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Colonial American Imperialism

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Michael Flanders once wrote, “If God had intended us to fly, he’d had never given us railways.” Indeed, India’s railways act as the most enduring legacy of colonial rule. Facilitating movement of people and ideas, modern India may not be the way it is today if not for the interconnected railways across the landscape. But an argument arises from discussing the infrastructural advancements of India thanks to British rule: could India have built the infrastructure themselves, making it equal, if not better? While colonial apologists and critics argue over the effects of major infrastructural projects in the 1840s and 1850s in India, it is important to remember that without either, India and Britain would not have developed the same. Although …show more content…
Thanks to territorial expansion and unification of Indian provinces by the British East India Company, India’s rural landscape was changed. India started growing opium and indigo, and the Indian textile industry decline. The EIC (East India Company) used opium as a secure way to get tea from China, the crop increasing in value over time for the British, used in ‘trading one addictive substance for another.’ European demand for blue dye led to the boom and bust nature of growing indigo in India. The colonial state even forced farmers to grow indigo, until a “Blue Mutiny” in Bengal in India in 1859 convinced them to bring reforms to their system. As the Industrial Revolution swept England, the desire for hand-woven Indian textiles rapidly decreased. Colonial apologists, those who defend British rule in India, argue …show more content…
The construction of railways are seen as a positive impact of the colonial rule, some colonial apologists going as far to say that the railways ‘justify’ the British rule. Considering that Indian Railways today runs on over 100,000 kilometers of tracks with 1.3 million employees, ‘one of the largest employers in the world,’ this idea is not farfetched. However, one must keep in mind the likely original reasons behind the railways’ construction: moving raw materials and manufactured goods efficiently (which means more potential profit for the state) and an effective method of moving soldiers and goods in the event of an uprising. For such a large public works project, it barely positively impacted the Indian people. Backed by the Crown, all profits from the railroad system went back to the state. Critics even point out that India, although receiving European innovation, was used as an experiment to the EIC. The formation of the Ganges Canal later led to the decline of the surrounding soil quality, and the first deep-sea telegraph cable built in the world was an experiment by the colonial state in India. Technological and communication improvements throughout India are considered to be all ways the British wanted to maximize India’s use for their own personal gain. However, these two conflicting sides share something in common: India and Britain were vital to each other during India’s colonial rule.

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