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A comment on Before the East India Company.

Re:Before the East India Company by amriksohata on Saturday September 28, 2019 @04:57PM (#21102804)
India was one of the richest countries in the world, if not the richest before the East India company and Islamic, Dutch and British invasions. It used clay pots, not plastics and its population of 200 milloin plus had plenty of fertile land to develop agriculture and cotton - the oil of the time. It was the land that gave the world yoga, Ayurveda and the numerical system. Not to mention Indian food. Britain called it the jewel in the crown for this reason, no other country gave it more wealth than India. You could argue that the British are incredibly innefficient in one regard that they survived it's meagre population of 10 million people off the back of this and made them wealthy whilst making a larger country impoverished. India didn't need the industrial revolution, Britain did. India had natural leaf plates, Britain's and west gave it an industry that it now has to rely on which is driven by coal production and climate change driving industries. What a mess
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Re:Before the East India Company by jolotriage on Saturday September 28, 2019 @05:52PM (#21103116)
He's right about India being the richest, it's estimated that all together the British stole $45 trillion in wealth from India. I imagine the amount stolen from China is of similar magnitude.

https://cup.columbia.edu/book/agrarian-and-other-histories/9...

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Re:Before the East India Company by rramadass on Sunday September 29, 2019 @02:16AM (#21105437)
Summary Articles on this rapacious thievery;

https://www.livemint.com/Companies/HNZA71LNVNNVXQ1eaIKu6M/Br...

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/britain-stole-45-t...

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Re:Before the East India Company by nextos on Saturday September 28, 2019 @05:23PM (#21102970)
No idea why this is getting downvoted, as it presents a historically correct fact. India's GDP % before the British invasion was huge:

https://www.quora.com/How-much-was-Indias-GDP-before-the-Bri...

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Re:Before the East India Company by dahdum on Saturday September 28, 2019 @05:52PM (#21103115)
Probably because it’s a bit misleading as your link shows. GDP per capita was low everywhere, barely above subsistence. Their % dropped when others started growing rapidly.
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Re:Before the East India Company by jolotriage on Saturday September 28, 2019 @05:58PM (#21103156)
Nope, India/China's GDP dropped upon invasion and decimation of trade routes by the Western countries with the GDP gain.

People underestimate how key the US was to the opium trade in China. The US was a bigger trader than the UK/Germany/France combined at one point.

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Re:Before the East India Company by dahdum on Saturday September 28, 2019 @07:24PM (#21103755)
The data linked doesn’t indicate that was the primary reason, there is a small dip in GDP per capita (-10%?) for India/China but it was basically flat.

Looks like before industrialization the richest countries were only moderately better off. Once it began to take off that gap became enormous.

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Re:Before the East India Company by jolotriage on Saturday September 28, 2019 @08:12PM (#21104012)
Yes the data linked is limited in scope.
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Re:Before the East India Company by pm90 on Saturday September 28, 2019 @11:03PM (#21104769)
I’ve certainly noticed an abundance of vitriol against anyone who mentions the misdeeds of the British Empire, of which there are many. There are also a bunch of Empire apologists that will pop up every now and then.
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Re:Before the East India Company by agumonkey on Saturday September 28, 2019 @11:53PM (#21104953)
Are there many people like that ?

PS : direct link to the talk in the (spam filled) website

https://youtu.be/_S955fkSZd8

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Re:Before the East India Company by screye on Sunday September 29, 2019 @12:31AM (#21105097)
While the parent comment is heated and not factually incorrect, the reason for the down-votes has to do with the willful ignorance of the west towards some of the worst atrocities committed by places from where it derives its value systems from.

The Nazis were the bad guys and they are gone. The Soviets and USSR were the baddies after, and they are gone.

The west and esp. US+UK pride themselves in never having been that evil. In the mean time, the EIC committed atrocities on a scale rivaling those exact boogeymen of the West.

Accepting the crimes of the EIC, would have them facing some of the worst Hypocrisy of their society, and that isn't the most fun thing.

