Imperialism and colonization are the worst manifestations of
power by mighty nations. The colonized nations lose power in governing
themselves and their fundamental rights and liberties are also left at the
mercy of the colonizers. The economic, cultural and linguistic interests of the
colonized people are made subservient to that of the colonizers. Human history
is witness to the fact that the mighty nations have always made advances with
imperialistic designs towards the less powerful nations and governed them.
Among the mighty imperialists, Great Briton had been conspicuous which had
colonized most parts of the world, India is one the countries colonized by the
Great Briton. However, interestingly, in spite of the plethora of the ills of
imperialism, British imperialism has directly or indirectly yielded some
benefits to the Indians as well, which the then other uncolonized nations lacked
in.
Modern education is one of the benefits Indian received from the British
imperialism. Although British have had ulterior motives for imparting modern
education to the Indian, yet it was of great importance to them. British had
wanted the Indians to learn basic clerical skills through modern education so
that they may be utilized in services to the East Indian Company. But in the
post partition scenario it was the modern education introduced by the imperialists
which yielded many benefits to the locals. Unlike the other nations which were
not colonized, they lacked in the level of modern education which the Indian
have received, countries of the Middle East is a case in point. The type of
education prevalent in India before the British imperialism was not in line
with the requirements of the modern times. It was managed by the clergy class
in Persian medium and was oriented towards religion. Trend towards modern
scientific education was almost absent in their priorities. It were British who
introduced modern education in the subcontinent. No doubts British wanted educated Indians to
be used in their economic adventures ,but in the long run it proved of many
benefits to the Indian. It is due this reason that the Indian are comparatively
advanced in modern education as compared to the other uncolonized nations.
The political system based on the modern democracy is
another blessing in disguise of the British imperialism. It was indeed an obvious contradiction in the
British disposition that they practiced democracy in their own country, but
detested the same for the colonized nations. They deemed Indian lacking in the capacity
to participate in the process of democracy and preferred their own design of
governance, Govt of India Act 1909, Indian Act 1919 are manifestations of the
said mindset. However, the introduction of democracy in piecemeal and the
elections of 1937 and 1946 were omen of the democratic system in India. It were
because of these practices due which democracy became the only agreed system of
governance both in India and Pakistan in the post partition time. Again if
India is compared with countries of Middle East and some other parts of the
world, they are either governed by absolute monarchs or partially undemocratic systems.
The bureaucratic system which no doubts is full of a number
of flaws and shortcomings, and is frequently slaked by people, because it was
not designed by British with a view to deliver services to the public but to
administer them as an inferior, conquered race and to collect revenue from
them. Yet the primary structure of bureaucracy has been of much benefits in
running of the administrative affairs of the countries.
The above points are not highlighted with a view to justify
imperialism and glorify the actions of British
in India, imperialism should squarely be
condemned in all its manifestations, and no person should be deprived of his
fundamentals rights, and the right to participate in the process of governing himself is one them. The
above-mentioned benefits yielded by imperialism in the colonial India are the
by-products of the British imperialism.
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