I was at a local museum the other day which had a showcase of body modifications from diff parts of the world, and I was surprised to see that the practice of Chinese woman purposefully practicing foot finding, thus shortening their feet (think of that Geisha movie, where the toes were bent backwards to reduce the total length) up until it was outlawed by the Chinese government in 1949.
The truth is there was a global awakening that surged through the planet around that time, and although some nations took longer than others to rise up, there were clear cut cases of progression across the board, irrespective of any empire’s influence.
Between indirect influences from agricultural disruptions like GMO technologies and fiscal manipulation of seed supplies, as well as outright direct military policies to nutritionally deprive large portions of India and Bengal to the point of starvation, a lot of wealthy individuals were complicit in purposefully holding India back in order to propel themselves and/or their nations…
But the story of the Britain empire’s minuscule GDP in relative to other nations before they supplanted India compared to the vast wealths they accumulated afterwards from insane extraction methods/policies had and is still having ripple effects on the daily lives of Indians, including us removed citizens that are now parts of other countries like the US.
Just thinking about the immigration policies and policymakers that brought in a wave of intelligent, highly educated individuals from India to the US… and acknowledging that this very scenario was only possible because there wasn’t enough wealth in India to lure these same individuals into staying.. that speaks volumes to the generational impact that was felt from other nations, Britain leading the charge.
Shoot, even thinking about the formation of the US… it became the golden reformation child and a symbol for freedom because of all the wealth generation that was happening in the early 1900s. Many of us, myself included, wouldn’t be here if our parents thought that their children would have more prosperous lives in India.
Sadly that possibility was systematically decimated by Britain.