The Cost of Colonialism: India's Economic Decline Under British Rule

A shrewd, unsentimental inspection of the archives, laying bare the charge-sheet against the British and their economic policy in India: the numbers don’t lie. With colonialism debates raging worldwide, when it comes to India, a whole spectrum of Empire-defenders-apologists, cheerleaders and full-blown racial supremacists-face off against outlandish claims of trillions owed and obsessions with stolen precious artefacts.Yet where is the complete and rigorous economic case against Britain?This book offers a comprehensive account detailing the real cost of British rule on the subcontinent: the catastrophic, centuries-long stagnation of Indian living standards.In 1947, at independence, about 400 million people in undivided India lived on less than $1,000 per year-a third of the global average income, and just an eleventh of the UK average.To reach British income levels, India would have needed to add an economy equivalent in size to half the world. The Cost of Colonialism combines historic