Dishonorable Kingdom of British over the ruling of India - An era of darkness

When we speak about British rule in India, we start with slavery, corruption, exports, dividing people into classes, and differences between Hindu-Muslim religions. But there is a quite long list of atrocities done by the British to United India. There are more cons than pros. Let’s talk about a few of them here divided into chapters.

 

In this first chapter, we set out the theory of draining India by which India was governed for the benefit of British and the rise of 200 years financed by India. The effect was to commercially ruin India’s economy with the exploitation of British Empire.

Mr. Shashi Tharoor, an Indian former international civil servant, diplomat, politician, writer, and public intellectual forcefully argues that colonial rule not only impoverished India, it also enfeebled it.

The argument of Tharoor supports Naoroji’s Theory. In 1867, Dadabhai Naoroji pointed forward the theory of 'drain of wealth' in which it was stated that Britain completely draining India with a loss of 200-300 million pounds of revenue.

In the second chapter comes the historical parallels like the unification achieved by the Ashoka emperors during 268-242 BC and Aurangzeb during 1658-1707 AD. Tharoor argues that India would have become united without the intervention of the British and throughout history, there was an impulsion of unity.

We would have entirely accomplished the Indian ruler for what the British had done and their rule over most of the sub-continent.

Chapter three describes the pre-colonial destruction by the British system, including ledgers and regulations that are not designed much for the change or the reform to impose India on itself.

Tharoor’s proposal for the parliamentary system Post-Independence was based on the British parliament model. From the start, it is unsuited to the Indian conditions and responsible primarily for many nations’ principles and political ills.

The 4^th Chapter speaks about the language and the bond between the Hindu-Muslim religions. United India was broken during this period.

The language was not given by the British to us. They wanted to educate a very tiny class. Thomas Babington Macaulay says, “Indian in blood and color, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and intellect,” and this was going to be this very narrow class that would serve as interpreters between the governors and those are governed creating a tiny class of Indians.

Tharoor charts the British policy of indistinct Hindu-Muslim differences which has the outcome disastrous in the bloodshed and Partition massacres.

The destruction of India changed way long from a higher GDP to a lower GDP during British rule. Numbers fell from the top to the bottom of the sea.

The statistics of India and the records prove that India has around 25% of world output in the year 1800 and it was reduced so less to 2-4% during the period of 1900 which doesn’t prove that India was once a rich country and became poorer. It only tells us that the productivity of industrial in the West increased 4-6 times during this period. The research shows that the colonial links do not explain the sufficiency of British investment & economic growth and that arguments for empire rested on strategic needs more than material gains. This concludes with the draining theory of India’s poverty which cannot be explained or could not be tested due to the intrinsic value of the payments made by India to the British cannot be measured.

Tharoor spoke to Reuters about his research and why he thinks the British owe India an apology.

The only benefits that we gained from the British are:

• The Freedom of speech and press.
• Higher political knowledge and aspirations.
• Improving government native states.
• Security of life and property.
• The Integration of Economic, Political, Nationalism and Social Integration in the country.
• Highlighted the deep-rooted social evils in the Indian sub-continent.
• Abolition of suttee and infanticide.
• Destruction of Dacoits, Thugs, and other such pests of Indian society.
• Allowing charitable aid in times of famine & remarriage of Hindu widows.

 

Concluding this topic of foreign slavery and poverty, it cannot be repeated often enough that Indian culture was shaped by several religions and a multitude of traditions. In most times and at most places, peaceful coexistence was the norm. We could have argued more forcefully, but need to be mentioned in passing the ideology of the current Hindu-chauvinist government which was led by the Honorable Mr. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India.

The truth can be sad that the lasting legacies of British rule are worse than Tharoor spells them out. It is telling nonetheless, that an intellectual of such standing has written an anti-British polemic.