Economic and social life of the people in british period?

Question

Economic and social life of the people in british period?

Answer 1

This answer could be given properly by the people who lived in that period.  All we can know is the information that is available in books.  I have read few of them both by indian authors and outsiders.  

    The views were entirly contradicting each other.  But my understanding is that,  what ever British did was in the interest of their country.  Establishing the railways, mail service, governing bodies, agriculture or even building dams.  In those days I read that brits had nothing to surive on in food wise.  so they went around the world seeking for survial sourses,  and they were very sucessful in transfering the wealth back to england because they had a very disciplined system.  they got good control over the weaker sections and then dividing them into groups.  if at all in case of problems they could send one group over the other and in the end they would step in and take control.

     so the life of the people in those days would not been much different from what we are expereincing right now.  we are also struggling for survial with lot of bills to pay,  where as in those days lot of taxes.  survival of the fitest seem to be the common feature.

Answer 2

it was very poor, the peasants had to pay a lot of tax , Indians were not given good jobs equal to the ranks of the british , Indians were illtreated and called as Browns.

Answer 3

the british came in primarily as traders. political instability gave them the opportunity to convert it as part of a global empire. so;

1 opened up the largely self sufficient indian economies (note the plural, please) to a global policy of Imperial Preferences. trade was distorted to subserve the primary interests of Gr. Britain, and the Industrial Revolution.

2. indian AGRICULTURE was the first casualty; example - indigo and opium cultivation. For textile industry in england, cheap dyes then mainly vegetable indigos were cultivated in india at the cost of food grains. Opium was dumped on china; cultivated in india, again at the cost of food grains.

3 india became chronically short of food grains. FAMINES were the recurrent result. Millions died, for the sake of maximising profits.

4 industrial development in india was suppressed.

5 railway development was at the cost of india's natural resources. it knit india into a vast hinterland for british industry.

6 education was distorted to provide for recruitment of clerks and lower functionaries in govt services at the cost of technical education.

THE NET RESULT WAS THAT INDIA WAS DENIED THE CHANCES OF MODERNISATION AND TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCE.

lesson for the future: The new wave of "Globalization" is a repetition of history. Technology is used as the trade off for permanent dependence. we have to be cautious. Globalization at the cost of self sufficiency in matters of vital importance like food, primary produce, technology and appropriate education will be suicidal.