Link to article: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2018/12/19/how-britain-stole-45-trillion-from-india
A common narrative shared throughout Great Britain is that the colonization of India was not economically beneficial to the empire. Administrative costs in India was a major cost and they were actually losing money. It was a gesture of good will to maintain India for such a long time. Economist Utsa Patnaik claims that this is simply not the case. By studying over two centuries of detailed data and tax trade, Patnaik was able to calculate that Britain stole nearly $45 trillion from India during the period of 1763 to 1947. Great Britain was able to exploit India by trade, and leveraged the power of the East India Company which took control of the economy by establishing a monopoly and had a firm grip on Indian trade.
The East India Company began collecting taxes in India, and used approximately a third of this revenue to purchase Indian goods for British use. This meant instead of Britain using their own money for goods and services, they bought Indian goods using the money that was taxed and taken from India. Britain was essentially buying Indian goods for free and were scamming them without them ever knowing. Many of the stolen goods were marked up and then sold on the British market and financed a substantial flow of imports from the rest of Europe. Britain imported high value commodity goods with this money such as timber, iron, and tar which were necessary for the Industrial Revolution. The British exploitation of India had a major impact on India for many years to come, and took a very long time for the India economy to finally recover. Today, India is the second largest foreign investor and have created many bilateral trade agreements in order to strengthen ties with Britain. Formerly once a supplier of mainly British tea and cotton, they have been able to diversify their economy and become the 5th largest economy today.
Britain is considered to be a global actor because it has a major sphere of influence in many countries, and especially in India. By being able to control India´s economy through exploitation it has given it tremendous amounts of power. During the time of Britain´s rule, India did not have control over it´s own government therefore making it not a sovereign state at the time. The powerlessness of India caused an independence movement and the will to break away from Britain. In the Sepoy mutiny of 1857, sepoy troopers heard that they would have to bite greased pig lard and cows bullets for enfield rifles, and this was against Muslim and Hindus. When they refused to do this, they were given long-term prison sentences. This caused the sepoy soldiers to march up to Delhi which had no British soldiers and take control. This was the first time that the Sepoy troops revolted against the British which progressed the independence movement of India which allowed it to become even more powerful through Britain through its hot commodities.