During colonial rule the British ruined India's economy and unity, which they are still paying for.?

Question

1. The revenue of Akbar's Empire in 1600 was £17.5 million, in contrast with the total revenue of Great Britain in 1800, which totalled £16 million.

2.An estimate by Cambridge University historian Angus Maddison reveals that India's share of the world income fell from 22.6% in 1700, comparable to Europe's share of 23.3%, to a low of 3.8% in 1952.

source- Wikipedia

The facts underline the truth, aren't they. -- that the British had washed-up India's economy, and perhaps unity too.

why they say that they are the best cultured on this earth even when their roots are rotten.

Answer 1

Its's historical truth that British colonial rule ruined India's economy for their colonial interest.India have paid for this for a few decade after independence. But it is also true that she could put her economy in a strong foot as of now. Yes, the British had washed up our economy but I don't agree that they could  able to washed up our unity too,it was Indian people's unity that they had to leave india 1947. But it takes two hundred years.thus in fact the British captured India on the loop-hole of our unity.Peoples unity was never there in India in the pre-colonial era also. I would cite a piece of writing. A British historian Lester Hutchinson  wrote in his Book "The Emperor of the Nababs" that huge number of people assembeled in the court(Raj Darvar) to see Clive If they each threw one small brick particle at that time instead, the British could have gone to dock......" This tells the state of unity in pre colonial rule.

Answer 2

OK, British ruined India's economy. But what about our polititians and beurocrats? India is not paying because of the British but because of these corrupt people. Whatever progress that India has achieved is solely beacuse of people like Tata, Dr Courien Verghese, Ambanis, Narayan Murthy etc. Government has done very little. That is why China is way ahead of us. British adopted the strategy Divide and rule.

Today our polititians are doing the same thing.

Please please don't blame British. They left India 60 years ago.  

Answer 3

India is still recovering from the Moguls and the British.  However,  India is still India,  and always will be very great,  very special,  and a very advanced country,  despite the difficulties passed through.  Thankfully,  those are part of the past.

It is not just that the British ruined the economy,  they failed to take care of many things,  to compensate for their presence - as is the usual problem when people with nice clothes,  fast horses,  and bad characters come to stay.

The whole Indian system of education was neglected and ruined,  and the whole slant of Indian culture was cast aside without any respect,  they were disrespectful of the masses of people in the (middle class),  took advantage of the rich and just plain ignored the rest .... ....what I do NOT understand is India's still-tolerant attitude,  but that is a mark of India's grace,  its greatness and its genuine attunement to love and to God that allows it to be civil,  don't you think?

That is not to say that there are no hurt feelings and no resentments still brewing in India.  I have Indian friends who clearly indicate that.   I fail to understand British  insensitivity,  but the British are Westerners,  and they -like most of the West - are materialistic.   I find it particularly amazing,  for example,  that once when Queen Elizabeth II visited India,  she wore an orange suit ....... how unbelievable that she and her advisors should be so insensitive as to approve her wearing a color that India reserves for renunciants and the holy.  I mean,  it is all very cute and adorable (rah,  rah !!) to plant a Norfolk Island Pine.....but how unimportant an act,  wasn't it ... sort of in line with wearing *just exactly* the wrong color.  Perhaps God wanted to embarrass her and her country.

While I think it appropriate for countries to share cultural matters and to make exchanges,  I cannot help wishing British and American influences were less valued in India.     India is always ahead,  and always first,  despite its problems ..... that is when you chalk up the important things.   Maybe India does have difficulties,  for sure it is so ...... but,  in comparison the the genuine insensitivity and nastiness of the west,  it is no problem,  just a matter of time before it will be worked out.  ..... India is working very hard to put itself back in order,  but the West is still un-humiliated by its own spiritual attitudes and that is bad news indeed.

