British Imperialism In India

Words: 700
Pages: 3

Have you ever been in a situation where something that was originally yours, or at least partially yours, was taken over by a stranger that changed everything and forced you to conform to the new ways? That’s what it was like for native Indians when the British came over. The political, economic and social impacts of British imperialism are viewed by many as mainly positive. The Indian military was created, the people of India exported goods that everyone needed or wanted, and the British taught everyone the English language. That’s what many learned about the imperialism of India. However, in reality, the bad outweighs the good by quite a bit.

While Dr. Lalvani, and many others, may think that the political impacts on India from Britain were fairly positive, the evidence here begs to differ. The British created Indian army and military academies (paragraph #13). It’s a seemingly fine creation, except for the fact that instead of using the army to fight for their country, it was used against India’s native
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The British documented that they taught the English language to everyone, this is partially true. They did, in fact, leave out the part where they prevented the Indians to read. The literacy rates only went up a few points every ten years up until India gained its independence (doc. 5). After India gained independence the literacy rates went up about ten points every ten years. Another social impact on India from British imperialism was the health and life expectancy. This improved when the British rule began, however, when the British forced the farmers to grow unprofitable crops like indigo and cotton, 26 million people died of famine between 1875-1900 (doc. 7). The British seemingly helped the Indians, but ended up changing certain parts of their lives that affected their culture