This book highlights the darker side of British rule in India, which our colonial educational systematically covers and has been the main reason for converting the rich sub-continent into one of the poorest regions. But Britons still view British rule over India as harmful for them, this conception is rooted in the ‘white man’s burden’ theory, which is based on the claim that the British ruled to civilize the uncivilized Africans and Asians.
East India Company
Was a multi-national company that came to India to trade, with
the passage of time gained political power by taking advantage of the declining
Mughal Empire, raised a private army on the Indian tax revenue, and started to
extract resources from ‘India’, which at the time was known as “ Golden
Sparrow”.
1) De-industrialization of India
Through repressive taxation of about 70 to 80%, the substitution
of Indian textile by cheaply produced Industrial British textile and by putting
various direct and indirect hurdles destroyed globally famous Indian Textile
industry. British rule prevented farmers from importing textile industrial
machinery the way other non-colonized states did and got industrialized. Thus,
without industry, India became an exporter of just raw materials; such as jute,
silk, opium, rice, etc.
a) Deliberate Destruction of Indian shipping and shipbuilding Industry
By giving monopoly to the British ships, introducing
repressive taxes on the Indian ships, with Napoleonic wars, the demand for
Indian ships increased, and Indian ships were excluded from the Navigations
acts. Indian ships life span was much higher than an English Ship.
b) Indian steel Industry
Indian steel had acquired a global reputation, its swords were
much superior to the high-quality European sword in early British expansion in
India. The British colonial regime insisted on British standard specification
steel, which made non-BSSS steel uncompetitive in national markets and caused
the destruction of the Indian steel Industry.
The loots from India helped the British to finance its own
Industrialization, increase competitiveness to its goods, and secure a larger
market share for the industrially produced goods. In 1600 British was just
producing 1.8% of the world’s GDP, while India was producing 23%. In 1940 British raj
produced 10% of world GDP, while India was reduced to a third world poor
country, and according to the research of Utsa Patnayak, the British looted about 45
trillion dollars from India between 1764 to 1938.
c) Exploitative Trade system
In 1764 after the battle of Buxar, the company received the
right to collect revenues in Bengal first and later expanded it. 1/3 OF the
revenues were used to buy goods on the Indian taxpayer money instead of
investing in India, and sold these goods in Europe and thus, earned high
profits. Through this exploitative system, East India Company bought strategic
raw materials to fuel their industrialization.
2) Extractive and corrupt company officials
Used every illegitimate way to enrich themselves and return
back to Britain to live and lavish life by taking looted wealth. Therefore,
they were known as Nabobs. Robert Clive returned to Britain with 400000 (today 40
million euros), Warren Hastings, and
many other officials were involved in corrupt practices. They extracted wealth
from native princes, British Parliament gained control over them through the ‘Regulating Act of 1773’.
3) Revenue system
Was highly exploitative and did not help in case of any
drought or crop failure, land taxes were high; thus, according to Tharoor
mismanagement and suppression led to the revolt of 1857, which Indians Call ‘
war of Independence’. At the end of the 19th century, India was the largest
source of revenue for the British, employed highly paid British civil servants, who
remitted vast sums to England leading to resource drainage of India.
4) Use of Indian resources for British imperial expansion
Opium wars against Chinese, War with Ethiopia (1867-68),
Malta (1878), Tibet 1903, WW1 and WW2, etc, British excessively used Indian taxpayer money to finance these wars. Thus, excessive revenue helped Britain to
expand its empire globally.
a) WW2
In ww2 the Indian army was raised from
194,373 to 2,065,554 men serving both India and abroad.
5) Myth of Political Unity
Historically, within India, as central authority weakens, new
centralizing forces emerge on the sub-continental landscape, which provide political
unity, such as the Maurya empire, Gupta empire, with the decline of the Mughal empire
and absence of British, different political powers such as, Marathas, princely
states would have compromised to make federation or confederation.
