Jameela Jamil slams British people as ‘most evil in history’
Jameela Jamil has criticised British colonialism, calling Britons the 'most evil people in history'.
The Good Place star, who was born in London and is of Pakistani and Indian descent, was speaking about her character Tahani during a recent episode of the Yestergays podcast.
“I had to make Tahani more of a b**ch. Americans think British people are so sweet, which is crazy because British people are truly the most evil people in history,” she said.
The former BBC presenter, who now lives in California, added that ‘Britain is like Thanos (the genocidal Marvel Comics villain), we colonised the world.
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“They owe £43 trillion to India alone.”
Economist Utsa Patnaik used nearly two centuries of data on tax and trade to estimate that Britain drained nearly $45 trillion from India during the period 1765 to 1938. British colonialism in India lasted nearly 200 years, from 1757 to 1947, and developed in two stages.
Are Britons the 'most evil people in history'?
The first stage of colonialism, Company Rule (1757 to 1858), was led by the East India Company, a private trading company.
It used its own army to conquer territory, collect taxes and control trade in exchange for profit.
After the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the British government ended Company Rule.
The second stage, known as the British Raj (1858 to 1947), placed India under direct rule by the British Crown. A formal colonial government was created and Britain controlled India's politics, economy, and resources until independence in 1947.
'There’s literally a race war happening now'
Jamil, who is married to British singer James Blake, went on to say that there is currently a ‘race war’ happening in Britain.
Annual Home Office data shows race hate crimes rising by about six percent a year.
“Britain is f**ked. It doesn’t feel as though I’m going back to some haven. There’s literally a race war happening now,” she said.
“Brexit paved the way for American chaos,” Jamil added.
Circling back to her on-screen character Tahani, she said she 'butted heads' with the director Michael Schur because he wanted to make her wealthy British character 'more likeable'.
“I was, like, ‘British people, especially rich British people, aren't likeable to anyone, they're horrible, they're awful’... he went with the passive aggressive b**chy version,” she said.
In an interview last year, Jamil explained why she had moved to California like Harry and Meghan.
“I went over there because I was sick of England,” she said on the Travel Secrets podcast. “[I was sick of] being made to feel at 28 that my time was up, being told to reinvent myself. I've never heard of a man being told he needs to reinvent himself in his 20s.
“I'd been told for 17 years that my 15 minutes [of fame] is going to be up soon. At what point are we going to stop panicking women? It's so preposterous. I was offended by the way I was being treated, so I went to America.”
Anish Vij