'Poor' India and 'Robber' Britain

I saw a British mourning video titled :
[ 'Poor' India buys French war planes instead of British ones ]
So some facts about poor India ;- Before british colonized india, she was the largest diamond producer. Rich in rare minerals and precious metals.India was the most important economy booster and also main fuel for Britain's world war effort around the globe.
Kohinoor Diamond. The Koh-i-Noor is a 106 carats diamond which was once the largest diamond in the world like many other precious items it was also taken from India.

During world war India sent over three million troops (who volunteered) to fight alongside Allied Forces against the Axis powers.(in which atleast 87,032 perished as per Commonwealth War Graves Commission ) with millions more missing and wounded. Additionally, several Indian Princely States provided large donations to support the Allied campaign during the War. Indians fought with distinction throughout the world; in the European theaters of Germany and Italy, in the deserts against Rommel and in the Asian region defending India against the Japanese..
The financial, industrial and military assistance of India formed a crucial component of the British campaign against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. India's strategic location at the tip of the Indian Ocean, its massive production of armaments, and its huge armed forces played a decisive role in halting the progress of Imperial Japan in the South-East Asian theatre.
The Indian Army during World War II was one of the largest Allied forces contingents which took part in the North and East African Campaign, Western Desert Campaign and the Italian Campaign. At the height of the World War, more than 4.5 million Indian troops were fighting Axis forces around the globe.

It wasn't the first time that British utilizing ancient India, its resources and skills to save own land ,its pride

Tippu's Congreve rockets :-
Indian Mysore prince Tipu who used missile rocket technology to fight the british invaders [Tipu is the FIRST military commander in the world who deployed dedicated Missile regiments in army ] these rockets where latter sent to England, and from 1801, William Congreve set on a research and development programme at the Arsenal's laboratory. The Royal Arsenal's first demonstration of solid fuel rockets was in 1805. The rockets were used effectively during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysorean...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congreve...
http://twocircles.net/2012dec30/tipu_...

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After the end of the World War, India emerged as the world's fourth largest industrial power [originaly to support britian's war effort] and its increased political, economic and military influence paved the way for its independence from the United Kingdom in 1947

So Poor India ?

When Europe was going through its murderous medieval period, India was an economic behemoth controlling from one-fourth to one-third of the world's wealth. After the death of the Indian Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in 1707, India descended into fractious internal wars. This gave the British with their East India Company the opportunity to seize and control vast Indian assets, eventually assuming supremacy over all India.

In 1700, India's economic output—its gross domestic product (GDP)—was almost 9 times that of Britain's. By 1947, just before Indian independence from Britain, the tables had turned dramatically with British GDP about 1.2 times that of India, according to data by Angus Maddison in his study, The World Economy.

Nazi or British ?
developed world today prides itself on freedom and democracy...so why not own up to the bad things of the past? True, Britishers were probably not as bad as the Nazis, but they did far greater harm than the Nazis by the very virtue of their being around for more than a hundred years. The British East India Company arrived in India as far back as 1757 (proxy rule by the British) .. The Nazis under Adolph Hitler ruled only from 1933 to 1945 -- which is just a dozen years! One does not need much of an imagination to realise the damage the British must have done to India.
The sad part is is that millions of young Britishers are growing up thinking that Britain did India a big favour by ruling her. Why, the Queen herself wears a diamond stolen from India in her crown. The Wikipedia calls this diamond the 'spoils of war.' Funny

Reply 1

Arbolus

Colonization is a two-way process. Britain took from India wealth, raw materials and manpower, and in return it united India and gave it the industrial infrastructure that enabled it to become a great power so soon after independence. Otherwise for most of the 19th and 20th centuries I imagine it would have been in a similar position as China was.

You can argue over whether or not the costs outweighed the benefits. But you can't say that there were no benefits whatsoever.

Reply 2

MatureStudent36

Original post by Arbolus

I've had a lot if Indians on my course and they all agree with what you've said. There's no animosity. They seem to understand that bad things happened under empire, India was also left as a better state in many ways.

They also agree that had the Brits not come, India as we know it wouldn't exist. It would be a group of fractious warring states.

Reply 3

Ggmu!

There were many, many good things that the British brought to India and we all know about the massive level of infrastructure, which I think is still undervalued.

But in my opinion, it'd be foolish to think that India gained as much as the British empire from colonialism. The unseen effects live on India and has certainly negatively effected the cultural identity of ALL Indians. I also think the British did employ divide and conquer techniques. But nobody should be bitter about it, what has happened has happened.

'Poor' India and 'Robber' Britain

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