The idea that the British gave India Political unity lacks
logical foundations because she deliberately dismantled indigenous political
institutions, created communal division on the basis of religion, caste,
ethnicity, and sect. Thus, used the so-called “divide and rule policy very
effectively, which worked and caused Indians to think of parochial national
interest”.
British destroyed judicial and administrative institutions
at the village level by centralizing the authority and thus, with the war of 1857, the rule of East India Company came to an end.
6) Indian civil service
Queen Victoria expressed her wish through the 1858 proclamation
to include Indians in the civil service without any discrimination.
According to the Jawahar Lal Nehru,” Indian civil service was neither Indian nor civil nor service”. After 1860, Indians were allowed to take examinations
but their entry to Indian imperial service was highly resisted, discriminated against racially,
for instance, Satyandernath Tagore, Aurubandu Gosh, Syed Mehmud son of Sir Syed
Ahmed khan faced discrimination in the judiciary. Syed Mehmud's dream of equality was
shattered, which lead to depression causing his death at the age of 53. They
were given lower managerial positions, underpaid, and faced imperial
discrimination.
7) World war1
India provided human, financial revenues especially from the
princely states, Muslims fighting against their co-religionist Ottomans on
beside of British. The latter had promised self-rule before the war to gain
immediate Indian support, but after the war British did the opposite by
introducing Montague Chelmsford reforms leaving powers to be concentrated in
the hands of the British and Rawlat act 1919 to suppress Indians. Most importantly,
Jallianwallah bagh incident antagonized the Indian further.
8) Democracy in British India
Press was partly free, Indian newspapers were highly
regulated, scrutinized through vernacular press act 1878, and Revised press act
of 1910 to stifle nationalist and freedom movement. British created a political
system based on parliamentary democracy, and the absence of pre-conditions for
parliamentary democracy did not lead to effective democratization.
9) Rule of Law
Crimes committed by Whites against the Indians did not
attract sufficient punishment, which reduced the deterrent effect of the criminal
justice system against the English citizens. Ilbert bill, which allowed Indians to try
English defendants in court was highly resisted by the higher cadre, leading to
its collapse. Violence against Indian servants was a common practice, only
white clubs and hotels with notice boards,” Indians and dogs are not allowed”.
Criminal Tribes legislation in colonial penal system
restricted the movement, searched and detained specific tribes, which were
against the government. Used excessively Section 124 to frighten Nationalists,
which is still prevalent in the penal system, used against the dissident voices.
10) Divide et Impera ( Divide and rule policy)
This policy was excessively used after 1857 to end the unity
between Muslims, Hindus, and other communities of the sub-continent which lived
in harmony for peace to rule and exploit them easily. Irish subjects were also subjugated,
segregated; although they had racial and religious homogeneity to Britons.
Colonial reports and censuses classified their subjects on the basis of religion,
ethnicity, language, caste, race, and further division into their
sub-categories.
In India first census was conducted in 1872 and later in
1901, it was converted into an ethnographic census, which gave certain attributes
and tags like criminal or martial tribes, while the tribes reduced as
non-martial had reduced employment opportunities. Resultantly, it increased
awareness about the prevailing differences among themselves and had
consequences on national unity for later decades.
a) Hindu-Muslim divide
Divided Indian History into Hindu period, Muslim period, and British. Religious communalism or extremism has roots in colonial history, which was not prevalent in the pre-colonial era. Hindu-Muslim divide further increased after the formation of the Indian national congress, which according to Tharoor was, a Highly liberal organization because it was presided by many non-Hindu presidents. He also considers the formation of the Muslim league as an instigation of the British to divide the nationalist movement. Shia-Sunni relations also deteriorated in British rule. To divide Hindus ‘Dalit or Depressed’ class was given a separate electorate, which led to the Poona pact of 1932, ending a separate electorate and giving them additional representation.
