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> If you're thinking of responding to this with a comment about how the British "improved" India by industrializing it, or all the "benefits" India got from bei
by blackrock 9y ago
> If you're thinking of responding to this with a comment about how the British "improved" India by industrializing it, or all the "benefits" India got from being plundered for 450 years
I once overheard my white coworker say, that the British did India a huge favor, by bringing them English. It was in his belief that back then, the Indians were just killing each other for fun. So the British did them a huge favor by colonizing them.
And because of that, today, India is a major software player for outsourcing, all thanks to the British for colonizing them, and bringing them English.
I sat there thinking to myself, this is unbelievable. I didn't want to talk politics in a business setting, so I ignored it.
The British destroyed a civilization. Enslaved a generation. And enriched themselves in the process. But all that is swept under the rug, because they brought English to their colonies.
- jacquesm 9y agoIn NL plenty of people feel roughly the same about Surinam.
- nonamechicken 9y agoIf westerners think that, I can understand. Unfortunately, lot of Indians think the same way, that the British invasion was good for India since they gave us the railways and some other stuff. I don't know much history, but seeing how they destroyed India and killed millions (through famines), I can't wonder how brainwashed these Indians are.
- pm90 9y agoIts not brainwashing as much as lack of a good education or doing some basic individual research. Most of my Indian friends have little interest in history, and accept tidbits like this as fact and don't think much about it.
- chimeracoder 9y ago> Most of my Indian friends have little interest in history, and accept tidbits like this as fact and don't think much about it. The attitude is empirically far less prevalent in India than it is in modern-day England, so it's not as simple as a matter of education.