COURSE: HIS103.

18

SUBMITTED TO
Dr. Md Sarwar Hossain
Department of History & Philosophy.

SUBMITTED BY
NAME ID
MST. JANNATUN NAHAR 1713108049
K. M. FAZLA RABBY 1821311042
PARISHA ALAM 1831751630
AN-NOOR ARFA HAIDER 1831815630
FERDOUS HASAN 1912694630

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 Introduction

The idea of Colonization came in early 1500. Europeans call it a discovery for new land, labor,
and financial development. For this they start to search new routes in the seas. Places like Africa,
India, Asia, South and North American soil/coasts are their main target. They came to those
places to conquer and settle their business opportunities. Spreading European culture is also a
motto for them. The main reason for this colonization is mainly Political, Economic and
Religious. They want to get a substitution of their existing market for business and various
products. Because the main reason for this colonization is money so that they don’t have any
place better than India. In early 1700 India contributed 25% of the world GDP by only farming. 
With exclusive herbs which they called “masalas” and clothes and fabrics like “muslins” which
are very fond of Europeans. The whole new area of colonial capitalism started from there.   

The British started ruling India from 1757 after the battle of Plessey, and after that they started to
gain more and more power. Which leads them to taking control of the administration
responsibility. By that they are starting to implement policies and rules which make rich richer
and poor poorer. Distributing land among “Landlord”. Controlling what they are cultivating.
Implement taxes which are not bearable by the local people/farmers. At that time the
industrialization in European countries was booming but the labor in those countries was very
expensive. But with a large population India offered them cheap labor, they can produce
products as fast as they can and so that people can buy. Helping them to boost their capitalistic
mentality. In their 190 years of colonization they became the biggest textile industrialist in the
world, since they were forcing our farmers to grow cotton and jute more and more. The EIC
(East India Company) have their own Army and territory where they are able to tax anyone with
any limit that they demand. They become the supreme who can do anything. Controlling how
much food that Indian can consume, how much money that they can have. What kind of
profession people are going to have. At the time when Opium and Tea became very famous
around the world. They force Indian farmers to grow those more which destroy our fertile land
and those land which we are using to cultivate food crops. Made the whole situation so bad that
we would have to face so many famines. In the time of World War 1 and 2 they had to face
economic difficulties and a civil war broke down in the subcontinent. Some British parliament

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members are advising to leave India. Which becomes unbearable for them and they don’t have
any more things to do. After stealing 45 trillion worth of assets, they leave this once beautiful,
fertile and rich country to a broken, struggling with communal disorientation and famine. In
1947 Indian contribution to the globe GDP was 4%. This is proof that their capitalistic mindset
sucked all the wealth, Joy and harmony from this country. 

Colonial Exploitation

Colonial exploitation: The British rule in India can be broadly divided in two parts, i.e. firstly the
rule of east India company covering the period from 1757 to 1858 and secondly, the rule of
British government India from 1858 to 1947. During this period, British had implemented the
colonial rule in India. Basically, the colonial rule specifies the socio-political relationship
between the people of the country and the foreign rulers.

Because of colonization, British had exploited the Indian economy in different manners in
between two hundred years of rule. Many historians classified this exploitation into three
different phases which are given below-

The first phase (1757-1813): This was merchant capital phase. This was one of direct plunder in
which surplus India revenues were used to buy Indian finished goods to be exported to England.

 The primary function of British east India Company in this period was to buy spices,
cotton, and silk from India and sell them at huge profits the larger market these goods
enjoyed in Britain. this meant that larger quantities of billion would flow out of Britain
into India to pay for these comorbidities despite efforts it seemed difficult to find British
goods that could be sold in India in exchange, the company also spent very larger
amounts the wars that it to fight with other European powers all in search of the same
goods to trade. As example as Portuguese, Dutch, and French.
 In this phase, British Mercantilists had started to reduce the growth of Indian economy with
their conferred interests. They also made a huge amount of profit in an agriculture sector by

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 charging a higher rate of land revenue. In this new land revenue system the exploitation of
British was miserable. That is why Bengal famine had occurred frequently

The second phase (1813-1858): The second phase was known as free trade phase. In this
period Indian resources had converted into a source of raw materials for developing the
market and manufactures goods of British.

