The twin processes of drain and de-industrialization were carried out extensively through the various stages of British rule in India (colonial rule).

In the beginning

The process itself started from 1757 when with the battle of Plassey, the East India Company, representing the British mercantile class, took over the Indian control. During the same period, a fundamental change was taking place in Britain by a series of inventions leading to the Industrial Revolution.

For example spinning-Jenny of Hargreaves in 1764; Watt’s steam engine in 1765; water-frame of Arkwright in 1769; Crompton’s mule in 1779; Cartwright’s power-loom in 1785; and the steam-engine applied to blast furnaces in 1788. Before these inventions, the Bank of England was established in 1694 and plunder of India helped capital accumulation and inventions helped in generating Industrial Revolution.

The transformation in England created new interests and East India Company became the target of attacks in England and finally its fate was sealed by the War of Indian Independence in 1857.

Must Read: Quit India Movement

Impact of British Rule

The impact of the British rule, in the initial stages, has been summed up by R.P. Dutt:

“While machine-made cotton goods from England ruined the weavers, machine- made twist ruined the spinners. Between 1818 and 1836, the export of cotton twist from England to India rose 5,200 times.

The same process could be traced in respect of silk goods, woolen goods, iron, pottery, glass and paper.

The effects of this wholesale destruction of the Indian manufacturing industries on the economy of the country can be imagined. In England the ruin of the old handloom weavers was accompanied by the growth of the new machine industry. But in India, the ruin of the millions of artisans and craftsmen was not accompanied by any alternative growth of new forms of industry…. The old populous manufacturing towns, Dacca, Murshidabad, … Surat and the like, were in a few years rendered desolate under the ‘Pax-Brittanica’ with a completeness which no ravages of the most destructive war or foreign conquest could have accomplished”.

The merchant capital of the British, found new opportunities in India, when, Company started its conquests, in which monopolistic buying of Indian material was undertaken by the revenue earned from India, and they were exported to foreign markets with maximum profits. The pre-industrial British capital, instead of making so-called “investments”, were buying Indian commodities for profitable exports on the basis of money earned from revenue in India.

Read Also: Industries Contributing to Indian Economy

Thus, the conquest of India by the British East India Company gave it the ‘power to levy and collect land revenue and other taxes’, and, on the basis of the gross profits the Company exploited Indian commodities. This ‘semi-bondage’ situation of India made the British mercantile capitalism earn “tribute from conquest”. According to Professor Habib, during the later half of eighteenth-century, the total British imports from India increased from 12 per cent to 24 per cent, and the British exports to India increased from 6.4 per cent to only 9 per cent of the total British exports.

The phase of merchant capitalism gave way to the phase of Industrial Capitalism towards the beginning of the 19th century. Now the emphasis shifted from revenue collection and trade to new forms of surplus appropriation. Indian economy was now geared to serve the interests of industrial England. India was now used to provide raw material to the industries of England and a market for the ready made British manufactured industrial goods. Indian resources continued to be drained out to England, although in different forms. Similarly, the process of de-industrialization also got accelerated.

After 1857, when the British Government took on direct control of India, some British capital also started pouring into the Indian market, along with the manufactured goods. This was the result of the accumulation of capital at an unprecedented level in the leading industrial countries. Now England needed India, not only as a market for their goods but also as a favorable ground for the investment of their capital.

As a result, India started getting industrialized, but only on foreign capital. All the major industries like Railways, Jute, Iron, and Steel (with the exception of cotton textiles) were being run by British capital. Its result was a further drain of wealth, as all the profits made on British capital were going back to England.

Thus, up to the end of the nineteenth-century India was sucked by the British during both phases of colonialism i.e., during mercantile capitalism and industrial revolution in England.

Don’t Miss:

Story of United Kingdom History in nutshell

Colonial Exploitation of Indian Economy

The Radcliffe Line became the international border between India and Pakistan (which also included what is now Bangladesh) during the partition of India. The line divided Bengal into Indian-held West Bengal and East Bengal which became East Pakistan.

The line was decided by the Border Commissions headed by Sir Cyril Radcliffe, who was to divide equitably 175,000 square miles (450,000 km2) of territory with 88 million people. The line took effect on 17 August 1947 after the Partition of India.

On 15 July 1947, the Indian Independence Act 1947 of the Parliament of the United Kingdom stipulated that British rule in India would come to an end just one month later, on 15 August 1947. The Act also stipulated the partition of the Provinces of British India into two new sovereign dominions: the Union of India and the Dominion of Pakistan.

Read Also: Helen Keller

The idea behind the Radcliffe Line was to create a boundary which would divide India along religious demographics, under which Muslim majority provinces would become part of the new nation of Pakistan and Hindu and Sikh majority provinces would remain in India. Pakistan was intended to be a homeland for Indian Muslims and India with a Hindu majority was to be a secular nation.

Since the Partition of India was done on the basis of religious demographics, Muslim-majority regions in the north of India were to become part of Pakistan. Baluchistan and Sindh (which had a clear Muslim majority) automatically became part of Pakistan.

