Were the British colonial influences on India good or bad?

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Was this a case of bringing the sub-continent into the modern world? Or just larceny on a massive scale?

[BeBMan]

Larceny on a massive scale, which otoh had positive influence on bringing the sub-continent into the modern world.

[Kuciwalker]

The worst influence was letting it be independent

[lord of the mark]

whats the counterfactual?

India remains nominally independent but western dominated like China?

India preserves its independence but westernizes like Japan (probably infeasible)

India is colonized by someone else?

[lord of the mark]

nm

[Arrian]

BeBro's on the right track, I think. No reason that "grand larceny" can't have been accompanied by side benifits.

It mostly depends, I suppose, on what you think India would look like today had the Brits (and everyone else?)left it alone.

-Arrian

[Patroklos]

What if they had stayed?

[Arrian]

Right, another hypothetical. I'm not sure that was a realistic possibility. Then again, neither is "everyone leaves India alone."

-Arrian

[Ekmek]

interesting. I think its hard to put anything in a good or bad box especially if you look at something in long historical time periods and its cause and effects.

On the benefits side to UK colonization I would put the English language (not obvious now but if India catches up to China, the use of English could edge china out as the major power in Asia based on the connections it provides).

If India was left alone, too unlikely since India already had trade contacts for centuries, I'd say its hard to judge because the only places left alone are like Papua New Guinea (relatively untouched, relatively) and it is far undeveloped but those are lowly populated islands etc. I guess the other comparison could be pre-1850's Japan. It was closed off to the world and was far behind in a modern sense. So India could even be more under developed with out colonization.

If your comparing colonization methods india is lucky, in a sense, that it was colonized by the UK instead of France or Spain. It appears that th UK, at some point, invested more into the native infrastructure, people and economy. France did to a point but far less (comparing former british colonies in Africa to former french ones in Africa by comparison). Likewise with the spanish though their empire ended sooner, it appeared that the spanish really plundered their colonies.

if the UK was there now... i dunno but it would appear to be a major headache. assuming that the current sitation is the same but instead the UK is in charge there would be issues with Kasmir (with or without independent Pakistan), I'd asssume radical islam would be more appealing and more of a headache to the UK in India, the UK would also face heavy pressure for the massive poverty rates in India. Really all these issues would argue that if the Uk didn't pull out in '48 it would have pulled out by now.

whoa that was too long

[Arrian]

aneeshm in 3... 2... 1... (why hasn't he shown up already?)

-Arrian

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

I've sent him a PM. I made this thread hoping that he'd take an interest in it.

From my own point of view, I think the British performance in the late 19th century can only be described as vile. There was a callous disregard for human life that resulted in millions of unnecessary death. It's something that should be regarded as shameful.

[Arrian]

Whenever I get into a debate with my father about the relative merits of the USA and UK (my father's a brit and will generally claim all things British > all things American), my final fallback is the Opium Wars...

-Arrian

[LordShiva]

Re: Were the British colonial influences on India good or bad?

Both. Just like the Muslims, Aryans, and everyone else who's ever ruled there.

[aneeshm]

Re: Were the British colonial influences on India good or bad?

Originally posted by Lazarus and the Gimp
Was this a case of bringing the sub-continent into the modern world? Or just larceny on a massive scale?

Both. And the entire thing is so complex that labelling the influence "good" or "bad" misses the point.

The larceny was on such a massive scale, and at the cost of such unbearable, unthinkable human suffering, and the devastation of indigenous institutions so thorough and complete, that that itself is enough to label it a dark age.

But by creating the things they did, the British did help in bringing India to the modern age.

I don't know whether paying for our current development with a thousand years of accumulated wealth was worth it, and by now, I've stopped caring. There's just too much to be done, too much work left unfinished, too much of society left unmade, too much misery, suffering, poverty.

History is history, and I'd rather live in the present. We can't afford the time to ruminate over the past.

[aneeshm]

Originally posted by Arrian
aneeshm in 3... 2... 1... (why hasn't he shown up already?)

-Arrian

Because I've left. I came only because I received a PM notification on my e-mail. Laz invited me here.