by CHE GUEVARA
Ernesto Che Guevara’s impressions of India, recorded after a visit in 1959.
From Cairo we flew directly into India, a country of 390 million inhabitants, with an area of more than three million square kilometres.
The drama of the land is not felt here as much as in Egypt, given that the conditions of the soil are far more superior than those that obtain in that desert country, but social injustice has resulted in an arbitrary distribution of land where a few have a lot and many have nothing.
India was “colonised” by England between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th. This did not, of course, happen without great struggles for independence, but the military effectiveness of the English proved decisive. The flourishing handicrafts industry suffered from the impact of a colonial structure that was interested in destroying the economic independence of the Indians and making them eternally indebted to the Empire. These conditions prevailed throughout the 19th century and during part of the present one [the 20th century, with] the country sporadically convulsed by rebellions that drowned in the innocent blood of the people.
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