Congratulations on publishing "Britain needs to show contrition about the Raj's depredations (DNA, August 10, by Rajeev Srinivasan). Actually when CWG is in such a mess, a question arises: if Commonwealth as relevant in the 21st century? As per Wikipedia, "The Commonwealth of Nations, usually known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of 53 independent member states. Most of them were formerly parts of the British Empire. They co-operate within a framework of common values and goals, as outlined in the Singapore Declaration. These include the promotion of democracy, human rights, good governance, the rule of law, individual liberty, egalitarian-ism, free trade, multilateralism, and world peace.

Actually looking at the history of Britishers, one feels that the Commonwealth seems to have been created by Britishers to maintain their influence on these countries even after their independence, in an intelligent and diplomatic way, through these high sounding words. So that everything looks normal and good. However, the concept itself means that wealth of all these countries is common. It would mean use of wealth of one country by other countries who were slaves of Britishers. Essentially, it would mean that Britishers can have a right on the wealth of these countries. And these countries need not be asked to return the money which they have looted. The estimate of $10 trillion is only the current value of items looted from India. If we combine the total from all 53 countries then this will be much higher.

A serious look into last couple of years will give one some interesting observations. The UK and their various organisations have carried out various "Goodwill developing" exercises in the past through various Indian organisations. Thus as soon as the budget for commonwealth games was increased, Britain made an announcement that it supports move for India to become a member of the UN Security Council. (The budget was presented on July 6, 2009 and Britain expressed support for India two-three days later). When Pak-trained terrorists attacked Taj Hotel, British prime minister visited India and Pakistan. What for? Just to make us realise that England is still acting as big brother! About 10 small countries or states viz. Pitcairn, Kaman island, Falkland, Tuckers and Kakos, Gibraltar, Manter-serat, Bermuda, Anguilla, British virgin Island, Cent Helena are still slaves of or are under their control. Why and what for? If they are serious about Commonwealth, then they should return all the things which they have looted in the past 300 years or so from these 53 countries and which are lying in their museums and secret warehouses, and also as personal collections. Recently, when Indians demanded Kohinoor, the British PM denied it. Why? Is it not against the spirit of COMMON + WEALTH?

However, in this era of 21st century, does it make a sense to carry over the past memory of slavery with us by associating with this organisation? Does it have any relevance except for serving the interest of Britain to continue to make these countries realise that they were its slaves in the past? Except for these games, what this organisation has done for our country, say at the time of war with China and Pakistan or at the time of flood or drought?

Actually, a book entitled "Freedom of India - A big Hoax" by Ram Narayanan in 1970, (enclosed herewith) shows the history of Commonwealth and the original ideas so much so that unfortunately even our great leaders gave tremendous importance to this organisation at the time of independence. It is interesting to note that if one searches for the phrase "Relevance of Commonwealth in today's world" in Google, then one finds several sites. There are many links which show that this agency is not relevant now and/or should be modified. In many cases, surveys have been conducted to know whether this agency is relevant now and people in some countries have openly come out against it Hence, there is a need to start a healthy academic debate and a survey to find out people's opinion in our country about the relevance of this agency in the modern era. Particularly, when India is moving towards becoming a superpower, it does not make much sense to continue with commonwealth any longer.

— Dr Surendra Singh Pokharna, Ahmedabad