Because of increasing Company's profit, the support from the British government became
unsafe. Many members of the parliament Of East Indian interest who used the company‘s
properties for maintaining their patronage within the government. But, after achieving large
amount of industrialization in Britain, the constitution of parliament had changed. The
industrial revolution in Britain had collected its momentum by the utilization of its merchant
capital. As a result they had started to exploit the Indian economy in a different manner. It
also the strategy of free trade tracked by the British had destructed the age-old Indian textile
industry and those industries could not stand in the rivalry with the machine-made textiles
produced by the British. Moreover, British capitalist gradually developing in jute, tree and
coffee production by exploiting Indian Laborer's extensively. As a result, British capital had
enhanced the process of economic drain from India along with the degree of exploitation and
imbalanced the Indian economy.

The third phase 1858 to onwards: This phase is known as finance capital phase. In this
phase British had controlled banks, foreign trading, firms, and managing agencies in India.
This phase of exploitation was carried out a range of economic policies in the industrial and
agricultural sectors of the colonial economy. The capital was devoted in the colonies to
endure the rapid flow of raw materials to fuel further explains of industrial production. It also
high tariffs restrictions in other developing capitalist countries lead to a heavy imports of
agricultural products into Britain for making her position vulnerable in finance trade with
other countries In this period different types of events had occurred which are explained
below-

I. Agricultural sector: The Indian economy was mostly based on an agricultural system. But
due to the cultivation of cash crops instead of main crops famine had occurred.

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 II. Land Right: Since, the land is the production of all British desired goods. So, they have
gradually invested money in land buying and use it for their production of goods.

III. Shipbuilding industry: Due to the effect of colonization and invasion most of the
shipbuilding industry production had declined.

IV. Muslin production: Muslin was the world-famous cloth. The production of Muslin
production had decreased a lot in this phase.

Impact of Exploitation

Famine:

Under British domain, India experienced heap starvations. In any case, the most noticeably
terrible hit was geographic district. The essential of those was in 1770, trailed by extreme ones of
every 1783, 1866, 1873, 1892, 1897 and in end 1943-44. Aforesaid, whenever starvations had hit
the country, local rulers were sufficiently quick to answer with required reactions to deflect
serious debacles. When the appearance of British principle, a large portion of the starvations
were an outcome of monsoonal postpones along with the abuse of the country's normal assets by
British for their own benefit. Unfortunately, British did nothing inside the occasion of starvation.
On the off chance that something, they were aggravated at the bothers in tax assessment the
starvations caused. The essential of those starvations was in 1770 and was loathsome severe. The
signs showing the drawing closer of a particularly tremendous starvation showed in 1769 and
furthermore the actual starvation went on until 1773. The 1770 starvation alone killed pretty
much ten million people, a few millions an incredible Jews killed in holocaust all through
Second WW II. It done in third the number of inhabitants in Bengal. Beneath the Mughal rule,
workers were expected to offer a recognition of 10-15 % of their cash collect. This guaranteed a
depository for the rulers and a decent security web for the workers simply if there should arise an
occurrence of harsh climate hurting any future harvests. In 1765, when the composed

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arrangement of Allahabad, EIC assumed control over the undertaking of collection the
recognitions from the then Mughal Emperor sovereign Alam II. Nightlong, country increased to
50 % inside the name of smothering the resistance. The pilgrim rulers kept on overlooking any
alerts that came their way identifying with the starvation, however starvation had set in from
mid1770. Then, at that point the passing began in 1771. That year, the corporate raised the local
charge to consequently on ensure that British depository didn't experience any misfortunes all
through the starvation. When taking on from the Mughal rulers, British had given boundless
orders for cash yields to be developed that diminished the cultivating of staple food. In this way,
ranchers UN office were wont to developing paddy and vegetables were as of now being
compelled to develop indigo, blossom and option such things that yielded a high market cost for
them anyway might be of no alleviation to a populace kept from food. There was no
reinforcement of palatable harvests simply in the event of a starvation. What's even a ton of
unexpected is that the East India Company created higher benefits in 1771 than they did in 1768.

