Colonialism and capitalism

Colonialism is the rule of one country over another. India was ruled by Britain for about two hundred years, and the effects went far and deep: into land, crops, industry, cities and ideas.

British rule was different from earlier conquests. Pre-capitalist conquerors mostly took tribute (a share of wealth) and left the way people lived and worked largely as it was. British colonialism was capitalist: to make profit, it changed the economic base of the country:

• new land laws and land revenue systems;
• new crops grown for export, like indigo, cotton and jute;
• the decline of old industries;
• control of forests for timber.

It also moved people on a huge scale: labourers from Jharkhand and Bihar to the tea gardens of Assam; indentured labourers (bound by contract) to plantations in Mauritius, Fiji and the Caribbean.

Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production (land, factories, machines) are privately owned and organised to make profit in a market. It is dynamic (always seeking growth and new markets) and global: that is why it drove colonial expansion.

Nationalism holds that every people has the right to be sovereign: to rule itself. So colonialism was a contradiction: Britain believed in liberty and democracy at home but denied them in India. Indian nationalists used Britain's own ideas against it: 'Swaraj is my birthright', said Tilak.

Another paradox: Western education was meant to create Indian clerks and managers for colonial rule, but it helped grow nationalism, as educated Indians read about liberty and equality.

So the modern came to India through a paradox: brought by colonial rule, then turned against it.