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‘English did not rule India’: Elon Musk amplifies bizzare post on X, faces outrage
The world's richest man's reaction angered many social media users, including Indians who accused him of spreading hate against them.
Elon Musk is facing flak on social media after he replied to, and in turn helped amplify, a post on X that made a bizarre claim that the British never ruled India. Although the world’s richest person simply responded to the post with a ‘thinking’ emoji, Musk’s reply still faced backlash for engaging with the claim.
The original post by X user @StefanMolyneux read, “If Indians set foot in England and become English. Then the English who set foot in India became Indian. Therefore the English did not rule India. There is no such thing as ‘colonization’.” An image of several Indians and British people together, along with a few roosters, was also attached to the post.
The Tesla billionaire shared the post by replying with a “thinking face” emoji, which brought attention to the bizarre claim. Many netizens, especially Indian users, flooded Musk’s replies and rejected the claim.
Musk’s reply to the post has since received over 17 million views, while the original post has received close to 19 million views due to the X owner’s amplification.
Elon Musk faces backlash
The SpaceX founder’s reaction angered many social media users, including Indians who accused him of spreading hate against them.
One user replied, “There’s a big difference between someone legally joining Tesla with proper documents and someone invading, overthrowing you, and declaring they’ll run the company.”
“A thief broke into my house last night. He’s our newest family member now,” a second netizen responded sarcastically.
Another user wrote, “If Indians went to England, they went as students, workers or travellers and lived under British law. They did not take over the land or force the English to live under Indian rule. But when the English came to India, they came with guns, armies and cannons, and they did not come to live as Indians. They came to rule, to loot, and to control.”
Another netizen posted, “I’ve been to the USA, Canada, Germany, Belgium and other countries. Am I from all of them now?”
