British Rule in India

What is your view about the British rule in India?

The British ruled our country for about 200 years. We have learnt about them in our history lessons, also heard ancestral stories. I guess by know we have a mind of our own to think about what happened in the past.

What effect it had/has on our society? Do you think we gained something or we are at the losing end?

It was obviously sad since so many lives were lost and there were some dictator generals whom we can never forgive for their deeds. But when I look back somehow, I view the British Rule as a blessing too.

I know many of you would disagree, but I have my reasons to stand by.

The British rule had its postives and its negatives . The problem is the negatives far outweigh the negatives.

British Raj's negatives as i remember them from History lessons and my analysis to present day :
1) The number of deaths of our Indians in protest of the rule.
2) The Britishers drained our economy and it took us years for us to finally stand ! We are still affected by the economic drain India suffered.
3) Divison of our land that led to India- Pakistan .

While the postives have a interseting gray area:
The Britishers developed India's Infrastructure , the roads , the Railway lines etc for their own means, but it helped India...............i look at this that if India had not ever faced Britsh envasion it may have taken 10- 20 -30 years before the Infrastructure may have develped ..............but at least we would have never paid so heavily financialy and with human lives.

Due to the British envasion , the different communities- primarily Hindu - Muslims got together to fight the Raj. While the Hindu- Muslims were not organised and were fighting over petty issues . The Raj became a common reason for them to stick together .

The British Raj opened India up to the love of "Tea" !! 😛 I can finally see one thing that we could remember them by !! 😛

Thanks Aparna, for your response.

Today India is a secular country with a majority of Hindus. I am not against any religious belief and I too wish that all live in harmony.(Live and let live) When British invaded India the Muslim kings and empirors ruled major parts India. The Hindu kings ruled in small provinces. Had the British not captured and united the whole of India(as today) do you think India would have survived. Today we morn for Pakisthan and Bangladesh,I wonder had British not been there would India have existed as a single state? Do you know that before the British Empire came in Bengal, king Sirajuddulah ordered to kill thousands of Hindus in order to establish a Muslim state. I wonder had British not invaded India the Hindus would have been wiped out from this country. Instead of India as a single country we would have witnessed multiple small countries always fighting with each other.

British has a huge contribution to our education system apart from rail-road system. It built schools and colleges, and also industries in our pre-dominantly agriculture based land. There was lot of influence of the west on our leaders and the revolutionists. Introduced the middle-class culture. It helped to us see the world, get rid of evil customs and practices.

We surely should remember the sacrifice and the death of innocents, but in this world revolution always begets life. It's Gandhi who showed a different picture to the world. I don't commend the British Rule, it was India's fate. But certainly in my view had positive effects too.

It's been just 50-60 yrs after independence, and we still have that feeling of rage(anti-British) inside us and it should be there. But I am sure oneday history will tell the truth.

The were other positives that came out of the British Raj. Abolition of Sati and Widow re-marriage are two instances that come to mind.. which in a way were kind of first steps towards the emancipation of our women.

Very nice topic Pradarshak. Wanted to bring this to front page. I also have to say, but will come back with my views later 😊

I know you have your own POV...But I cant for once bring myself to even think of the positives of the British Raj...Freedom is priceless and what British did to India is just drain us off our mental,physical and financial resources...If the monetary things like roads,railways can be traded with freedom then what value is of freedom???..

You are forgetting that its in India where the first modern civilization started...Indians learnt wearing clothes before anybody else..When the rest of the world is struggling with the means of communication, here in India we were learning Veda...


India is basically a peace loving country right from the beginning...So it genuinely believed the traders who came forward and welcomed them with open arms, like any open minded civilization does...But our good intentions were misconstrued as our weakness and we were taken advantage of...And then the long saga of invasions, slavery, dudgery etc continued...

Today India is doing great...For a country which struggled for centuries, under the continuous threats of foreighn invasions and rule, we are not doing bad at all..We are capable of turning the tables now...

I wont say that we are the best already, but I also wont hesitate to say that if not for British and the other invaders India would have been atleast a century ahead of the rest of the world...

