Thursday, November 25, 2010

If India were not colonized…..

If India were not colonized by the Great British Empire whether India would have become what Barack Obama was over and again asserting in his recently concluded maiden Indian visit that India is a rising power to the entire world.

Can we imagine what would have been the condition of India, rather the condition of an
uncolonized India? Where India would have been standing among other world countries now?

Before getting into any kind of argument; we have to agree that the very name India is the end result of colonization, there was no name such as India existed before, rather it was known as Hindustan, and it was from East India Company we got a name coined as India, and then Hindustan adopted the name India.

There will be mixed responses to this argument; there are people who strongly believe and tell that India was looted to the core and the whole wealth was drained out off by East India Company. However, there are people who believe that it’s the colonial rule that gave India a definite frame; frame of laws and regulations, and a perfect bureaucracy.

Hindustan was basically constituted of small princely states where kings were governing. They were fighting for their own kingdoms with the neighboring kingdoms. It was only under the slavery of British, we experienced the bitterness of slavery and we thought about freedom and independence.

The common Indians did not mind living as slaves to the kings of Hindustan. However, when we had a big common enemy in the form of British we stood together but common people of Hindustan would not have done it against the kings of the land. Any king is all powerful in his own kingdom.

The divide and rule policy of British in fact broke the boundaries of princely states and brought them all under one flag the flag of East India Company and Hindustan was given a geographical shape; though it was for good or bad, it was divided into two countries India and Pakistan (Nehru should be blamed for that because his quest for power made him to do that).

“India was said to be a beggar seated on a Golden chair.” Yes, India was very rich with its resources and wealth. But, never knew how to explore them and exploit and convert them into growth of the country. The wealth remained in the hands of kings. It is only after British started business and trade in India, Indians started realizing about manufacturing and mining all that.

It was white men’s headache to educate the illiterate Indians. They never wanted to educate Indians and it was for their own administration purpose and communicating with Indians they started education system in India. By giving education to Indians British was digging their own fall in India. It was western education that opened the eyes of the people of Hindustan and they realized the possibilities and even their own abilities.

Spreading Christianity and conversions were not their aim, the foreign missionaries came just to educate the Indians, and thus, we had so many Christian educational institutions established. British introduced railway to transport goods one from place to another. The dams, buildings and roads all were built for their own convince.

When they left India in the year 1947, the left their marks, on which India was being built later on. Perhaps India would not have become the largest democracy in the world from its princely forms of states if it were not colonized.

Now the India railway remains as the organization employing the largest number of the employees. India has the longest railway line and the most number of train services operated. If it were not by British, we would not have had any such organized railway system. The kinds of dam, buildings and roads they have built still remain intact.

English is equally popular as our national language Hindi, till 1965 English was our national language. If I and you are able to read, write and speak polished English it is the end result of colonization.

The backbone for the development of any county is in its educated population. The number of Christian educational Institutions we have, which have been doing a great role in Indian Education is the end result of colonization.

Though British have taken enough for themselves, Indians were injected with new meaning and civilization, they left so many good lessons, though all these were not deliberately given and taught by them, in a way we acquired them. They had sworn the seeds of growth and change before they left the place.

There is nothing that was not affected by colonization; even the food that we eat and the way we have dressed up. If India were not colonized … it would have remained as small princely states with in a big kingdom, waging war against each state to establish dominion over the other. People would have lived slaves, living the whole life for king, without having their own property because everything was considered to be of King.

(Photos courtesy, Google image)


4 comments:

  1. If india was never colonized the birtish economy would not be as strong as it is currently. Also if india was never conqured we would still be a stable country and a pouplation of 400 million (estimate). India might have gone through a civil war or another golden age which could change indian politics. I think if a civil war, revolution or golden age happened between 1600-2000 we would see india as a democractic country and a major power. Also because of less power from the birtish, france would probally be mighter than united kingdom. UK would be the poorest country in the western hemisphere.

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  2. if india was never colonized then india would be muslim empire

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  3. our current politicians have looted india in the last 50 years 100 times more than what the British looted in their 200years

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  4. I do not quite agree on the conclusion about India continuing wars and slavery. If we look today there must be at some point that India or to say Hindustan would adopt policies like England and lets say British only did trade so that would introduce education and trade so that might have solved the problem of overpopulation, poverty etc. What I think that India might be at the place where England is right now or may be better because of wealth we had.

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