British Imperialism: The Brutalisation of India

By Ky Brooks

14/08/2021

On the 15th of August 1947, the British Empire lost its crown jewel, India, as the working people there broke free from the chains of imperialist oppression and into the age of independence. It was on this day that years of collective struggle on behalf of the working people overpowered the might of imperialism and established a new India. Today, over 70 years later, we remember an India trapped under the heavy chains of Imperialism and the hardships endured by the working people.

“Millions of Indian people suffered at the hands of British Imperialism, with decades of exploitation and violent repression being targeted at the Indian population.”

India was and still is a heavily populated country with an enormous working class which the British ruling elite sought to utilize for the empire. They created a situation in which these workers had to choose to serve the empire or face the brutal consequences.

The Indian working class, as a direct result of the forces of British Imperialism and capital, faced crippling exploitation and seemingly endless repression. As a result of India’s prime location, it was labelled a highly valuable asset for trade and could therefore benefit the British mercantile class, primarily as India provided easy access to other British colonies as well as foreign imperial powers in the Eastern hemisphere. The British bourgeoisie were also encouraged by the suitability of the Indian environment for the growth of herbs and spices for export. This resulted in not only the heavy exploitation of Indian working-class people, but also of the natural resources found in their nation. The motives for the colonisation of India were the benefit of the British ruling elite and their unending quest for power and wealth. This resulted in the collapse of Indian society and led to the deaths of millions of native people.

The colonisation of India allowed the British ruling class to gain even further Imperial power in and around Asia and Africa, which was the location of many British colonies and where competition between empires was rather high [1]. The most notable vehicle of British Imperialism in India was the East India Company, a joint-stock company which allowed the British to successfully maintain a tight grip on the Indian working class as well as parts of Southeast Asia [2]. It was the EIC that forced its way into Indian trade and eventually overcame resistance on the subcontinent at the Battle of Plassey (1757). Consequently, this company gained access to a huge amount of labour-power and other resources, effectively acting as the rulers of the country. This allowed Britain to extract extensive wealth from the people, which was used to strengthen the empire and its power over its colonies. Indian people were commodified as a result of Britain’s lust for power and their expansion of trade, with the general population being neglected and unable to fulfill their individual and creative needs while having no choice but to serve the empire [3].

The British Empire sought to utilize India’s population of approximately 300 million people for the benefit of the ruling class. Much of the able-bodied population had no choice but to work for the British Empire, where their working environment was harsh, unregulated, and contained little to no safety procedures. Those who simply refused to work would not make an income and therefore would be unable to survive under the tough conditions present under the empire. Thus, the Indian people suffered economic coercion - they had no choice but to work [3].

India’s high population also meant there was much wealth to be extracted from the people. This extraction of wealth was not only in the form of severe exploitation where workers operated in unsafe environments for little to no benefit, but also in the form of charging Indian people an exceptionally high price to purchase the products produced on their land by their labour [4]. This ensured two things: firstly, that the British had in their possession a secure, sizeable source of income from India to use for the expansion, preservation, and strengthening of the empire and secondly, that the Indian working class would become dependent on the very capitalist forces exploiting them. Primarily this is a result of the ownership of industry, and therefore of the capital produced by the workers of these industries, lying in the hands of the British elite. Thus, in order to survive, the working people had to work for British industry and then purchase the very goods they produced from British industry, enriching the empire and increasing its dominance over India [4]. Consequently, the British stole a total of approximately $63 trillion Australian dollars ($63,000,000,000,000 AUD) from India and the Indian people from 1765 to 1938 [5]. The Indian people in the eyes of the British Imperialists were nothing but commodities to be bought and sold to the highest bidder, which would work for the sake of increasing the wealth of the ruling class.

In order to extract this colossal amount of value from the Indian population, the imperialists made use of more than just economic coercion. They also used force to guarantee the productivity of their newfound labour power. The British Indian Army was formed in 1895 and reached a size of 2,500,000 people during the 1940s [6]. Its main purpose was to defend the property of the ruling class of British India from the poor, and to police those who sought liberation from the oppressive forces of Imperialism. The British Indian Army repressed the population with brutal force while slaughtering thousands of people who simply wanted to live their lives peacefully and freely [7].

India is known for its fertile agricultural land. Specifically, it is the ideal location for the growing of herbs, spices and teas that could be consumed by the ruling elite and utilized as a means of bribing the working class into submission via the glorification of the successes and widespread power of the British Empire [1]. The glorification of the British within India especially resulted in many native people feeling powerless against the empire, thus preventing some revolutionary activity from occurring [4].

Indian herbs and spices were produced and taken to Britain with little cost for the British and little benefit for the Indian people who had their produce forcibly taken away [3]. Additionally, India was also utilized as a growing place for mass quantities of opium, with thousands of labourers working to produce the drug under poor working conditions [8]. This opium was frequently traded with China, which ultimately offset the trade imbalance between the two nations and, as a result of heavy drug consumption among government officials, severely disrupted the functionality of the Imperial Chinese government, also known as the Qing Dynasty. These actions not only led to the further impoverishment of the Indian people but also to the Opium Wars, which were two conflicts fought between the Qing Dynasty and the British Empire during the 19th century that led to the death of over 25,000 soldiers, some of which served in the British Indian Army [9].

Millions of Indian people suffered at the hands of British Imperialism, with decades of exploitation and violent repression being targeted at the Indian population. As a direct result of British colonisation, India’s people had stolen from them the benefits of their labour and the freedoms they once possessed. The British colonised India not for the betterment of the Indian country and people, but for the betterment of the British Empire and to continue its expansion across the globe.

References:

[1] Beck. (2020). History Crunch. british-imperialism-in-india:
https://www.historycrunch.com/british-imperialism-in-india-overview.html#/

[2] Henige. (1970). Colonial governors from the fifteenth century to the present : a comprehensive list. University of Wisconsin Press.

[3] Rajnarayan. (1998), Imperial Power and Popular Politics: Class, Resistance and the State in India, 1850–1950,

[4] Kwatiah. (2020). Colonial Exploitation in India: Forms and Consequences
https://www.economicsdiscussion.net/india/colonial-exploitation/colonial-exploitation-in-india-forms-and-consequences/19005

[5] Hickel. (2018). Aljazeera.com. britain-stole-45-trillion-india-:
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/britain-stole-45-trillion-india-181206124830851.html

[6] Weeks. (1979). World War II Small Arms, New York: Galahad Books, p. 89

[7] Osborne. (2017). 5 of the worst atrocities carried out by the British Empire, after ‘historical amnesia’ claims
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/worst-atrocities-british-empire-amritsar-boer-war-concentration-camp-mau-mau-a7612176.html

[8] Biswas. (2019). How Britain’s Opium Trade Impoverished Indians
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-49404024

[9] Szczepanski. (2019). The First and Second Opium Wars
https://www.thoughtco.com/the-first-and-second-opium-wars-195276