So my question is where do you think all that prosperity come from before British and the other invaders enterted our land???? Dont you think actually its cos of them we find ourselves where we are today, struggling to make a mark in the present world??? 😕

Cheers,
Raksha 😊

Well, I agree with Aparna. It has both its positives and negatives.

the negatives are clear.

Well without British rule, we would never have had such good infrastructure.

1. It spared us from feudal rule.

2. They united us.Political unity after some decades leads to complete unity.

3. They never tried to desroy our great cultural heritage.Look at Latin America ,whose culture and language were exterminated by spaniards.They never laid their hands on any temple. In fact they did encourage our cultures.

4. They have given us english,which engraved the ideas of free speech and democracy in our minds.

5. They invested heavily in railways.Look at the statistics and the amount ofnew railway lines we have added after our independence.It is just pathetic!!!!

6.They did not try to rub christianity on our heads.Look at Goa ,a portugese colony.It is largely a christian community with no resemblance to rest of the country.

Well as most importantly, we got to see people like Gandhi arise.

The British played havoc in India with their divide and rule policy. I too believe that had it not been for them, perhaps our beloved Punjab would not have been ripped in 2.

Their only decent legacy is cricket.

Incidentally, when are the natives of India going to stop treating Westerners like they are still our rulers and something better? As an British born and raised person of Indiam descent, I find it really irritating the way Indians still give white people the red carpet treatment in India compared to other non-whitees.

😡 MAdds 😡

That was my view. I also used to have all anti-British feeling till I thought it over with time. I never said that Britsh rule was all goody-goody to us, yes of course we suffered. Agree or disagree, there were some boon hidden in the curse on us.

I am tired of debating on this topic. There was another topic started by SOWMYAA something like "Should cultural treasures be returned" where I did lot of talking(if Sowmyaa can please find it) on this topic.

I have recently came across this information written by Dadabhai Naoroji. I am an ordinary person and my views might not appeal to all. But I hope when this man who was also known as "Grand old man of India" and was also a mentor to Gandhi said something there must be some weight in it. He lived the era we are talking about and was well aware of the social-political scenario.

No Indian can ever forgive the foreigners who came to our country and made their luck out of our country, losing our wealth and life. I heard stories from my parents how they lost their closed ones and their wealth and land due to formation of Bangladesh and in '71 war(that's also cause of partition). Hindus came here(India) and started their life from the scratch. The wound in us is still fresh, the detriments may outway the benefits. But may be one day we will acknowledge(even in a small proportion) and history would tell us that it did serve little good.

Modern History Sourcebook:
Dadabhai Naoroji:
The Benefits of British Rule, 1871

The Benefits of British Rule for India:
In the Cause of Humanity: Abolition of suttee and infanticide. Destruction of Dacoits, Thugs, Pindarees, and other such pests of Indian society. Allowing remarriage of Hindu widows, and charitable aid in time of famine. Glorious work all this, of which any nation may well be proud, and such as has not fallen to the lot of any people in the history of mankind.


In the Cause of Civilization: Education, both male and female. Though yet only partial, an inestimable blessing as far as it has gone, and leading gradually to the destruction of superstition, and many moral and social evils. Resuscitation of India's own noble literature, modified and refined by the enlightenment of the West.


Politically: Peace and order. Freedom of speech and liberty of the press. Higher political knowledge and aspirations. Improvement of government in the native states. Security of life and property. Freedom from oppression caused by the caprice or greed of despotic rulers, and from devastation by war. Equal justice between man and man (sometimes vitiated by partiality to Europeans). Services of highly educated administrators, who have achieved the above-mentioned results.


Materially: Loans for railways and irrigation. Development of a few valuable products, such as indigo, tea, coffee, silk, etc. Increase of exports. Telegraphs.


Generally: A slowly growing desire of late to treat India equitably, and as a country held in trust. Good intentions. No nation on the face of the earth has ever had the opportunity of achieving such a glorious work as this. I hope in the credit side of the account I have done no injustice, and if I have omitted any item which anyone may think of importance, I shall have the greatest pleasure in inserting it. I appreciate, and so do my countrymen, what England has done for India, and I know that it is only in British hands that her regeneration can be accomplished.