Just to cheer you up...

do a searh for a really nice video on

YouTube

called

School Chale Hum

*  made for the Indian government,  encouraging education,  lovely lovely video,  showing India's diversity of culture,  its staunch refusal to do anything but recover and go on,  now that they are free of domination ....full of shining children's faces,  and accompanied by a lovely song.....

and

in case it should cheer you up

also on YouTube please

M1 Restaurant Commercial

xxxx

[an edit:  the thing that bothers me is the very loophole cited here another answer to your question.   The British got away with rule because of a weakness in the Indian armor.   India is a country with great morals,  ideals and ways of life....but,  the problem is that she still lacks a certain rancor,  a certain enmity,  and a certain hostility that would keep others out.

India (and Pakistan & Bangaladesh) is still a part of the Commonwealth of Nations (Britiain).   Now,  why is this?  Superfriendliness.  Not good.   In addition to superfriendliness,  one also needs discrimination,  judgement,  and intelligence to see what is actually still going on today.  And to hold responsible those who so badly ravaged one's country.  It is not good to be too nice,  lest the abuser abuse you again in some way.  And to let the matter go unsettled in the realm of mind,  attitude,  spirit is quite wrong.   When there is an argument on the domestic level - family level,  that is - the argument has to be stopped for sure,  but there must be corrections made in the root causes of the argument;  then one can say that the lessons have been learned and the situation transcended in such a way that one may move ahead freely.  Taking such though to the current situation between India and Britain,  we have one party that is being too nice and another party that is thoughtless,  bad-mannered,  and genuinely short-sighted and unapologetic.  

I know this is going to sound overly simplistic,  but I see this as a small sign of the difficulties here: today,  the Brits are very fond of curry.  It is a very bad sign,  that along with this love of a good Indian curry is a lack of remorse towards what happened in India,  the origins of that very curry that warms them.   While I certainly do not think the modern British should be upset and angry with themselves for what they themselves did not do,  I think it would be appropriate for them to feel some love,  sympathy,  and respect for India today.   I have not been everywhere,  and I do not know everyone,  for sure..... but I have never detected anything like a genuine sorrow on the part of the British for anything that happened in India.  It really is not possible to go on without admitting that grieveous error has been commited,  as if it had not ....as if it can now simply be brushed under the rug and ignored.  Of course once wants to overcome the hostility,  of course one wants to forgive and forget,  but I think India has forgiven and forgotten (??) too *easily*,  before the Brits actually wished for and needed to be forgiven.  The British are like children who have been ignored and neglected in this issue,  without parental guidance and discipline,  without being set on the right path.

And,  unfortunately,  there is a lack of push from the other side:  India itself. I think that when India hurts enough,  and has a sens of their own rights,  a sense of how they all deserve to be treated,  of the respect due them,  only then will there be some changes in the atmosphere.

In addition,  Britain is hardly in good shape itself today.   There is no way you can overcome your Karma without a change of mind,  and a change of heart,  without admitting your wrong-doing and making amends.  A bad karma lies straight in your path,  like a stone,  refusing to move until your heart is moved.  So,  while it is lovely to walk the London streets and catch a whiff of curry spice in the air,  it is also unfortunate to sense that they seem so unaware of what is actually happening:   they are being held back by their own attitude,  because they have been let off the hook by the Indian adherence to Ahimsa (non-violence) .... and like the USA which hardly admits any guilt for gunning down native peoples with superior weapons and taking over their lands and civilization,  Britain too is just going along in a dumb stupor,  loving its curry but putting its head in the sand about what actually happened in the past whence that curry came to them.  It is a shame,  but I am sure that India will rise out of the ashes with which they are still dealing.  

Someone once said that when the British left India,  they left behind them 'a nation of shop-keepers',  which is hardly testimony to the beneficence of the presence,  is it not?   No one has acutally helped India up from this state,  except India itself.   x*x ]

Answer 4

Smoke in your eyes is absolutely right.60 yrs after independence, India unfortunately is still ruled by the Congress who just looks for vote banks and filling its own coffers rather than the country's development.