Monday, July 27, 2015

Summary of Points made by Sh. Shashi Tharoor, MP in his Oxford speech


  1. When Britishers came to India, India's share in world economy was 23 %. By the time they had left the same share had gone down to below 4 %. 
  2. British rise in those 200 years was financed by the loot committed in India. 
  3. Local industry / artisan-ship were systematically broken down by breaking machinery / killing skilled force / imposing heavy duties on imports. 
  4.  Then all raw material was sent from India to England. Ans finished product was sent back. So by 1900 India was England's biggest cash cow, biggest purchaser of finished goods  
  5. Between 15 and 29 million Indians died in British induced famines. In Bengal famine, alone, around 4 million people died, because Winston Churchill refused to provide food for them Instead sending food to the troops.   
  6. Nothing could be far from saying that British did whatever they did for benefit of Indians.
  7. (1/6)th of all British forces that fought were Indians. 54000 Indians lost their lives in that war. 64000 were wounded. 
  8. Indian tax payers had to cough up a 100 million pounds, in those days, India supplied 70 million rounds of ammunitions, 600, 000 rifles, 42 million garments were sent out of India and 1.3 million Indian personnel served in this war. India had to supply 173,000 animals. 170 million tonnes of supplies. Total value of what was taken out of India at that time, in today's time, value is 8 billion pounds. 
  9. Situation was even worse in 2nd world war.
  10. There is an amazing misconception about Railways and Roads. British constructed those for their own self interest and not for India's welfare.  
  11. Finally the seeds of ethnic and religious violence were a direct result of British Politics.   


No comments:

Post a Comment