Looking at this chart, we can make the following observations:

1. India was the most prosperous country for the first 1,500 years of the Current Era

2. India’s share of the global GDP started plummeting from a high of 25% since late 1700 all the way to under 5% at Independence.

3. After the British entered India and established their regime, the economy of Western Europe increases dramatically from around 1800.

4. After Europeans establish settlements in America and began slavery, a non-existent American economy skyrockets starting in 1800s.

5. The trend for India has been reversing since the 1970’s.

So, if I were to ask the question “How economically prosperous was India 300 years ago”, we should be able to see that “India was as relatively prosperous then as USA is today!”

S. Gurumurthy’s talk at IIT Bombay in 2010 (5) provides a very good introduction to this topic.

Pay closer attention to the economic trends of India and Western Europe. Less than a century after the British entered India and establish themselves firmly, European economy begins skyrocketing for almost 150 years. Raj Vedam (6) says that this is not a coincidence. He attributes this to transference of wealth from India.

Let us see what the plundering British themselves had to say. Robert Clive (1725-74) was the Commander-in-Chief of British India. He created ownership of the lands of what is today India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, and established a process of funneling wealth out of India to Britain. He said that India was “a country of inexhaustible riches and one which cannot fail to make its masters the richest corporation in the world” (7). At that time, the state of “Bengal” alone, which was the richest “state” in India, was richer than the entire Britain!

When an American philosopher Will Durant visited India in 1930, 175 years after Robert Clive’s planned campaign to destroy India began, Durant was so horrified at the destruction wrought by the British (8) that, instead of pursuing his goal of writing his book “The Story of Civilization”, he took up writing to inspire Indians to fight for Independence. In what he terms as “The Rape of a Continent”, he says “But I saw such things in India as made me feel that study and writing were frivolous things in the presence of a people-one-fifth of the human race – suffering poverty and oppression bitterer than any to be found elsewhere on the earth…” Raj Vedam highlights actions by the British that choked India (6).

●The cost of British conquests (including first and second world wars), developments in Britain, and administration of India, were all charged to Indians.

●Indians were forced to sell cheap and buy exorbitantly.

●Indians were taxed twice as high as in England and thrice as in Scotland.

●Millions of dollars’ worth of bribes from rulers who were dependent on favours and guns.

Hence, it is accurate to say that the British rule decimated Indian economy and ruined India. Yet, today, our children are taught that it is “the caste oppression” that made India poor!

In conclusion, India was one of the most economically prosperous countries in the world for a good bit of the known past. The British rule is probably the most significant factor that contributed to India’s poverty.

Let us remind ourselves that “Colonization” is never beneficial for the colonized people. If we study history properly, we will likely find that every colonized country was culturally and economically prosperous, and each such country is in various states of struggle or ruin today.