Socio-economic Disparity between the Hindu & the Muslims

The Muslims of India framed in vogue monetary life extra leisurely than the district's Hindus.
Inside the portion of the twentieth century, they were moderately less conceivable to utilize huge
scope and long-living monetary associations, and more averse to serve on organization sheets.
Though Hindu legacy rehearses supported capital gathering inside families and furthermore the
protection of family fortunes across ages, the monotheism legacy framework, that nation assisted
with upholding, really focused on part family riches. The family trusts (waqfs) that Muslims used
to protect resources across ages ruined capital pooling among families; they were additionally
mismatched to benefit looking for business. While Hindus regularly pooled capital inside tough
joint family undertakings, Muslims really focused on utilize brief monotheism associations.
Hindu privately-owned companies facilitated the progress to in vogue organization life by
transmission abilities accommodating in enormous and solid associations.

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Destruction of Age-old Agrarian Economy

The tragedy was heightened by the actual fact that the decay of the normal industries wasn't
among the expansion of recent machine industries as was the case in United Kingdom of Great
Britain, Northern Ireland, and Western Europe. Consequently, the ruined handicraftsmen and
artisans did not realize various employment. The sole alternative hospitable them was to crowd
into agriculture.

Besides, land rule also annoyed the equilibrium of financial life inside the towns. The slow
obliteration of rustic specialties stony-separated the joining among farming and homegrown
exchange inside the provincial region thus added to the annihilation of the independent country
economy.

From one viewpoint, uncountable workers, United Nations office had enhanced their monetary
profit by low maintenance turning and weaving, presently needed to bank powerfully on
development; on the inverse, uncountable country crafts man lost their antiquated help and have
become agrarian work or negligible occupants holding little plots. They extra to the last pressing
factor toward land.

Subsequently, British victory diode to the de-industrialization of the nation and expanded
reliance of the people on agribusiness. No figures for the sooner sum are available nonetheless,
in sync with Census Reports, somewhere in the range of 1901 and 1941 alone the extent of
populace energetic about farming expanded from 67% to 70 percent. This expanding tension on
agribusiness was one in every one of the critical reasons for the intense monetary condition in
Bharat under British guideline.

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Opium Trade

The exchange was go past the East India Company, the incredible global organization set up for
corporate greed with a contract that allowed it a syndication over business with Asia. This state-
run exchange was accomplished for the most part through 2 conflicts that constrained China to
make its ways for British Indian controlled substance.

This is anyway the Archipelago Company ran the exchange. Approximately 2,500 agents
working in 100 workplaces of a solid frontier foundation known as the controlled substance
Agency observed blossom ranchers, authorized agreements and quality with police-like position.
Indian representatives got commissions on every diviner - a standard unit of mass and volume
utilized in monster segments of Asia - of controlled substance followed through on their beat.

Deindustrialization of Indian sub-continent

The process of de-industrialization is associate economic modification during which employment

within the producing sector declines because of varied economic or political reasons. The decline
in a job in producing is additionally followed by the autumn within the share of producing worth
value-added in gross domestic product. The method of de-industrialization are often because of
development and growth within the economy and it may also occur because of political factors.
In different words, the term de-industrialization means that a general reduction within the
industrial capability and came into prevalence in India with the decline and collapse of the
handicrafts trade by external competition from British-manufactured merchandise throughout the
nineteenth century.

The historical de-industrialization process had started within the British colonies like India
square measure aforementioned to be a product of colonial rule. The economic Revolution in
Europe is followed by a major decline within the journeyman and producing activities in
European colonies in Asia like India.

