Impacts of British Rule on India Flashcards
How much did India’s public debt grow by between 1857-60?
70%
How much had land tax contributed to national income when the British came to power in India? What had this reduced to by the end of the colonial period?
15% to 1%
How many principle offices did the National Bank of India have by 1900? Where were some notable ones located?
19 - India, Ceylon, Burma and East Africa
How much did India’s export values grow between 1870 and 1914?
Five fold
How much did the Indian economy grow on average per year between 1880-1920? Why did this not show any real improvement?
1%
Because the population grew at the same rate and hence why the change per capita was negligible
How had India’s economy transitioned under British rule?
From a manufacturing and textile economy to one much more agrarian (and thus ‘backward’)
How did India’s position change among Britain’s export markets between 1870-1913?
India rose from third to first place
How did the creation of the gold standard in the 1870s impact India?
It put India at a trade disadvantage as her trade was mainly with countries on the gold standard but British imperial policy meant she continued to be on the declining silver standard.
When was the Indian rupee eventually pegged to the gold standard?
1899
By the 1880s, how much had Britain invested in Indian infrastructure? What proportion of overseas investment did this equate to?
£270 million
1/5 of British investment overseas
Who did the greater government efficiency benefit economically?
Landlords, capitalists and the new professional classes
What did over half the government spending go into even in 1936? What does this show?
Military, justice, police and jails
This shows that the British were not seeking to develop India economically or socially e.g. through widespread education investment
How did India’s share of global GDP change over the colonial period?
It declined from 20% to 5%
How many tea plantations were there in 1851 and 1871?
1851 = 1 plantation 1871 = 295 plantations
What did the Indian contingent of the army benefit from under colonial rule?
Increased training and improved equipment
What proportion of land was improved by land improvement and irrigation schemes?
6%
Which group benefitted the most from decreased land taxes?
Landlords
How had the British converted the region of Assam?
They changed it from a jungle to 2 million acres of cultivated land
What do Neoroji and Dutt believed happened to the wealth of India under colonial rule?
They believed it was drained off to Britain
How many miles of railway network was there in 1860? 1880? Who carried out most of the construction of this?
1860 - 838 miles
1880 - 15,842 miles
How can the railway network be seen to have a limited positive social impact?
Because the railway was geared towards trade and control, ordinary people were not able to exploit the mobility advantages which it brought for a while.
When and where was the first telegraph line established?
From Diamond Harbour to Calcutta in 1851