𝑾𝒉𝒚 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝑬𝒖𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒆? 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮?
A Norwegian journalist asked India's MEA Secretary why we should trust India. It is a question worth answering, but first, a question worth asking back. By what authority does Europe ask it? This is not about one journalist or one country. It is about a continent that built its modern wealth, its modern borders, and its modern moral vocabulary on three centuries of conduct that, by Europe's own present standards, would today be called crimes against humanity. And which still asks the rest of the world to prove itself. So this post runs on two questions, asked in every line: 𝑾𝒉𝒚 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝑬𝒖𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒆? 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮? For nearly 400 years, European powers, Portugal, Spain, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Denmark-Norway, shipped an estimated 12 million Africans across the Atlantic into slavery. Cities, banks, universities were built on this wealth. 𝑾𝒉𝒚 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒕𝒓...