Flavia, it’s reductive to blame oppressive structures within other cultures entirely on colonizers. The caste system? We had these problems before the whites came. We had these problems before the Mughals came. Frankly, it’s insulting to lay the blame entirely on whites — it absolves US of OUR responsibility for the crimes of caste. All we’re saying is that whites aren’t responsible for every problem in the world, which is pretty much what you said in your OP.

I’ve never written a single word about the caste system in India. I simply said colonialism exacerbated a great deal of issues between different minorities around the world. I have little knowledge (merely superficial) about the way British colonialism manifested in India, so I would never say a word about it. When I do google the topic (as the other person suggested), I find stuff like this. Is the book I just linked to accurate? I have no idea which is why, I insist, I do not write about India. However, there were many links in my google results that attempted to analyze the situation in present day India in the context of colonial history. While these links might be wrong, they lead me to believe I am not the only person looking at history from this lens.

This approach might be wrong in the case of India and you are better qualified than I am to make that judgement. However, this approach serves me to understand the politics of the place where I live and how Europe approaches the rest of the world.

Also, understanding history and root causes doesn’t mean we hold no responsibility for our problems. We can simultaneously acknowledge historical wrongs while working to fix the present. 

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