Did Britain Steal USD45 Trillion from India to be “Great”?

Britain ruled India for about 200 years, a period marred by poverty and famine in India. The commonly told story in Britain is that the colonisation of India was not of any major economic benefit to Britain – much like joining the EU in 1973. The fact that the empire was sustained for so long was a gesture of Britain’s benevolence!

Utsa Patnaik, an economist, dealt a crushing blow to the above narrative. Patnaik calculated that Britain had actually drained nearly USD45 trillion during the period 1765 to 1938. That’s 17 times the GDP of the U.K. today.

It was a scam – theft on a grand scale, that puts 1MDB’s shenanigans as “loose” change. Indian taxes was used to purchase Indian goods for Britain and/or for re-export elsewhere. That is the basis of financing Britain’s Industrial Revolution. On top of this, Britain was able to sell to India finished products with India having no option of securing cheaper alternatives. So India was in debt to their colonial overlords. That is control.

In a 2014 poll, about 50% of the people in Britain believed colonialism was beneficial to the colonies. Yet over 200 years there was almost no increase in per capita income in India. In fact, millions died because of policy induced famine.

So what must Britain do today, other than Brexit? An apology? Reparations? Changing the narrative? I could say all of the above but reparations is the last thing “poor” Britain could forward. Perhaps, do as Shashi Tharoor suggests pay £1 annually to India for the next 200 years and issue a public apology for the misdeeds!

References:

1. How much money did Britain take away from India, Business today

2. How Britain stole $45 trillion from India, Jason Hickel