India and material riches were synonym words for at least the last three thousand years before the British rule, and its wealth, for ages, was a magnet to many foreign invaders, including the British. It was considered a "Land of Desire" and a "Land of Promise' eagerly sought after by many nations. To Milton and Shakespeare, for example, the Orient was the ultimate store of treasure and fecundity; and from the reign of Elizabeth onwards India was the metaphor of wealth and empire. Milton's phrase in 'Paradise Lost', "the wealth of Ormus and of Ind" is very well known. Shakespeare refers to India as 'the climax of great oppor- tunities for this world as virtue is with regard to the world to come.
Hegel (1770-1831), points out: "India as a 'Land of Desire' forms the most essential element in General History. From the most ancient times downwards, all nations have directed their wishes and longings to gaining access to the treasures of this land of marvels, the most costly which the Earth presents; treasures of Nature-pearls, diamonds as also treasures of wisdom. The way by which these treasures have passed to the West, has at all times been a matter of World-historical importance, bound up with the fate of nations.
The birth of America and the greater part of Aust- ralasia for Europeans was an offshoot of the intense desire and activity to reach India, as Columbus and other Euro- pean discoverers wanted to discover India, but "picked up the Americas, and the greater part of Australasia as un- considered trifles by the way.'
Galvano wrote, "It may be said that he (Diaz) like Moses, came to see the Promised Land, the land of India, but was never to set foot in it. "
A well-known Swiss author, Bjoran Landstrom, who studied the story of 3,000 years of bold voyages and great explorers from the early Egyptians to the dawn of the dis- covery of America, in his book, "The Quest for India', writes "The routes and means were many, but the goal was always the same; to reach the fabled land of India, a country overflowing with fabulous iches of gold, silver, precious gems, exotic foods, spices, fabrics .
In a way, it is a considerable tribute to India that Marco Polo used the term 'India' not only for Peninsular India but also the regions of the Indian Ocean from Java to the coasts of Africa. The king of Portugal, in 1487, re- named the "Cape of Storms' as discoverer Diaz called it, to the "Cape of Good Hope', because "he had good hopes of finding the passage to India beyond it.
After more than two hundred years of search for the passage to India, Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese, "guided by an Indian pilot whom the king of Milindi had placed at his disposal, at last found the 'Land of Desire' and 'Land of Promise' in 1498. Da Gama's discovery 'represents the last phase of a long quest for the Orient, dating from the Roman era' and wrought a revolution 'not only in the com- merce and politics, but also in the whole moral and intel- lectual life of Europe. This is the reason, Arnold Toyn- bee says, the world economic history "becomes intelligible only when you have taken into account the Indian factor in it" as "India has also been a major force in the world's history in the very different field of economics. "
The Portuguese, followed by the Dutch, the Danes, the French, and the British, in that order, vied and fought with each other for the most profitable trade with India. They would buy manufactured goods and spices from India and sell them in Europe, earning huge profits. In exchange for the imports, Europe had almost nothing to export. Hence to meet balance of trade, Europe had to export to India large quantities of gold and silver previously looted by Spain from South America and eventually filtered throughout Eu- rope. This type of trade where gold and silver were going .
to a foreign country-in the case of Britain for 157 years from the inception of the British East India Company in 1600 to the first conquest of India in 1757-was not liked by mercantile Europe. This necessitated the political control of India so that they would not have to pay for Indian im- ports. The European powers, supported by their respec- tive governments, tried their utmost to subjugate India un- successfully, excepting a few coastal towns with the consent of Indian rulers. British East India Company's forces, for example, attacked the Mughul empire in 1687 to establish 'the foundations of a large well-grounded sure English domi- nion in India for all time to come. In spite of the fact that warships came all the way from England, the Mughuls quelled the British attack with the ease of swatting a fly. The political disintegration and fragmentation of much of India after the death of her last important Mughul emperor, Au- rangzeb, in 1707, provided an opportunity for the Europe- ans to fulfill their long cherished desire to conquer India. They fought with each other and with the Indians. Ultima- tely the British were successful in establishing their hege- mony over India. Britain's first conquest was Bengal in 1757 and the last was Punjab in 1849. They continued to be the masters of India until 1947. Why and how Britain was able to topsy-turvey India-one fifth of all humanity- in 190 years, from the richest to the poorest country of the world is a most tragic episode of Indian history revealed in these pages through the writings of most non-Indian authors, particularly Britons. The criticism of the British government by the British themselves-must not be lightly dismissed. Hence unless otherwise stated, all the authors quoted thro- ughout the book will be non-Indian authors, many of them British. These few British sympathizers of India were con- temptously called by their countrymen "Little Englanders" and 'white niggers" .
The paramount motive of the British to go to India's farthest bounds through scorching heat, over seas, over rocks among people whose culture, language, religion, race and climate were different from theirs, was to make money, and nothing else. Unlike the Portuguese or Spaniards, the
Britons did not go to foreign lands at every possible risk to save the souls of so-called heathens.*
The British Prime Minister, William Pitt, in 1784 laid down two objectives of the British rule in India which, according to him, were 'to confirm and enlarge the advan- tages derived by this country, from its connection with India' and 'to render that connection a blessing to the native Indians. The important question was which ch jective was to be chosen over the other? The answer given by Pitt and his successors in their actions up to 1947 was that the first objective was 'always' to be considered first, come what may. The preference of self-interests over the interests of others is almost basic to human character. The Britons would not be humans if they didn't mind their own interests.
Another Prime Minister of England, Lord Salisbury, did not mince words when he said, as Secretary of State for India in 1875 "The injury is exaggerated in the case of India, where so much of the Revenue is exported without a direct equivalent. As India must be bled, the lancet should be directed to the parts where the blood is congest- ed, or at least sufficient, not to those already feeble for the want of it.
How India was bled white is the topic of subsequent chapters, discussing only the economic policies of the British in India, in general terms from 1757 to 1947, the period of their rule over India. Indirectly the book will also exemplify the economic policies followed by all imperialist countries in their colonies consisting of about 75% of all humanity, since, more or less, the same tragic drama was played by all, as by the British in India. The purpose of the book is not to rake the past or spread hatred against the British or anyone else, but to understand the present .monstrous material poverty of India inherited directly from the British colonial rule.
*For long (up to 1812) East India Company did not even allow the Christian missionaries to enter India on the grounds, among others, that it would interfere with the Hindu religion, which produced 'mon of the purest morality and strictest virtue.
Unless otherwise indicated, the term 'India' through- out the book means present India, Pakistan, and Bangla- desh. The independence and partition of India in 1947 into present India and Pakistan (including Bangladesh) were simultaneous acts of the British Parliament. Subse- .quently in 1971 Bangladesh severed from Pakistan.
This book covers only the British period of Indian history from 1757 to 1947. However, the first chapter will give background knowledge of the pre-British era, which in a way is essential to the understanding of the economic impact of British rule.