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Re:Before the East India Company by saagarjha on Saturday September 28, 2019 @05:51PM (#21103110)
> It used clay pots, not plastics and its population of 200 milloin plus had plenty of fertile land to develop agriculture and cotton - the oil of the time.

It's not like Europe was using it either: the development of what we'd call plastic happened largely during the late 19th century leading into the 20th century.

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Re:Before the East India Company by pm90 on Saturday September 28, 2019 @11:05PM (#21104775)
The point being made is that systems existed for the manufacture of consumer goods required by millions of people without the need for modern fossil fuel based technologies that are wrecking the planet. On a first glance, it seems like a valid point to me.
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Re:Before the East India Company by selimthegrim on Sunday September 29, 2019 @01:13AM (#21105244)
They exist now; kulhars were mandated by a previous railways minister but I'm not sure about their present uptake
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Re:Before the East India Company by sbmthakur on Sunday September 29, 2019 @05:10AM (#21105995)
Yoga and Ayurveda are still relevant in many parts of the world and are not just specific to Hindu Nationalists. While the term "Islamic invasion" is not exactly correct, there is a dedicated Wiki page for Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_conquests_in_the_Indian...

Since we are talking semantics seriously, even the British didn't "invade" India, they colonized it.

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Re:Before the East India Company by rramadass on Sunday September 29, 2019 @03:36AM (#21105691)
You are trying to buildup contentious straw-men.

As pointed out, India's history and glory predates Muslims and Islam by thousands of years.

The difference between "Islamic Invasion" and the "British Invasion" was that the former (for all its negatives) ultimately became part of Indian society and contributed to it while the British systematically siphoned off all resources from India to their land to the detriment of the local populace. Millions died, Millions more were reduced to poverty with no way to build themselves up and the direct result can still be seen in today's India.

PS: Read the books and articles that i have linked to in this thread for some more info.

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Re:Before the East India Company by Ar-Curunir on Sunday September 29, 2019 @01:24AM (#21105269)
Indian civilization is dates back to over 3000 years before Muslim rule... It had "status" long before Mahmud of Ghazni or the Delhi Sultanate.
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Re:Before the East India Company by shripadk on Sunday September 29, 2019 @07:24AM (#21106423)
> And India only gained status after its Muslim rule

I call big bullshit on this one. India had status on its own right. It was called Bharat, and before that Aryavarta and before that Jambudweepa. One of the many names of Ancient India. Islam did not even exist during this time. Islamic invasion happened purely because of India's status. The objective was three fold: Destroy idols, monuments and temples, rape the women and plunder the wealth. Many were converted by force and many sacrificed their lives fighting. Read the haunting stories of Hindu Kush and why it is called that and you will get your answers. Visit the temples that lie in ruin in various parts of India, the most famous site being Hampi of erstwhile Vijayanagara Empire that was completely destroyed due to invasions. Do not even dare try to whitewash this genocide of Hindus and Hindu culture by giving it a "status". There is no status that can be given to massacres carried out to destroy a civilization. What happened to Hindus during the Islamic rule was worse than what happened to Jews during the Nazi regime.

All Abrahamic religions are modern compared to Sanathan Dharma which is one of the last surviving Ancient civilization. Most of the other civilizations either perished on their own or were destroyed systematically by Abrahamic religions. These are recorded facts. Not recorded by Hindus but by those who committed the atrocities. From Genghis Khan, to Aurangzeb all the way to the British (Bengal Famine) and Portuguese (Goa Inquisition). Everyone committed grave atrocities on Hindus for which there hasn't even been recognition let alone an apology. Yet Hindus did not retaliate in kind. So I call bullshit on everything you just uttered.

This is not "Hindu Nationalism". This is facts. And facts hurt.

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Re:Before the East India Company by amriksohata on Wednesday October 02, 2019 @06:49AM (#21135017)
"clearly gives you away as a Hindu nationalist."

lol

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