Idi Amin'S Uganda - Account by Niranjan Desai
--Quick run of the account--
Asians at that time ran most of the business in Uganda and were one of the most prosperous middle class.This was the cause of some resentment in local populace.
1) 4th August 1972, Uganda Leader outlawed all asians, later modified to include only Indians, Pakistanis and Britishers. His quote "
Asians milked the cow but did not feed it"
2) Niranjan Desai along with N.Mukherjee were assigned to Kampala in relation to the extradition of Indians by MEA.
Fun note :
Desai was initially not allowed entry and was forced to board the plane back to kenya. Fearing the embarrassment it would cause to the ministry in the press if news of this leaks ,he managed to convince one of the Kenyan immigration officers, one of whom he recognized to stay there for a bit longer and went to Uganda
via land route.
3) There were restrictions posted on the Asian community as in they could not sell their business, cannot take more than one suitcase each with them. Asian employed a variety of methods like buying a round class ticket and latter cancelling it, smuggling it in jewelry , posting jewelry via postal mail etc . Similar to what happened in India during demonetization.
4) Indian government used extensively the service of Gujrati AIR , which was listened religiously by the community there for all details , procedures etc regarding the departure.
5) Indian and British government reached an understanding where any Indians holding British passport will be given visa be Britan.
Fun note :
Some of the indians who wished to take the sea route to india were transported via train from kampala to mombasa [port city] . On the way they were harassed by Ugandan soldiers who for one pretext or another took even their meager belongings.The Indian government then asked Desai to accompany them in order to prevent that from happening. When desai accompanied them he was stopped by a Captain [who was friendly to india as he had done a short course there], during furnishing his credentials and chatting with the captain,
it was found that a gold chain was snatched from an elderly Goan women in the back carriages by a soldier.
Our guy complained to the captain and got it retrieved. Fearful of reprisal by the soldier who stole in , Desai
invited the captain for drinking and drank with him all night long.
5) Many people including the Chief Justice , popular anchors, opposition leaders were killed under the Amin orders.
6) The economy collapsed immediately after the Asians departure.Food shortages,essential goods shortages became common. Unemployment rose sky high.
7) Some indians took permission from Ugandan government to export their cars to india.
While Uganda government initially agreed they later stopped the process without any explanation.
Desai got in an heated correspondence with the Ugandan government over the matter due to which he was declared persona non grata.
8) 52,000 Asians departed out of which 29 K went to Britan,11 K to India,5 K to Canada.
9) The asians were settled in a camp in Britan but soon they used their business skills and set up "patels corner" in Britan . The british still gives their example of sucessfull immigrats who assimilated and made positive contributions to the British economy and role models for all other immigrants
10) Desia was sent back to Uganda despite his protest as amabassodors after the regime has changed in 1987. The economy had virtually collapsed and uganda resembled more like 1950's east africa.
Last Fun Fact :
"The Last king of Scotland" movie is about Amin.
-------Main point to note :
Desai criticized the Indian government reponse to the crisis. He Says it should have raised this matter in International forums, had Uganda sanctioned. He says this response was on par with the indian govt. sentiment at that time that indian immigrants were not India's responsibility.
This was perpetuated by Nehru sentiment that Indian immigrant should not look to india for help but assimilate in the host country.
This perception of Indian state was continued by Indira gandhi but soon changed when Rajiv Gandhi came to power and was reflected in India's response to Fiji's crisis which i will write about soon.
I'm reading these:
1-Saving Capitalism:For the Many not the few
2-1984
3-Animal Farm
4-Atlas Shrugged(Will start it soon)
Has anyone read any of these before?
Atlas Shrugged and 1984 are particularly treated as the bible of Libertarianism.I'll hopefully move onto Anarchist literature next.
Animal farm is brilliant. Haven't read the others.
Atlas shrugged is by Ayn Rand who i do not hold favourably