Reparations to India

sssse reparations to India?

For 200 years, from 1757 to 1947, India was under British rule. The reasons for Britain’s colonies in this country were mostly for economic benefits, Britain depended on the colonies for raw materials in order to sell them. Another reason for India’s colonisation was power. The more colonies Britain had, the more power they would have over other countries. For almost 200 years, the colonies in India had been fighting for their freedom and were led by the famous civil-rights leader, Gandhi. On the 15th of August 1947, India was freed from the British rule. However, in the present day, there is still an ongoing debate on wether Britain owes reparations to the colonies or not.

Firstly, India had only been ruled for the benefit of the British. As said by Shashi Tharoor at the 2015 Oxford Union, India shared 23% of the world’s economy before Britain’s invasion, and dropped as low as 4% after its rule. In fact, Britain’s Industrial Revolution was based on India’s deindustrialization, said Tharoor. This means that Britain was using all of their colonies’ resources such as gold; mahogany; and curry, for their own economy. India was left with their resources as well as their money drained. Not only did they not have money or resources, but their vital resources such as food were also taken.

The British rule induced many famines and caused as much as 28 million deaths, approximately. For example, during World War II, a famine known as the Bengal famine killed 4 million people. This famine was caused by a decision made by the famous British leader, Winston Churchill. That decision was to send vital supplies to the stable Europeans rather than the starving Bengalis. He said that “the starvation of anyway underfed Bengalis mattered much less than that of sturdy Greeks”. The statement made by Churchill shows that British leaders showed no interest towards the well-being and life of their colonies.

On the other hand, Professor John Mackenzie who is another speaker at the Oxford Union, believes that the British rule did not completely ruin India and some of the wealth earned by the British was used to the benefit of India. Professor MacKenzie states that India was left with a strong military elite due to the military forces previously used by the British to maintain their power.

In conclusion, I believe that Britain does owe reparations to India because, first of all, I could not find enough strong arguments that prove that Britain does not owe reparations. Secondly, India was clearly used by Britain and did not benefit at all from being colonised unless dying of hunger and losing money are both considered benefits… Britain owes reparations to India to make up for the money lost, the people lost and all the resources lost.

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