‘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 Tesla billionaire shared the post by replying with a “thinking face” emoji. (Image: AFP/@StefanMolyneux via X)

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.

“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?”