| An Unsuccessful India Essay, Research Paper
India is one of the worlds oldest and richest civilizations, the treasure chest of the Far East, and the desire of all the great powers of Europe. After years of battle it ended up under the control of Britain, making it "the most precious jewel in the crown of the Empire". Yet for India, the rule of the British did not bring promises of rebuilding a nation. Rather, it brought new dilemmas to face the Indian people. The British constantly exploited the nation for its prime resources and yet India had no gain from them. As the British Empire expanded, the wealth, resources and power of India attenuated. Slowly the suffering of the people of India grew. Meanwhile, Britain concentrated on increasing profits for its share-holders and officials, neglecting the suffering people of India and not to mention draining the wealth out of a great nation. Furthermore, new British laws destroyed the Indian industries that the British actually helped create in the first place. Their new British laws were also responsible for an enormous unemployment rate. Finally, India was ruled by a country that knew nothing about them and could not sympathize with them or rule them properly.
India, at the time, had previously supported the Roman Empire under its rule with jewelry, spices and even clothing. It also was one of the oldest, and at the same time, richest places in the world. A huge number of people lived in India making it one of the biggest colonies in the world. After being dominated by the Roman Empire, India was ruled by the Portuguese. However, the Portuguese were only interested in India’s trade so they monopolized on it. Europeans’ began to see the true value of India. The Dutch then attacked the Portuguese in India and took over the country. Soon the Dutch were defeated by the French and, finally, in 1757 the British defeated the French decisively and then conquered India by using the method of "divide and rule". Before the British victory over France, in the sixteenth century, India was conquered by the Moslems from the north. In India the majority of the people supported the Hindu religion and the Moslems were supporters of the prophet Mohammed. This caused great tension between the Hindu people and Moslem leaders which contributed to the downfall of the Moslem Empire. Shortly after the crash of the empire, local rulers began to fight amongst themselves for land and power. This constant disunity created a very disorganized and divided India and the British took advantage of this. This acknowledgment of India’s troubles caused British business men to configure a large trading company, called the British East India Company. One of the tasks of some of the company was to bribe leaders, ministers and officials. Many leaders surrendered and once Britain took control of that area, they were actually rewarded for their traitorous behavior. Therefore the British company won most of India before having to fight. The divided India made it much harder for the people of India to come together and therefore it was easy for the British East India Company to dominate them. After a century under the rule of the British East India Company, the British government became aware of the companies exploitation of the Indian people, for the sole profit of the company share-holders and officials. The British government then took over the colony of India.
This domination by the British government brought forth many advantages for the nation of India. Knowledge is power, and the British spent years educating the people of India with a western form of schooling. This education brought an ancient civilization together with modern thought and therefore, even today, India has one of the leading science programs in the world. The British built a strong and efficient administration and established a court of justice. These laws helped to abolish human sacrifice, slave trading and female infanticide in India. Finally, the most important advantage that the British brought was peace to a battling nation.
However, like the beliefs of many, Bal Ghangadhar Tilak wrote when addressing the Congress Party in 1906 that, basically, the British stopped the people of India from fighting amongst themselves in attempt to look favorable towards the Indian population. This false sense of security made it easy for the British to "go at the throats" of those in India. At first the Indian society believed that the British were great people whose only true objective was to help the people of India, but as they became more educated by the British and about the British, the people realized that the British were deceiving them. People of India began to believe that the British did not truly have a great desire to help their people and were actually only focused on British self-interests. The growing poverty and increased knowledge of rulers of India only helped to re-assure the beliefs of the people that they were being deceived. The British were causing a drain of money from India and it was ruining the country.
Another problem in India was the fact that the British occupied the majority of high positions in India’s government This was a problem because the British were rather isolated from the people of India and therefore did not know the concerns of their subjects. The British were not fully aware of the values and beliefs of the Indian people and consequently could not sympathize with the people of India. The British members in government may have been highly qualified in government for other British people, yet when it comes to ruling another country which is completely different, it would make it very difficult. However, if a person of Indian background was just as or more qualified than a person of British background, the job would still go to the British person. The British were also interested in gaining as much money as possible and then would take this money back to Britain when they were to move. This once again, illustrated the drain of money. On a daily basis the distance between the Indian people and British government seemed to grow.
During the rule over India, the British government created a law that basically crippled the economy. This was a prime example of how British government hurt the people of India due to the isolation between the two of them. The British people began to be concerned about their own market and felt that their manufacturers were not making enough money. This caused them to close their own market to India. India’s unemployment rates jumped enormously because their was nobody to buy their products. Indian industries, such as glass, paper, metalwork and ship building, were shattered. The British market was open to the people of India, therefore the money of the Indian people left their nation, which only made matters worse. The economic development of India was at a stand still and India was forced to become an agricultural nation and feed natural resources to the British so that they could be processed.
The drain of money by the conquering British nation and from the conquered Indian nation was enough to show that the nation of India was exploited and British rule was unsuccessful in India. Furthermore, the people of India were deceived and led by people who had no knowledge or interest in their well-being.. The repercussions of British rule can still be seen today, almost fifty years later.
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