The challenge, however, lay in the two provinces of Punjab (55.7% Muslims) and Bengal (54.4% Muslims) which did not have an overpowering majority. Eventually, the Western part of Punjab became part of West Pakistan and the Eastern part became part of India (Eastern Punjab was later divided into three other Indian states).

Must Read: Important International Lines

The state of Bengal was also partitioned into East Bengal (which became part of Pakistan) and West Bengal, which remained in India. After Independence, the North West Frontier Province (located near Afghanistan) voted with a decision to join Pakistan.

Each boundary commission consisted of 5 people – a chairman (Radcliffe), 2 members nominated by the Indian National Congress and 2 members nominated by the Muslim league. The Bengal Boundary Commission consisted of Justices C. C. Biswas, B. K. Mukherji, Abu Saleh Mohamed Akram and S.A.Rahman. The members of the Punjab Commission were Justices Mehr Chand Mahajan, Teja Singh, Din Mohamed and Muhammad Munir.

Radcliffe arrived in India on 8th July 1947 and was given five weeks to work on the border. Upon meeting with Mountbatten, Radcliffe traveled to Lahore and Kolkata to meet his Boundary Commission members, who were primarily Jawaharlal Nehru representing the Congress and Muhammad Ali Jinnah representing the Muslim League.

On July 8, the British lawyer Sir Cyril Radcliffe arrived in Indian with a brief for a line on the map that would divide Hindu-majority lands from Muslim-majority ones in as equitable a manner as possible. Radcliffe was a brilliant legal mind, but he had no border-making experience, nor had he ever been to India — though such “impartiality” was judged to be an advantage by all parties involved.

Both parties were keen that the boundary was finalized by 15th August 1947, in time for the British to leave India. As requested by both Nehru and Jinnah, Radcliffe completed the boundary line a few days before Independence, but due to some political reasons the Radcliffe Line was only formally revealed on 17th August 1947, two days after Independence.

There were two major disputes regarding the Radcliffe Line, the Chittagong Hill Tracts, and the Gurdaspur District. Minor disputes evolved around the districts of Malda, Khulna, and Murshidabad of Bengal and the sub-division of Karimganj of Assam.

Don’t Miss: 

INS Kadmatt Commissioned into Indian Navy

Election Commission of India (ECI)

Central Vigilance Commission (CVC)

Bal Gangadhar Tilak born as Keshav Gangadhar Tilak was an Indian nationalist, journalist, teacher, social reformer, lawyer and an independence activist. He was the first leader of the Indian Independence Movement. The British colonial authorities called him “Father of the Indian unrest.” He was also conferred with the honorary title of “Lokmanya”, which literally means “accepted by the people (as their leader)”.

Tilak was one of the first and strongest advocates of “Swaraj” (self-rule) and a strong radical in Indian consciousness. He is known for his quote, “Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have it!” in India. He formed a close alliance with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, later the founder of Pakistan, during the Indian Home Rule Movement.

Must Read: Indian Renaissance The Socio-Cultural Awakening

Tilak joined the Indian National Congress in 1890. He opposed its moderate attitude, especially towards the fight for self-government. He was one of the most eminent radicals at the time. Despite being personally opposed to early marriage, Tilak was against the 1891 Age of Consent bill, seeing it as interference with Hinduism and a dangerous precedent. British troops were brought in to deal with the emergency and harsh measures were employed including forced entry into private houses, examination of occupants, evacuation to hospitals and segregation camps, removing and destroying personal possessions, and preventing patients from entering or leaving the city.

Tilak encouraged the Swadeshi movement and the Boycott movement. The movement consisted of the boycott of foreign goods and also the social boycott of any Indian who used foreign goods. The Swadeshi movement consisted of the usage of natively produced goods. Once foreign goods were boycotted, there was a gap which had to be filled by the production of those goods in India itself. Tilak said that the Swadeshi and Boycott movements are two sides of the same coin.

Tilak opposed the moderate views of Gopal Krishna Gokhale and was supported by fellow Indian nationalists Bipin Chandra Pal in Bengal and Lala Lajpat Rai in Punjab. They were referred to as the “Lal-Bal-Pal triumvirate”. In 1907, the annual session of the Congress Party was held at Surat, Gujarat. Trouble broke out over the selection of the new president of the Congress between the moderate and the radical sections of the party. The party split into the “Jahal matavadi”, led by Tilak, Pal and Lajpat Rai, and the “Maval matavadi”. Nationalists like Aurobindo Ghose, V. O. Chidambaram Pillai were Tilak supporters.

When World War I started in August, Tilak cabled the King-Emperor in Britain of his support and turned his oratory to find new recruits for war efforts. He welcomed The Indian Councils Act, popularly known as Minto-Morley Reforms, which had been passed by British Parliament in May 1909, terming it as “a marked increase of confidence between the Rulers and the Ruled”.

