Industrial revolution in England was financed by blood money sucked out of colonies like India. At the height of the Industrial Revolution in England, industrialization of India was actively discouraged by creating high tax ceiling. British rule is memorable from financial destitution,and famines, The great famine of 1878 caused as many as 10 million deaths. It has been described by historian Will Durant as The Late Victorian Holocaust. The famine did not happen because there was lack of crops,it happened because people did not have money to buy food. Now why people did not have money? That would be because the draconian law of permanent settlement mandated the landlords to deliver a certain amount of money to the Government as taxes. The British were the first power in India who mandated the use of money to pay taxes, in all other previous times farmers could pay taxes using their crops. This pulverized the rural agrarian economy of India. You see, we could have all benefits of western technology even without colonialism. Japan did just fine without being colonized. And as for the British gift of "modern education"? When the Brits left after 190 years of rule, India's literacy rate was 11%. Yes 11% with a near static population of 300 million! Now let's fast forward to today- with a staggering population of 1.2 billion, India's literacy is 75%. How can we say the "British Legacy",came to any assistance?You have your misgivings about the British but I think they still gave us modern education, modern civil service and industrial revolution... It depends on the countries colonised how they should have taken advantage of these legacies. In the end it is still us who determines the course of our lives.
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