Obviously this is a huge subject. I'm not sure it's so clear that British rule slowed Indian industrialisation... I guess answering that requires a counterfactu

Obviously this is a huge subject. I'm not sure it's so clear that British rule slowed Indian industrialisation... I guess answering that requires a counterfactual, and as you say post-1850s Japan is the best-case one. But do note that this was not a kind and gentle democracy... even if its rulers spoke the same language. (And, of course, the fact that there was a same-language to speak indicates that it was long a united country, in a way that India was not.) But something like pre-1850s hermit kingdom Japan is another possibility. And the hermit kingdon's share of the world's pie would have declined greatly, too, with nobody to blame. Certainly lots of cotton mills got built in the late 19th C, in both Japan and India, and all using the same off-the-shelf technology, and often the same capital. There's lots of interesting detailed work comparing them, and tracking things over the decades. And while I'm not an expert, I don't think it supports any very simple ideas of good guys / bad guys. For example, here's a link: https://pseudoerasmus.com/2017/10/02/ijd/ https://pseudoerasmus.com/2017/10/02/ijd/