Must Read: Governor Generals and Viceroys of India

Acts of violence actually retarded, then hastened, the pace of political reforms, he felt. He was eager for reconciliation with Congress and had abandoned his demand for direct action and settled for agitations “strictly by constitutional means” – a line advocated by his rival Gokhale.Tilak tried to convince Mohandas Gandhi to leave the idea of Total non-violence (“Total Ahinsa”) and try to get Self-rule (“Swarajya”) by all means. Gandhi, though respected him as his guru, did not change his mind.He was the first Congress leader to suggest that Hindi written in the Devanagari script be accepted as the sole national language of India.

Tilak re-united with his fellow nationalists and re-joined the Indian National Congress in 1916. He also helped found the All India Home Rule League in 1916–18, with G. S. Khaparde and Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Annie Besant. After years of trying to reunite the moderate and radical factions, he gave up and focused on the Home Rule League, which sought self-rule. Tilak started his Home Rule League in Maharashtra, Central Provinces, and Karnataka and Berar region.

The Swadeshi movement started by Tilak at the beginning of the 20th century became part of the Independence movement until that goal was achieved in 1947. One can even say Swadeshi remained part of Indian Government policy until the 1990s when the Congress Government liberalised the economy. Tilak Smarak Ranga Mandir, a theatre auditorium in Pune was dedicated to him. In 2007, the Government of India released a coin to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Tilak.

Must Read:

Indian National Movement

Non-cooperation and Khilafat Movement

Chandrashekhar Azad

Colonialism is the establishment, exploitation, maintenance, acquisition, and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a set of unequal relationships between the colonial power and the colony and often between the colonists and the indigenous population.

The European colonial period was the era from the 16th century to the mid-20th century when several European powers (particularly, but not exclusively, Portugal, Spain, Britain, the Netherlands, Russia, Italy and France) established colonies in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. At first, the countries followed mercantilist policies designed to strengthen the home economy at the expense of rivals, so the colonies were usually allowed to trade only with the mother country. By the mid-19th century, however, the powerful British Empire gave up mercantilism and trade restrictions and introduced the principle of free trade, with few restrictions or tariffs.

Read Also: Drain of Wealth British Colonialism and Economic Impact

Types of colonialism

• Settler colonialism involves large-scale immigration, often motivated by religious, political, or economic reasons.
• Exploitation colonialism involves fewer colonists and focuses on access to resources for export, typically to the metropole. This category includes trading posts as well as larger colonies where colonists would constitute much of the political and economic administration, but would rely on indigenous resources for labour and material. Prior to the end of the slave trade and widespread abolition, when indigenous labour was unavailable, slaves were often imported to the Americas, first by the Portuguese Empire, and later by the Spanish, Dutch, French and British.

Plantation colonies would be considered exploitation colonialism: but colonizing powers would utilize either type for different territories depending on various social and economic factors as well as climate and geographic conditions.

Surrogate colonialism involves a settlement project supported by colonial power, in which most of the settlers do not come from the mainstream of the ruling power.

Must Read: Indian Trade, Colonialism, and the Global System

Internal colonialism is a notion of uneven structural power between areas of a nation state. The source of exploitation comes from within the state.

The 17th century saw the creation of the French colonial empire and the Dutch Empire, as well as the English overseas possessions, which later became the British Empire. It also saw the establishment of a Danish colonial empire and some Swedish overseas colonies.

The spread of colonial empires was reduced in the late 18th and early 19th centuries by the American Revolutionary War and the Latin American wars of independence. However, many new colonies were established after this time, including the German colonial empire and Belgian colonial empire. In the late 19th century, many European powers were involved in the Scramble for Africa.

The Russian Empire, Ottoman Empire and Austrian Empire existed at the same time as the above empires but did not expand over oceans. Rather, these empires expanded through the more traditional route of the conquest of neighbouring territories. There was, though, some Russian colonization of the Americas across the Bering Strait. The Empire of Japan modelled itself on European colonial empires. The United States of America gained overseas territories after the Spanish-American War for which the term “American Empire” was coined.

After the First World War, the victorious allies divided up the German colonial empire and much of the Ottoman Empire between them as League of Nations mandates. These territories were divided into three classes according to how quickly it was deemed that they would be ready for independence.

The colonial system was the major cause of the Second World War. The war in the Pacific was caused by Japan’s efforts to create a colonial empire that conflicted with the existing empires held by the British, French, Dutch and the United States.

Don’t Miss: Colonial Exploitation of Indian Economy

The Partition of India, a 1947 civil war that came in the aftermath of India’s independence from Britain, became a conflict with 500,000 killed. Fighting erupted between Hindu, Sikh and Muslim communities as they fought for territorial dominance. Muslims fought for an independent country to be partitioned where they would not be a religious minority, resulting in the creation of Pakistan.

The impacts of colonization are immense and pervasive. Various effects, both immediate and protracted, include the spread of virulent diseases, unequal social relations, exploitation,enslavement, medical advances, the creation of new institutions, abolitionism, improved infrastructure, and technological progress. Colonial practices also spur the spread of colonist languages, literature, and cultural institutions, while endangering or obliterating those of native peoples. The native cultures of the colonized peoples can also have a powerful influence on the imperial country.

Have a look at:

British Relations with Tibet

Impact of Colonial Rule over India