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Engelbert Humper asked this question about An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India:
As an Indian I find this writer's venom against Britain more than a bit embarrassing. Britain left India about 70 years ago and with all the resources of modern technology India could have solved its problems of poverty long ago, instead of being the world's greatest reservoir of human misery. The British did a lot of good in India and in their empire, as well as a lot of evil. United India without them? A joke.
Geoffrey Though the Indian percentage fractional share of global GDP may have fallen greatly, this is fully compatible with India having become richer in the s…moreThough the Indian percentage fractional share of global GDP may have fallen greatly, this is fully compatible with India having become richer in the same period. This is because the whole of which it is a fraction could have grown to an even greater extent. Eg, if over a given period a percentage fraction has fallen by a factor of 10, but the whole has grown by a factor of 20, the actual share represented by the fraction is twice as great at the end as at the start of the period Thus, 30% of 100 is 30, but 3% of 2,000 is 60. As far as I can make out from such figures as I can find, India was indeed somewhat richer in GDP terms at the end of the Raj, possibly through the agency of the Raj. This may be wrong, though.
The trouble with people who lack even the slightest trace of rudimentary numeracy is that they often don't realise it, and go on to form crazy opinions, or to become the dupes of people who know better, but exploit them for their own ends.(less)
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An Era of Darkness
by Shashi Tharoor
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