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 Permanent Settlement

The permanent settlement was nothing but a political domination of Landmark in Bengal. It had
been created by Lord Cornwallis, the governor-general of the Fort William in Calcutta. In 1793,
he declared for a permanent settlement which was a disaster for the economic life of Bengal.
After the battle of Palashi, the East India Company thought about Permanent settlement for
making a large amount of profit. In this system, Landlords were the owner of the land, and
Landlords could sell or transfer the land according to their needs. All types of rights had been
given by East India Company on the basis of some condition which is the Landlords ownership
would stay as long as he is able to pay the fixed revenue of the governor of the East India
Company. The fixed amount was 10/11th portion for the government and the remaining part was
under Zamindars. If anyone failed to pay fixed revenue then their land properties would be
realized through a public sale of their land according to the Sun-set-Law. Moreover, the
landlords were unhappy because all Talukdar who previously paid government revenue through
landlords were separated from their control and made independent landholders. That is why most
of the Landlords were frighten about this sunset law. Under this law greater part of the
Zamindari lands of Bengal were sold through auction and transferred to other's hand. The
provision of the permanent settlement made many Zamindar bankrupts.

In this permanent settlement, the efficiency depended on the Landlord or Zamindar. If the
Zamindar is good the farmers would be beneficiary in their interest. Otherwise, the farmers will
be exploited by Zamindar. It also, the assessment of land was not given properly to the farmers
but the revenue had fixed. As a result, it had created an Upper aristocracy for the Landlords who
led luxurious and extravagant life. On the other hand, the farmer's life was miserable. Since, the
land revenue was so high, that is why many Zamindar had become defaulters. As a result, the
effect of this settlement was disastrous.

In 1812, the next change had occurred in the original law of permanent settlement was known as
Regulation V. In this system Landlords got the right to lease out of their land for any period and
the maximum period was 10 years. After that, some changes had occurred in the Regulation VIII.
In this settlement, a Landlord could lease out his land permanently at a permanent rent. This type
of permanent settlement had created two classes which are Zamindar and Pattanidar.

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Unfortunately, the affluence of the Zamindar class did not lead to a consistent wealth of the
peasantry. Because of the extension of peasant surpluses were systematically extracted by the
Landlords. Due to this reason, the Indigo movement had occurred in between 1858 to 1860.
After following that in 1870 and the early 1880s when the farmers in several parts of eastern
Bengal made alliances among themselves to assert their rights in land and minimize extraction of
surpluses by Landlords. By the performing and execution of the India Act of 1935 the peasant
politics had received a fresh incitement. Farmer's complaints were expressed by the political
parties. A new party had formed by AK FAZLUL HUQ which was KRISHAK PRAJA PARTY
(KPP). He politically committed himself to abolish the permanent settlement. Very soon he
formed a committee which was FLOUD COMMISSION for the end of permanent settlement.
Finally, on 16 December 1950, the permanent settlement had abolished.

Conclusion

Because of the enormous amounts of resources and capital that were drained from India to
England, Great Britain had a higher standard of living. A large amount of investment was also
made in agriculture and industry in England after 1750 when the Drain took place. It is believed
that these investments were partially responsible for England's agricultural revolution in the 18th
Century and the Industrial Revolution after 1750. On the other hand, India's economy and its
people suffered disastrous effects due to the flood of resources from India into England. A large
portion of the resources available to invest in India were snatched away by England. Through
regular remittances of profits and interest from India to Britain, British industries in India
drained further resources. As a result, this large scale of economic drain created one of the most
substantial obstacles in the path of economic development in India until 1947. It was also driving
much of the poverty in India at that time.

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REFERENCES

 Natasha Kwatiah (2018). The impact of British Colonial Rule on the Indian Economy.
 https://www.economicsdiscussion.net/indian-economy/british-colonial-rule-on-the-indian-
economy/19007
 Permanent Settlement, The—Banglapedia. (n.d.). Retrieved August 17, 2021, from
https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Permanent_Settlement,_The
 Lord Cornwallis - Permanent Settlement of Bengal [Modern History Of India For UPSC]. (n.d.).

https://byjus.com/free-ias-prep/ncert-notes-permanent-settlement-of-bengal
 5 Ways the British Empire Ruthlessly Exploited India | News
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/5-Ways-the-British-Empire-Ruthlessly-Exploited-
India-20170425-0033
 Rabbani, M. (2013). The Permanent Settlement: A Critical Study of Decolonial Approach.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330554770_The_Permanent_Settlement_A_
Critical_Study_of_Decolonial_Approach

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