{"id":3248,"date":"2019-11-12T05:58:23","date_gmt":"2019-11-12T09:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=3248"},"modified":"2022-03-11T11:26:32","modified_gmt":"2022-03-11T15:26:32","slug":"british-rule-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/british-rule-in-india\/","title":{"rendered":"British Rule in India: Can You Erase Imperial Legacies?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What were the legacies of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/expansion-and-consolidation-of-british-power-in-india\/\">British rule in India<\/a>? How did the British Raj irrevocably change the nation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We&#8217;ll cover the British legacy in India and how empires, though often oppressive and unjust, bring benefits as well. See how the British rule in India has impacted the country today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Legacies of British Rule in India<br><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The conquest of India by the British Empire was brutal. Millions of Indians lost their lives and hundreds of millions more were exploited and mistreated. It\u2019s understandable that some would want to try to return India to a state prior to the rule of the British Raj.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But this would mean a return to a fragmented territory. When the British invaded, they also united the numerous warring kingdoms and tribes that existed there. The British rule in India created a shared Indian identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To take away all British imperial legacies in India, you\u2019d also have to remove the justice system, the government structure, the railroad network, democracy, the game of cricket, and chai tea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And, if you succeeded in doing this, you\u2019d be left not with the original, \u201cpure\u201d Indian culture, but rather the legacies of the equally-brutal Muslim empires of the Mughal and the sultanate of Delhi, which ruled India before the Brits. To do away with these legacies, you\u2019d have to destroy one of India\u2019s most iconic buildings, the Taj Mahal, among other structures and customs.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And if you succeeded here? You\u2019d have the legacies of the Gupta Empire, the Kushan Empire, and the Maurya Empire to contend with.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can\u2019t really divorce a country from its imperial legacies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, the world is smaller and more united because of the dissolving of past cultures, and the legacies of empires are innumerable. As opposed to the thousands of languages spoken by our ancestors, today, most of us speak an imperial language. Many native groups of European colonies embraced the Western values of self-determinism and human rights and used these values against their Western masters in their fights against colonial rule. There\u2019s no going back to a \u201cpure\u201d culture, one untainted by imperialism. Its legacies are everywhere, and to somehow extract these legacies would by to destroy every contemporary culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Critiques of Empire<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In modern times, \u201cempire\u201d and \u201cimperialism\u201d are bad words. Empires like the British rule in India are accused of destroying and exploiting local resources and ways of life. The establishment and maintenance of many of the most successful empires <em>did<\/em> involve destruction and violence, including war, enslavement, and genocide. But as we\u2019ll see throughout this chapter, empires have shaped the world in positive ways as well, and in fact, <strong>much of our human culture is based on the legacies of empire.<\/strong><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Benevolent Imperialism<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Sapiens have evolved the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/protective-instinct\/\">survival instinct<\/a> to distinguish \u201cus\u201d from \u201cthem.\u201d For example, the name of Sudan\u2019s Dinka people means \u201cpeople,\u201d as if members of other tribes aren\u2019t even human. Similarly, the name of Sudan\u2019s Nuer group means \u201coriginal people\u201d and the name of the Yupik people in Alaska and Siberia means \u201creal people.\u201d <strong>We\u2019re programmed to care only about \u201cus,\u201d ourselves and those immediately around us, who share our language, beliefs, and customs.<\/strong><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s surprising, then, that since Cyrus the Great of Persia established the first Persian Empire around 550 BC, kings and emperors have claimed to conquer territories and people for their own good. <strong>And there was some benefit for conquered people\u2014uniting different nations were under one government facilitated the dissemination of ideas, technology, and goods.<\/strong> Like the British empire in India, many empires have intended (or purported) to benefit their new subjects.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was to the advantage of the ruler to encourage this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/spread-ideas\/\">spread of ideas<\/a> and goods. For one thing, it made ruling easier. It\u2019s hard to run an empire in which every territory has its own language, currency, and laws. Encouraging trade and the transmission of ideas helped standardize government policies and structures.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It also justified their rule. If kings spread what they saw as their own culture\u2019s superior language, currency, and laws, they could feel they were doing so for the benefit of all subjects. And whether they were planning cities, standardizing measures, or imposing taxes, <strong>rulers and their administrations genuinely believed they were working for the good of all subjects.<\/strong><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This has happened throughout history. Cyrus the Great wanted to bring all the benefits of being Persian subjects to new cultures while letting them maintain their traditions. He famously ordered that exiled Jews be allowed to return to their homeland and rebuild their temple and even gave them the money to do so. Similarly, Chinese emperors believed they were educating their barbarian neighbors. Muslim caliphs sought to share Muhammad\u2019s revelation. Brits sought to introduce the world to liberalism and free trade. And Americans believe it\u2019s their moral duty to establish democracy and the concept of human rights in developing countries, even if they have to do it through war.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a world in which we\u2019re programmed to be xenophobic, these rulers attempted to be inclusive and unite different people under one political system. This does make the British rule in India just.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Example: British Colonization of India and the Marriage of Science and Empire<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Unlike when the Muslims conquered India, the British raj brought scientists to not only study Indian geography, geology, zoology, and culture, but also to get data on rare spiders, uncover ruins, and discover the origins of extinct Indian languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>British officers were expected to spend up to three years studying Hindu and Muslim law; the Sanskrit, Urdu, and Persian languages; and Tamil, Bengali, and Hindustani culture. The British believed that knowledge of your subjects was essential to ruling them. The education of British officers in India a true marriage of imperial and scholarly goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The British discovered India\u2019s first notable civilization, a civilization even the Indians weren\u2019t aware of, when they explored forgotten ruins. They discovered that the languages of Sanskrit and Hindu shared a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/charles-darwins-tree-of-life\/\">common ancestor<\/a> with Greek and Latin languages. Scientists made breakthroughs that spawned new areas of research still explored today.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This wasn\u2019t knowledge for the sake of knowledge. The work of British scientists allowed a small British population of 175,000 to rule a country of 300 million Indians. Knowledge was their imperial superpower.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What were the legacies of British rule in India? How did the British Raj irrevocably change the nation? We&#8217;ll cover the British legacy in India and how empires, though often oppressive and unjust, bring benefits as well. See how the British rule in India has impacted the country today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[57],"class_list":["post-3248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","tag-sapiens","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>British Rule in India: Can You Erase Imperial Legacies? - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How has British rule in India impacted the nation today? 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