A brand new report by Oxfam Worldwide, titled ‘Takers, Not Makers,’ reveals staggering figures on wealth extracted from India by Britain in the course of the colonial period, claiming that $64.82 trillion was taken between 1765 and 1900. Of this, $33.8 trillion, which is greater than half of the overall wealth, adjusted for in the present day’s worth, is alleged to have enriched the UK’s richest 10%.
Launched on the World Financial Discussion board’s annual assembly in Davos, the report identified colonialism’s lasting influence on inequality and financial programs. “Legacies of inequality and pathologies of plunder, pioneered in the course of the time of historic colonialism, proceed to form fashionable lives,” Oxfam stated.
The report additionally specified that colonial practices perpetuated systemic wealth extraction from the World South to the World North, benefiting a choose elite. “This has created a deeply unequal world, a world torn aside by division based mostly on racism, a world that continues to systematically extract wealth from the World South to primarily profit the richest individuals within the World North,” the report stated.
Wealth extraction from India
Oxfam calculated that the wealth extracted from India alone by Britain may carpet London’s floor space in £50 foreign money notes almost 4 instances. “This may be sufficient to carpet the floor space of London in British pound 50 notes nearly 4 instances over,” the report talked about.
The wealth extraction, Oxfam claimed, not solely enriched the wealthiest 10% but additionally majorly benefited Britain’s rising center class, which acquired 32% of this revenue.
Impression on India’s economic system and society
The report particulars how India’s share of worldwide industrial output dropped precipitously from 25% in 1750 to simply 2% by 1900, primarily because of Britain’s protectionist insurance policies focusing on Asian textiles. “This dramatic discount will be attributed to Britain’s implementation of stringent protectionist insurance policies towards Asian textiles, which systematically undermined India’s industrial development potential,” the report added.
Throughout World Struggle I, disruptions in colonial commerce patterns inadvertently stimulated industrial development in colonies, disclosing how exterior shocks quickly alleviated colonial suppression.
Multinational and colonial exploitation
Oxfam additionally linked fashionable multinational firms to colonial practices, tracing their origins to entities just like the British East India Firm. “The idea of personal multinational firms, bankrolled by wealthy shareholders, was a product of the colonial period,” Oxfam acknowledged, including that these firms employed non-public armies to suppress resistance.
The East India Firm alone had a military of 260,000 troopers, double the scale of Britain’s peacetime military, who engaged in land dispossession and violent repression.
Persevering with Inequities
The report highlighted fashionable parallels, stating that wages within the World South are 87–95% decrease than for equal work within the World North. It additionally talked about the exploitation of pure assets and poor working circumstances in provide chains dominated by multinational firms.
Oxfam additionally focused world establishments just like the WTO and World Financial institution for perpetuating inequities. “The inequality that these nations expertise in the present day is considerably of colonial making,” the report stated.
Colonialism’s lasting influence
Oxfam additionally addressed the societal divisions entrenched throughout colonial rule, reminiscent of caste, faith, and language. For example, it identified that solely 0.14% of India’s mom tongues are used as mediums of instruction.
The report additional identified the devastating Bengal famine of 1943, which resulted in an estimated three million deaths. “Grain import restrictions throughout World Struggle Two, underpinned by racist pondering, seem to have considerably contributed to or prompted the Bengal famine,” Oxfam acknowledged.
World South struggles
Oxfam detailed how colonialism’s legacy continues to have an effect on public companies, training, and well being within the World South. It cited biopiracy, as seen within the case of neem, and the systemic exploitation of assets.
Calling colonialism’s influence a “fruit from the poisoned tree,” Oxfam summed up its report stating that world inequality stays deeply rooted within the historic practices of extraction and exploitation.
