Economy of India under the British Raj

The role and scale of British imperial policy during the British Raj (1858 to 1947) on India's relative decline in global GDP remains a topic of debate among economists, historians, and politicians.

Quotes

• The English Governor-General of India, Lord Bentinck, reported in 1834 that "the misery hardly finds a parallel in the history of commerce.The bones of the cotton weavers are bleaching the plains of India."
  • Lord Bentinck quoted at The British In India: Imperialism or Trusteeship?"

• In his recent book, "Modern India: Its Problems and their Solution" (p. 161 and 77), Dr. V. H. Rutherford, M. P. examines the character and results of British efficiency, and pronounces it "one of the chief causes of India's poverty." He declares that the British Government in India is efficient only on behalf of British interests, only in carrying on the government and managing the affairs of the country for the benefit of Great Britain. He cites the Government's neglect of education of masses; neglect of sanitation and medical services in the villages; neglect to keep order; neglect of housing of the poor; neglect to provide agricultural banks; comparative neglect to improve and develop agriculture; neglect to foster Indian industries; neglect to protect British profiteers from capturing the tramways, electric lighting and other public services; and neglect to prevent the manipulation of Indian currency in the interests of London." "British rule as it is carried on in India is the lowest and most immoral system of government in the world - the exploitation of one nation by another."
  • Dr. V. H. Rutherford quoted at India In Bondage (1929)"

• Let no one cite India as an argument in defense of colonialism. On the Ganges and the Indus the Briton, in spite of his many notable qualities and his large contribution to the world's advancement, has demonstrated, as many have before, man's inability to exercise, with wisdom and justice, irresponsible power over the helpless people. He has conferred some benefits upon India, but he has extorted a tremendous price for them. While he has boasted of bringing peace to the living, he has led millions to the peace of the grave; while he has dwelt upon order...he has impoverished the country by legalized pillage.
  • William Jennings Bryan. During 1903-5 in the wake of the partition of Bengal, William Jennings Bryan, one of the topmost figures on the American political scene and twice the Presidential candidate for the Democratic Party, visited India and obtained first hand knowledge of the '"jewel" of the British empire. (source: Katherine Mayo and India - By Manorangan Jha People's Publishing House New Delhi 1971.p.2). [1]

• Very soon after Plassey, the Bengal plunder began to arrive in London, and the effect appears to have been instantaneous, for all authorities agree that the ‘Industrial Revolution’ began with the year 1770 . . . Plassey was fought in 1757, and probably nothing has ever equaled the rapidity of the change that followed. In 1760 the ‘flying shuttle’ for textile manufacturing appeared, and coal began to replace wood in smelting. In 1764, Hargreaves invented the Spinning Jenny and, in 1768, Watt matured the steam engine. Before the influx of the Indian treasure, and the expansion of credit, which followed, no force sufficient for this purpose existed. Possibly since the world began, no investment has ever yielded the profit reaped from the Indian plunder, because for nearly 50 years Great Britain stood without a competitor.
  • Brooks Adams in 'The Law of Civilization and Decay,' London, 1898, pp. 313-17., quoted in 'The Invasion That Never Was' by Michel Danino (1996)