Give the negative effects of the British rule in India.

Question

Accepted Answer

The negative effects of the British rule in India are as follows:

1. **Colonial exploitation through trade malpractices**: The Britishers exploited India by following unfair trade practices. They collected raw materials for British industries from India and sold the finished goods of British industries in India. To encourage this trade, no duty was charged on imports from Britain, and subsidies were given for exporting raw material to Britain.

2. **Use of British capital to exploit the country's resources**: The Britishers used their capital and entrepreneurial skills to exploit India's natural resources and cheap labour. They invested in mining and plantation industries and paid very low wages to the workers, despite unsafe working conditions.

3. **Development of only those industries which complemented British industries**: The Britishers invested only in those industries which complemented the growth of their industries back home. So they invested in developing railways, posts and telegraphs, rubber, tea and coffee plantations, etc. They totally neglected the development of key and basic industries like iron and steel and machine-making industries. Jute and cotton textile industries were also discouraged, as they could have been a threat to the textile factories of Britain.

4. **Economic drain**: The Britishers drained the country economically. They took away various wealthy possessions that India possessed, such as the famous Kohinoor diamond. The large export surplus generated by India's foreign trade was used for the administrative and war expenses of Britain, and no gold or silver flowed back into India.

5. **Partition of the country**: This was the most drastic consequence of the British rule in India. The Britishers fuelled the Hindu-Muslim dispute for their own benefit, which led to the partition of the country and the disruption of the Indian economy.

Thus, the British rule resulted in large-scale poverty, stagnation and backwardness of the Indian economy, along with a huge drain of the country's economic resources to Great Britain.