Before Britain arrived in India, india produced, or the area that would eventually become India produced around 25% of the world's gross domestic product after 200 years of being suppressed by the British, who decimated its industries, particularly the weavers and the material industry, who stole trillions of dollars of wealth, which was equivalent to $45 trillion in today's monetary value of wealth from India, who abused its people, who exploited its labor, who used them like slave labor, who even, in some instances, killed innocent men, women and children, for example, in the Amritsar massacre or starved millions of Bengalis to death because he didn't want to feed them the crops, the grain that was available en route from Australia to Europe as surplus for the war effort
Sreeja V
@Wordsmith · 3:24
Their cultural belief systems, the traditional belief systems, were termed as pagan and an education system was enforced that, as you rightly said, would make sure that the British has a serving force. Right. It did not encourage independent or disruptive thinking. Rather, it was about toeing the line and fostering a bunch of administrative clerks and others who would be in positions that did not give them power or authority, but would just ensure that they serve the government right, which is essentially the British and power
Hey, Benedict. There's no denying the enormous economic damage done to India by the Empire. It's a fact that approximately 35 million Indians died because of famine caused by British misrule. And it's also a fact that around 5.5 million Africans were taken into slavery and that the concentration, the first concentration camp was, in fact invented by the British Empire
Sreeja V
@Wordsmith · 1:13
Hey, Varun, I just want to state that my opinion is based on a few articles that I have read and I would like to share the link to one that has appeared on the New in the the New York Times, right? And I'm specifically talking about the role that the British and specifically Winston Churchill played during the partition. And you will also be surprised as you want to read this article, that there are lots of things there's division into classes, into cars, et cetera
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
happy kewlani
@hansa · 3:55
India was a huge thing, which included the President, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Pajakistan, many things. It was like an Indian subcontinent. And the people of India did not believe in things like racism, to be precise, and the evil practices. And what about the education system? You say they give us education system? No, the system is totally depressed. The better education system, which was already being followed in India, the Gurukul system was far better than this
Benedict Garrett
@Bendi_G · 5:00
But it just has taken huge steps back under Boris Johnson and since the vote and Brexit and this rejuvenation of the idea of empire and the British greatness, which actually underlies that racism and bigotry and nationalism, which we should be ashamed of, and we should take our heads out of the sand and admit that it was not a golden day and it was something that we should all be ashamed of
Benedict Garrett
@Bendi_G · 5:00
It's that kind of mentality. And as I said, that drove to Brexit and that still drives many people to harbor views which I can only describe as bigoted and racist, which, as you point out, Britain is today a multicultural society, particularly in the metropolitan centers. But still there is a large degree of people who harbor these racist notions and views which can still make life very unpleasant and uncomfortable for people of nonwhite British background who reside in the UK