What would happen if British never ruled India?
It is true that though Britishers have left India long before, but have left their footprints which has influenced India’s present scenario to a great extent. What if the British had never ruled us? What kind of India would we be? Let us look at some possible scenarios:
The country would be richer:
In the year 1700, India’s share of the global economy was around 25 %, according to economic historian Angus Maddison. Then the British took over. By 1950, our share of the global economy was a mere 4 %.
According to Dadabhai Naoroji’s book, “Poverty And Un-British Rule In India”, the amount of wealth drained by the British from Indian resources amounted to 4 million pounds every year.
India wouldn’t be affected by World War II:
India had always been a peaceful nation and would have nothing to with the World War II had it not been under the rule of the British. With Indians being under the regime of British, we had to be a part of the World War. We were used as pawns to protect them.
Indian industries may have flourished better:
The Indian textile industry was almost destroyed and our raw materials were used to manufacture textiles in England which were sold back to the rest of the world. The Indian economy also dwindled because its industrialization process slowed down due to the industrial revolution in Britain.
Abolition of Sati:
The ban on Sati, affected by Lord William Bentinck in 1829, was largely due to the efforts of both Christian and Hindu reformers such as William Carey and Raja Ram Mohan Roy. It would have been a tough job had the British not backed the cause.
Slow development of the railways:
The British introduced the railways in 1871. Railways were mainly developed due to technology provided by British so it is quite possible that railways would have come later on. The absence of British would have caused the emergence of the railways in the twentieth century.
Progress would be slow, but sustainable:
Advancements in technology, medical etc would have taken place even without the British. It might have taken its own sweet time and this delay in progress would have been much more sustainable compared to the centuries of plunder of Indian resources that had reduced the country to something that can be viewed as a developing nation by the west.
English and Cricket:
Cricket would not have such a strong presence in the sub-continent as it does today. Though British never wanted us to excel in both English and Cricket, we with our interest and love towards these excelled in these two.
Introduction of western education:
India may not have formed such a well-rounded worldview had western education not been introduced by the British. However, this was a gateway for the Indians to a world of literature which had exposed them to tales of revolutions in history that eventually inspired Indians to start a well-educated fight for freedom.
India would have Kohinoor diamond:
It would be in the museum as a national attraction or maybe on the clothing of PM or President. The point here is KOHINOOR would be in India.
Would India be Democratic?
There’s no evidence as to suggest if the democracy would be introduced in India if it wasn’t by the British. We would probably have a King(or maybe not). Just a guess!
Images:(Wikimedia Commons)
On this note:
To give the British credit for something that was never intended to benefit India in the first place is a bit much. The railways were intended principally to transport extracted resources – coal, iron ore, cotton and so on – to ports for the British to ship home to use in their factories.
People who claim to have given India a gift in the form of democracy should take into account that millions and millions died due to famine and exploitations during their rule.
