How British Colonialism Killed 100 Million Indians in 40 Years
BRICS, 19 Dec 2022
Dylan Sullivan and Jason Hickel | Al Jazeera – TRANSCEND Media Service
Our research finds that Britain’s exploitative policies were associated with approximately 100 million excess deaths during the 1881-1920 period (1904-1906) /Wikimedia Commons]
2 Dec 2022 – Between 1880 to 1920, British colonial policies in India claimed more lives than all famines in the Soviet Union, Maoist China and North Korea combined.
Recent years have seen a resurgence in nostalgia for the British empire. High-profile books such as Niall Ferguson’s Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World, and Bruce Gilley’s The Last Imperialist, have claimed that British colonialism brought prosperity and development to India and other colonies. Two years ago, a YouGov poll found that 32 percent of people in Britain are actively proud of the nation’s colonial history.
This rosy picture of colonialism conflicts dramatically with the historical record. According to research by the economic historian Robert C Allen, extreme poverty in India increased under British rule, from 23 percent in 1810 to more than 50 percent in the mid-20th century. Real wages declined during the British colonial period, reaching a nadir in the 19th century, while famines became more frequent and more deadly. Far from benefitting the Indian people, colonialism was a human tragedy with few parallels in recorded history.
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Tags: British Colonialism, British empire, India, Massacre, South Asia
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