What are the Positive Contributions made by British Rule in India

Explain the British Rule In India – Systematic Exploitation of India.

The various forms of exploitation by the Britishers on the Indian economy can be broadly analyzed with the following points.

(i) India remained an agricultural country throughout the British period and its agricultural sector remained totally backward. This was the commercialization of agriculture to serve the interests of Great
Britain.

(ii) British ruler in india were never permitted to modernize the prevailing industrial structure of India. There was large-scale destruction of world-famous handicrafts and cottage industries of the country.

(iii) By following the policy of discriminating protection, Britishers gained complete control over the entire Indian market.

(iv) British rulers gradually transformed the Indian economy into a primary producing country, exporting only agricultural products and raw materials necessary for industries in Britain and importing finished goods from Britain.

(v) To promote foreign trade and exploit India’s natural resources to their advantage, network, ports, and shipping, irrigation and electricity, etc.

(vi) The British rulers thoroughly exploited the Indian economy through
the economic drain. The aforesaid nature of exploitive policies of the British rulers resulted in large-scale poverty, stagnation, and backwardness of the Indian economy, along with a huge drain of economic resources of the country to Great Britain.

---

Explain the state of Indian economy on the eve of Indpendence

During the British rule, Britishers transformed the Indian economy into a colonial, backward, semi-feudal, stagnant, backward, depleted, and amputated economy.

1. Colonial Economy : In India, colonial exploitation is a long history,
   spread over nearly 200 years. British rule resulted in huge drain of
   wealth from India, so as to facilitate the growing British industry
   with the supply of raw materials from India and also encouraged
   commercialisation of Indian agriculture, in order to transform Indian economy into a British colony. The impact of the British colonial policy was deep on India, even at the time of independence.
2. Semi-feudal Economy : By the close of the British period, there
   were two aspects of the Indian economy.On one hand, there
   existed feudalism in its agricultural sector. Introduction of land
   settlement system gave birth to feudal relations (landlord-tenant
   relations). The landlords used to charge very high rate of lagaan
   and were very cruel to the cultivators. While on the other, modern
   industries were established, which created two classes – capitalist
   and labourers. So, India inherited the features of both feudal and
   capitalist system in the Indian economy.
3. Stagnant Economy : A stagnant economy is one which is growing
   at a very low rate. On the eve of independence, Indian economy
   was a stagnant economy. This was clear from the fact that country’s
   growth of aggregate real output during the first half of the twentieth
   century was less than 2% and growth in per capita output was only
   0.5%.
4. Backward Economy : At the end of British rule, Indian economy
   was backward and underdeveloped. The low level of productivity, low per capita income, traditional methods of agriculture, high
   birth and death rate, mass illitracy were the main reasons for the
   backwardness of Indian economy.
5. Depleted (or Depreciated) Economy : Depleted Economy refers to
   an economy, where no arrangments have been made to replace the
   physical assets, depreciated due to excessive use. At the time of
   independence, Indian economy was a depleted economy. During
   the 2nd World War, Indian industries had to work beyond their
   capacities, to meet the war time requirements of increased demand
   of plant and machinery, equipments, etc. However, British rulers
   did not make any arrangments to replace the depreciated physical
   assets. As a result, British rulers had left a seriously depleted
   economy.
6. Amputated Economy : The Britishers policy of ‘divide and rule’
   always promoted discrimination between various groups on the basis of religion, caste language and culture. As a result, on the eve of Independence, country was geographically divided into two parts India and Pakistan. Partition of the country virtually disrupted the economy due to problem of rehabilitation of large number of refugees from Pakistan and shortage of raw material for jute and cotton mills (as most of the cotton and jute growing areas went to Pakistan)

---

Explain the positive contributions of British Rule.

Sol. British Rule also had some positive effects on the Indian economy. They
are discussed as under :

1. Self-sufficiency in food grain production : Commercialization of
   agriculture initiated by British Government resulted in self-sufficiency in food grain production.
2. Better means of transportation : Development of roads and railways provided cheap and rapid transport system and opened up
   new opportunities of economic and social growth.
3. Check on Famines : Roads and railways worked as a great check
   on the occurrence and impact of famines as food supplies could be
   transported to the affected areas in case of droughts.
4. Shift to Monetary Economy : British rule helped Indian economy
   to shift from barter system of exchange (exchange of goods for goods)
   to monetary system of exchange.
5. Effective administrative setup : The British Government had and
   efficient adminstration system, which served as ready reckoner for
   Indian politician

---