The truth about the British Empire and India

They went there in search of profits and power - same as every other empire in history did. They didn`t just decide one day to spend billions on a country half way round the world for altruistic reasons!

Exactly


India's massive poverty is the result of British loot and plundering. Indeed most of areas of the world ruled by British empire are still struggling to root out poverty and corruption.

Many Brits here are dissociating themselves from the crimes of their ancestors in India and in other countries. It is not just trillions of dollars of wealth that they looted but they tried their best to destroy a superior culture and civilization whose effects are still being felt even today. They distorted history, even the holy texts of Indians to make them lose pride in their own great culture and religions. They played up the caste system, a great concept of societal organization, as something evil and exploitative, which it never was till these hate mongering brutes set their feet in the holy lands of India. They pitted Moslems against Hindus. They even divided India and left a lasting mess in the region. A Brit can't easily wash his hands off of the sins of his forefathers. History exists for a reason. We the exploited remember it and pass it down the generations so that it is never repeated! You current generation Brits still criticize India even when Indians have not done anything to you.

I don't think those statistics are truthworthy. Show the source.

By the way, I'm Spanish, and we also had an Empire.
Empires have always been for these reasons: to increase power, to increase dominance of culture-language-religion of country in control and to make the country conquering richer. It's no big deal.

ECONOMIC HISTORIANS SAY THAT INDIAS SHARE OF WORLD GDP BEFORE THE COLONIAL ERA WAS ROUND 26% ( WHOLE EUROPE HAD ROUND 23% ) AND WHEN THE BRITISH LEFT INDIA IT WAS "JUST" 3%
WHEN THE BRITISH LEFT INDIA SURVEYS ORDERED BY THE FIRST PRIME MINISTER NEHRU STATED THAT POVERTY WAS OVER 50% IT WAS ALSO FOUND THE REGIONS LONGER UNDER BRITISH CONTROLE HAD HIGHER RATE OF POVERTY.
TODAY POVERTY IS DOWN BY ROUND 25%

THE QUESTION SHOULD BE: WHY DID THE BRITISH GO TO INDIA?

TO HELP THE POOR INDIANS?
OR
TO MAKE PROFIT?


EDUCATION, RAILWAYS ETC WERE BYPRODUCTS AND NOT INTENDED TO HELP INDIA...

EDUCATION: TO RAISE A ENGLISH SPEAKING INDIAN GENERATION FOR ADMINISTRATIVE WORKS UNDER THE BRITISH OR CIVIL SERVANTS. AFRICA AND CHINA WERE BRITISH COLONIES TOO, NOW WHY DIDNT THEY PROFIT FROM ENGLISH AS INDIA DID!?!

RAILWAYS: TO TRANSPORT GOOD EFFECTIVELY OUT OF INDIA.

TO CALL THEM "POSITIVE EFFECTS" IS BASELESS AS LONG AS THERE ARE MUCH LONGER "NEGATIVE" LIST.


BEFORE THE COLONIAL ERA INDIA WAS ONE OF THE MAJOR ECONOMIES IN THE WORLD.
INDIA AND CHINA ACOUNTED FOR ABOUT 50% OF WORLDS GDP!
(REMEMBER: COLUMBUS FOUND AMERICA IN SEARCH OF INDIA! MOTIVATED BY ITS RICHES... HENCE THE NATIVES WERE CALLED INDIANS!)


WHEN THE BRITISH LEFT INDIA POVERTY WAS OVER 50%..NOW ITS DOWN BY ROUND 25%...


FURTHER THE FAMINES DURING BRITISH RULE DUE TO MISGOVERNMENT, MASSACRE OF JALIAN WALA BAGH ETC... (JUST GOGGLE!)
I HEAR THAT THE "MASSACRE OF JALIAN WALA BAGH" IS TO BE TAKE OUT OF BRITISH SCHOOL BOOKS...
DURING THE COLONIAL ERA OVER 40 MILLION INDIANS LOST THEIR LIVES... AS MANY AS DURING WW2...


THE CRIMES OF COLONIAL EXPLOITATION IS A DARK TRUTH IN HISTROY THAT WE SHOULD ACCEPT AND NOT IGNORE OR DENY.


INDIA WOULDNT NEED ALL THOSE "AID" FROM ENGLAND OR OTHER NATIONS IF THE BRITISH WERE TO GIVE BACK THE RICHES THE STOLE IN INDIA DURING THE COLONIAL ERA... MAYBE START WITH THE KOHI-NOOR DIAMOND ON THE QUEENS CROWN!?!


IN CHINA THEY ALMOST MADE THE NATION OPIUM ADDICTED!
IN AFRICA THEY TOOK NATIVES AS SLAVES TO BRAZIL ETC!


WHAT SORT OF HELP OR DEVELOPMENT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?
YEAH... EVERYTHING GREAT FOR THE QUEENS AND ENGLAND.

THE BRITISH CAN SAY "WE DEVELOPED INDIA" TO SALVE THEIR CONSCIENCE BUT THAT WILL NEVER CHANGE THE HISTORIC FACTS.


- Before the British invasion of India ... India was the Richest country in the world ... That was the very reason why British Invaded India . Even Columbus was looking for India ... because ... Throughout ancient times India was Considered The Richest land ... with .. full of natural resources , fertile earth , intellect , hard working people , technology ... precious metal, stones etc. . Those Have you disagree ... I'd like to SUGGEST you to go through the scripts of ancient explorers ... from China , Rome , Greece , ... etc. . Even before Britain HAD people there .... India was filled with a highly advanced civilization .

- Britain ( British Empire) MOST looted wealth of India 's ... Especially gold , precious stones , artifacts , ancient scripts ... and valuable knowledge . From where did Britain get the precious stones which ... resides in the British crown ? From India. Where did Britain get All Those Indian artifacts ... which are now in UK .. ? Those Did They buy ? They simply looted .


Of course British About did build some infrastructure .. but it was for Their own use and benefit . Purpose if you try to balance the accounts , at the end of the day .... India and other British colonies Have lost far far more than What They Gained .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_India#Declining_Share_of_World_GDP
Here is my source

Hardly surprising since they personally had nothing to do with it.

Damn op is a disgrace to British Indians- move on! It's not the British fault that India was an unorganised land! They tried to bring order to society

so what about all the money that's been passed down through generations by exploiting other nations?

Damn op is a disgrace to British Indians- move on! It's not the British fault that India was an unorganised land! They tried to bring order to society

This is only shocking if you think India was growing at the same rate as Europe. It was not, so it was losing its share of the global economy without its economy actually shrinking. The same thing happened to China despite China remaining independent throughout this period. British rule did not reform Indian institutions for growth and for that it is guilty, but the native governments were even worse. After independence India had a somewhat better government but still failed to experience convergence growth until the 1980s. It's unlikely the Raj much changed India's economic trajectory. For any possibility that the Maratha Confederacy could have established a free market and industrial economy, that was a much greater likelihood that India would have gone communist like China, and suffered mass starvation and political genocides.