How Did British Imperialism Affect India

In 1922, Britain had control over nearly one quarter of all the land on Earth. After the Industrial Revolution, Europe realized that they could gain mass amounts of resources from other countries. In 1757, the British East India company took control of India, and used their resources for factories back in Britain. India was regarded as their most profitable and useful colony. In 1857, the Sepoy Rebellion took place, and Britain came in and officially took complete political, economic, and social control. As one could imagine, this had major negative impacts on the politics, economy, and the people of India. Although some people, such as Dr. Kartar Lalvani, claim Britain had a mostly positive effect in India, this is wrong. India lost control
It is argued that the British “established the framework for India’s justice system, civil service, loyal army, and efficient police force” (Lalvani). However, the people governing India were, for the most part, British. “Of 960 civil offices… 900 are occupied by Englishmen” (Document 2). This means that the Indians had nearly no say or influence in how they were governed, or what laws and rules were established. The British used the systems they put in place for their own personal gain. They would use their position to impose higher tax rates, and then leave once their time was up or had the money they wanted. In regards to the army, some say “the Indian army was formed and its top officers were trained in new military academies” (Lalvani). Sure, they were trained in new academies but the British-trained officers were used to control and restrict the Indians, such as the Amritsar massacre (Gandhi). As shown with the Amritsar massacre, they were used to enforce skewed justice based on the British’s bias. The army mowed down hundreds of peaceful protestors, because a law was established to ban their protests. They also generally assaulted and harassed Indians, and punishment for crimes were significantly worse for Indians. The political framework and new army was not made for India’s betterment, it was made for the British to have a
Lalvani argues that “health and life expectancy both improved dramatically, particularly because malaria was tackled and vaccination against smallpox introduced.” However, the British caused widespread famine and suffering for the people of India. For 745 years, starting in year 1000, there were only 18 total famines (Document 11). Once Britain took control of India in 1770, over 177 years there were 40 famines (Document 11). Nearly 59 million people died because of this (Document 11). One reason for this was the taxation Britain introduced (Document 5). Another reason was their decimation of the environment, and forcing them to grow cash crops (Document 8). Britain didn’t care that they were starving, they were still making their money and their people weren’t dying. Indians didn’t have the money to buy food, they were forced to grow cash crops, and since their environment was hurt by the British they couldn’t sufficiently grow their own food even if they could. When talking about education, Lalvani says “...wealthy young Indians were packed off to Britain to study and returned home well-trained, bristling with new ideas.” This is refuted by the fact that, 14 years after independence, the educated portion of their population jumped from 16% to 24%, and increased by nearly 6% every ten years afterward (Document