 (my parents' generation) tend to be more positive toward an assertion of Bengali identity, because "the boot" they experienced was Punjabi.

In sum, hatreds and coalitions are situational, and the epicycles are far more important in many ways that the great overarching pattern. Life is more often about a clash of clans than a clash of civilizations. The Campbells will always be with us.