India, March 6 -- Edwin Lutyens has been expelled from Rashtrapati Bhavan, the iconic structure he designed. His bust has been cast into one of our substandard museums, and its place has been taken by a bust of C Rajagopalachari. The exchange, we are told, signals India's "freedom from the mentality of slavery". Is this "decolonisation"?

The idea behind decolonisation is that British rule was so dominating that it "denationalised" Indians, leaving them unaware or even ashamed of their heritage, and turned them into "mimic men" who slavishly imitated their colonial masters. Thus, to truly be "free", the theory goes, Indians need to "shed the vestiges of the colonial mindset". But even the slightest reflection shows that this idea is deepl...