To What Extent Was The British Rule Over India Good for India

To what extent was the Britain's rule over India a good thing for India? India was ruled over by the British Raj after the East India Company (EIC) started overruling the Indian natives for 300 years. India was conquered for the Empire not by the English themselves but by Indians under English leadership by taking advantage of Indian disputes. When the English, after the Portuguese, first landed in India, they were overwhelmed by the wealth and magnificence of the people whose friendship they asked for and whose protection they wanted. At the time their connection with this part of Asia began, India was a great and rich country that traded with the people of the West. India was leasing in many science, art, architecture, agriculture, industry, medicine, laws, philosophy and religion. We still scarcely know how far we ourselves have been influenced in many departments by the science and thought which spread westward from the great Indian Peninsula. Even when full account also is taken of that “anarchy” of which nowadays we hear so much from Anglo-Indian bureaucrats, as having everywhere prevailed prior to English rule, we discover that there is little basis for all this pessimism of the past beyond the eagerness to exalt, however dishonestly, the superiority of European methods.1 This website isn’t very reliable as it does not state its sources and the site does not focus on Indian history specifically.
Although India was overruled by the British, many good things came out of it as well. India’s share of world GDP went from 22.6% in 1700 to 3.8% in 1952″. If you aren’t a subscriber to the fallacy of zero-sum thinking, what does this prove? 2 This statistic has been used to argue that the British robbed India’s wealth. It is entirely possible that they did, but this statistic does not prove it. It so happens that the Western world was enjoying an Industrial revolution at that time. The revolution came late to India so this is why Britain turned out wealthier than India. Many people think that it was Britain’s fault for the late revolution. I think this website is extremely reliable as it contains important information provided by the Indian government.
“Without the British, India would be around 100 years behind” – Ajeet Ramshan (Ranthambhore tour guide)
Many people in India think that the Raj was a good thing and that without it they would be in an extreme economical setback compared to other parts of the world. The British introduced many things such as cars, railways and electricity in their modernisation of India.
Impact of British rule in India had been seen throughout the country and affected the cultural, technological, religious, social, political and economic state of India. India tolerated the British rule for 190 prolonged years; their benefits are recognised still now.3 This comes from a website that mainly focuses on Indian history and also is from India and so this is why I think it is reliable.
Although the British brought good things to India and helped their country improve by modernising it, they also did things that didn’t benefit India. They took all of the wealth and materials from the land and sold them on to other countries and in Britain itself. I think that the long-term positives of British rule are recognised more now but when the rule was in progress, the short-term effects were harsh. British guards would often harass Indians and hit them. The British government made the taxes more expensive to gain even more money.
What is the language of India? There isn’t one. The British provided a common language for all so that everyone could communicate with each other. National trade could occur without the need of translators or needing to know the 21 of the recognised languages or all 850 unofficial languages.4
Britain brought science to India. They improved hospitals and science labs to improve the general medicines. For the few lives taken from India, thousands have been saved and are still being saved right now. 5 The British set up hundreds of hospitals across India including. By simultaneously protecting and utilising its manpower, the military's involvement in disease control was a considerable factor in the establishment of western medicine in India.6 In all, the British mainly improved the medicine for the army in both India and Britain but also improved the healthcare for the Indian natives. Britain created hospitals for treating single diseases, they introduced the Contagious Diseases Act of 1864-1868 to improve the treatment of contagious treatment of contagious diseases across the nation of India.
Many of the western population know the British rule of India a bad thing although even now there is still a Victoria monument that has been kept and is opened to the public and is visited by hundreds of Indians daily. This is just one of hundreds of monuments around India portraying famous British people. If the Indian natives really disliked the British they would have been taken down by now. This is also emphasised by the fact that Queen Elizabeth II is still the Empress of India to show that India and Britain still have a good relationship.
The British Empire is the largest empire ever seen on the face of this planet. The empire was divided into two. The first part of the empire revolved around the British colonies in America that were popularly known as the thirteen colonies. These gained independence from Britain in 1783. The second part of the empire, which developed from the first empire, came later. It started during the Napoleonic wars and survived throughout the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. In fact, the British withdrew from its last colony, Hong Kong, in 1997; indeed the empire lasted for a long time. It developed from India and spun to regions of Africa and Australia. The influence and the power of the empire spun around the world shaping it in different ways. All in all I think that Britain did India a favour by providing them with tools to build a new modern country on but I also think that they did this to stop rebellions and improved it for the British living. The British so, inadvertently helped the Indian society.7
Bibliography
 http://www.marxists.org/archive/hyndman/1907/ruin-india.htm
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2 http://www.ravikiran.com/blog/classic/200506/was-the-british-raj-good-for-india/
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3 http://www.indianetzone.com/impact_british_rule_india.htm
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4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_India
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5 http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/east_india_01.shtml
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6 http://digital.nls.uk/indiapapers/institutions.html
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7 http://indiansociety.com/britishempire/how-was-the-british-empire-for-good-?.htm
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