Anger over past, indifference meet queen’s death in India

By KRUTIKA PATHI and BHUMIKA SARASWATI
Associated Press

NEW DELHI (AP) — Just hours before news of Queen Elizabeth II’s death spread, Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered a fiery speech urging India to shed its colonial ties in a ceremony to rename a boulevard that once honored King George V.  It was a clear sign that once the largest of Britain’s colonies that endured two centuries of imperial rule has moved on. The queen’s death provoked sympathies from some while for a few others, it jogged memories of a bloody history under the British crown. Among most regular Indians, the news was met with an indifferent shrug. Colonial rule is remembered for the extraordinary violence and suffering, from famines and economic exploitation to ultimately an unprecedented level of bloodshed in the partition of India and Pakistan.