Rule of the Raj in India.

Recently,our PM, Dr Manmohan Singh on his address at the Oxford University, spoke about the many benefits India attained because of the British rule in India for close to 200yrs. There was a lot of hue and cry about his statements and many political parties demanded an apology. I went through a couple of blogs which spoke about India’s lost pride and some said that our PM should have demanded an apology from the Queen for all the atrocities and return to us our valuable artifacts. I reflected upon the issue for some time and I would like to blog my views on the rule of the Raj in India.


Firstly, a State called India as we know today exists because of the British Rule. India was a number of small kingdoms with no resources complete in itself. The Mughal rule which existed in majority of Indian regions, was in no case more benevolent than the British rule. The majority of the population, the hindus, were under religious persecution of the Mughals. But for the British rule, India would have been another Islamic state with Hindus, though in majority yet never a part of the ruling class. Had the East India Company, and later the Queen’s direct rule, not annexed all the small kingdoms and the Mughals, there was no way one single individual state would have prevailed over others. Even after the Britishers left, it was because of the Iron Man of India, Dr Sardar Patel, that states were united under one Tricolour. Just the Kashmir issue has led to four wars. Imagine a situation of 30 different kingdoms, fighting each other and that too under the Mughal Rule.


It was because of the entrance of the Britishers, India is a secular state today. By their presence, they forced all others to unite against them in the fight for freedom, irrespective of language, culture and religion. The unity in diversity and secularism India is boasting about today, has its roots to the freedom struggle against the colonialist British Empire. In a negative way, it has resulted in a positive outcome.


Secondly, Indian states in 1700s were blissfully unaware of the industrial revolution. It was the Britishers, who got us introduced to the idea of mechanizations. Many infrastructure in our country today was initially established by them. They introduced the lifeline of India today, the Indian Railways. They introduced the postal services. The various institutions of the armed forces and our reputation as one of the world’s finest professional army and a disciplined fighting force are all about British contribution at the inception level. Our training methodologies, regimental drills, day-to-day administration have all been inspired from the British Army.


Any semblance of bureaucracy and administration is a direct contribution of the British Government. The judiciary, the police and the free press as such have all flown from the British ideologies. The idea of democracy, constitutional government and the rule of law is one of the greatest contribution for our country which always faced the curse of monarchs interested in self development and arts and culture rather than real development of people. The Indian Constitution that has stood the test of time has been heavily inspired by the British rule of law system.



Their contribution towards education is very profound. India, a land of thousand cultures and over a hundred languages and dialects, was given a common language for education and higher education by the Britishers. Modern School system and universities are all there contribution. It is this advantage, which we are reaping now in our growing IT sector and economic cooperation with the other rich western countries. Our higher education and scientific knowledge is all taught in English and its advantages are very evident.


Yet having said all these, I am duty bound to speak about the negative side of the whole colonialism of British Empire in India. The region, the people and the resources were thoroughly exploited. No amount of explanation is enough to justify their economic and social exploitation of our country. Most of the nation’s youth were involved in freedom struggle leaving no scope of social development. The locals were not a priority and all infrastructure established in the country was to assist the colonial rulers. Though it helped the nation when they left it, the intention was totally different at the time of establishment. The glorious history of India was rewritten to suit them. Indians were never encouraged to excel in any field and if very few have done it, most of them sung the British tune. Those who opposed them, never stood any chance. In effect, it was a systematic assassination of indigenous human resource. I am sure the generation, which had witnessed the rule of Raj, will have more to tell about the atrocities committed by the Britishers in India. The armed forces of India, were made to fight for the Britishers in all corners of the world in both the world wars, in which India had no direct interest nor did we get any pie of the war booty which the Britishers amazed. The Divide and Rule policy had its own side effects. The greatest and most conspicuous mistake and injustice of the colonialists was the creation of Pakistan, a direct outcome of the policy of divide and rule. This blunder has proven very costly to not only India as a nation, but the world in general. Recently, it was four Pakistanis who carried out the London suicide attacks, for some terrorist group. As you sow, so shall you reap!


At the end, I would say that though we cannot forget the ills of the British rule in India, at the same time, we cannot ignore the positive outcomes of their rule, some of which have formed the backbone of very existence of India as nation today.