11) Journey toward partition
Congress league relations strained highly after two-year
congress rule, causing Mohammad Ali Jinnah to co-opt with the victorious leader of
unionist party Sikander Hayat and Fazlul-Haq of the Krishak party on to the
league platform. When the British government declared war on Germany without consulting
with Indian leaders, it caused congress ministries to resign. Mohammad Ali
Jinnah called it , ‘the day of deliverance’. League membership grew from 112,000
in 1941 to 2 million in 1944, when the Congress leaders were jailed due to the Quit
India movement, to Tharoor this increment occurred under the patronage of the British.
Jailed congress leadership provided an opportunity to the league to reorganize
and prepare for the upcoming elections of 1945-46.
Cabinet mission Plan introduced a three-tier plan with a weak
center, but details were to be agreed upon, league and congress both accepted,
Nehru as president of the congress said,” We are absolutely free to act”, thus, he
interpreted the Cabinet mission plan differently and causing the league to withdraw
from it. On 16 Aug Jinnah declared ‘Direct action day’, leading to clashes
across India causing the death of around 16000 innocent people. Thus,
compelling Congress to accept partition leading to the bifurcation of sub-continent.
12) Famines in British India
British colonial Holocaust the death of 30-35 million
Indians through starvation, famines, deindustrialization which made people
economically very poor, adherence to Malthusian principles and through
non-interventionist policies. According to the Amartya sen, the famines occurred due
absence of a free press, which makes the government accountable to people in
Democracy. The following are some of the famines, which occurred in British
rule.
A)
Great Bengal Famine 1770
B)
Madras 1782-83
C)
Chalisa famine 1783-84
D)
Agra famine 1837-38
E) Bengal Famine 1943-44
Occurred in ww2 caused the death of 4 million Indians,
British government blamed overpopulation but according to Will Durrant, “
Merciless exploitation, unbalanced export of goods, and brutal collection of
high taxes, which ruined all forms of manufacturing. Its main reason was that
Churchill diverted food supply from starving Indians to the well-fed allied army
fighting the Axis powers, he argued that famine was the fault of Indians because
they have bred like rabbits leading to food shortage.
13) The railways
Indian railway was established by Company to increase its
profits and strengthen rule over India, it helped to improve commerce,
facilitate movement of the labor, increase access and exploitation of Indian
raw material, and reduce costs of its imports and exports. British provides all
the equipment, and technology in building the railway, which helped to develop
its steel industry, and in 1850 a mile in India cost 18,000, while in the US the
same mile cost about 2,000 euros. The railway was fully staffed by European because
they considered Indians as unfit to deal with emergency situations, the latter
were low-paid managerial level posts. The railways did not help to mitigate
famines across India, helped to strengthen British military control over the western part of India, and prevented Czarist Russia from having access to warm
waters.
14) Educational system and English language
According to Wil Durant, EI Company destroyed the communal
educational system without replacing them with another modern one. Thousands of
Maktabs and Madrassa established in Muslim rule departed religious and secular
education simultaneously. Lord Macauly imposed the English Language with the aim to
produce a class of intermediaries between the rulers and the ruled, Indian in
blood but British in tastes, opinions, morals, and intellect. Western
cultural indoctrination created an alienating effect over the educated elite
class, which increased the distance between them and the people, denationalized the minds, kept them in ignorance, and infilled them with
English glory; thus, leading to intellectual, spiritual, and moral
colonization.
Will Durant in 1930 observed that the total expenditure on education
in India was less than half of that of New York State alone. Indian history was
replaced the British reconstructed version, which excluded indigenous perspectives
on various events, and aimed to increase social fragmentations in order to rule
easily. The educational system did not develop critical thinking, research
skill, and focused on literature-related subjects to produce graduates for
administrative jobs. In the latter half of 19th-century British
educational system had produced a class of Anglophones with their minds
colonized, the literacy rate of India in 1947 was about 17%.
Conclusion
Britain deliberate deindustrialization, repressive taxation, the policy of dived and rule, exploitation of Indigenous resources, dismantling to conventional
institutions, exploitative governance structure, reduced opportunities reduced the overall productivity of India. Put
barriers to Industrialization to make India a market for its produced goods,
colonize minds spiritually, psychologically to make exploitation easy.
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