A brief exercise in imperial vocabulary.
Imagine 1947.
The British Empire, preparing to leave India, announces that Bombay will become the site of a new Jewish state.
The port, the commercial districts, the surrounding villages — all carefully considered by gentlemen in London.
One small administrative inconvenience:
Millions of Indians already live there.
Naturally, they object.
Westminster is shocked by this sudden outbreak of nationalism.
Fortunately, the Empire has a vocabulary for such occasions.
After all, in actual British parliamentary records:
Jewish residents of Palestine were called Palestinian Jews.
Jewish refugees arriving outside immigration quotas were called illegal immigrants.
Armed Irgun militants fighting British authority were called terrorists.
And armed Indian revolutionaries fighting British rule?
Also terrorists.
Quite the versatile little word.
Now imagine Bombay refusing partition.
Would its inhabitants become freedom fighters defending their homeland?
Or extremists obstructing an internationally approved peace process?
Would resisting the transfer of their own city constitute terrorism?
Would accepting it constitute civilisation?
And when yesterday's insurgents eventually became tomorrow's government, would the diplomatic invitations arrive with entirely new terminology?
The British Empire was rather accomplished at administering this linguistic transformation.
First, draw the borders.
Then classify the inhabitants.
Then announce a regrettable breakdown of law and order.
Finally, depart with a solemn lecture on the importance of peaceful coexistence.
The genius of imperial administration was never merely deciding who owned the land.
It was deciding whose resistance deserved a respectable name.
History might have looked extraordinarily different had Bombay been selected.
But one institution would have remained reassuringly familiar:
The British Department of Naming Other People's Problems.
The Empire left. The vocabulary survived.
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