Pains and Gains from the British Rule

We all know that British gave us a lot of pain when they were here and their parting gift was the partition and riots and a permanent headache named Pakistan. 

Also, the British rule gifted us with the slave mentality (to white man and the fair looking skin).

However, the British also did a few good things in various ways. Everyone knows about the education system (though there are a lots of its critics too) but it is true that Gandhi, Nehru, and most of our freedom fighters caught the germ of liberty and SWARAJ from the same education system that was taught in British universities and was later replicated in English schools in India.

Also, being very visible, the vast network of railways is not hidden from anyone, and it is a wonderful thing to see that they took the rail lines to high hills of Simla and Darjeeling. There is a rail line going from Lumding in Assam to Silchar in Barak valley - Lower Assam, and beyond - this line is an example of engineering marvel created by British more than a century earlier. The engineers of Railways had a tough time recently in converting the line to Broad gauge - which is now complete and line now extended up to Agartala in Tripura.

SURVEY is one major thing that is known to only few people and almost no one talks of it. British carried out survey of the entire land mass of India, including Roads and Bridges, Hills and Forests, Rivers and Lakes, Farms and Deserts, everything was surveyed by the British and the learned people know and aver that it is a great legacy for modern India. Today, it is easy to record a whole lot of data with the help of computers but they did it more than a century earlier, without aid of modern machines, and the record is perfect.

The work done in the field of posts and telegraph, search of petroleum oil in Assam, and cultivation of cash crops like tea, coffee, sugarcane, and such things are examples of good work done by the British. Their contribution to agriculture through better irrigation facilities using dams and canals is also praiseworthy. The maze of canals carrying Ganga water to every nook and corner of Western Uttar Pradesh was created by the British.

Like wise, the much talked about Mullaperiyar Dam and its canal system are a unique creation of the British. Enlightened readers may go to wiki page on Mullaperiyar Dam and it is wonderful to see that the waters of the Periyar river, which flows westwards of Kerala towards Arabian Sea, was diverted eastwards (against the slope) to flow towards the South Tamilnau with a view to provide water to the arid region of Madurai and nearby areas, that was in dire need of water, in addition to what was available from the small Vaigai River.

Mullaperiyar Dam created the Periyar Thekkady Reservoir, from which water is diverted eastwards via a tunnel to augment the small flow of the Vaigai River. A dam was built on Vaigai River to provide a source for irrigating large tracts of land around Madurai.

Also, modern day monuments like Rashtrapati Bhawan, Parliament House, India gate, the modern market at Connaught Place, and the well planned green city known as Lutyens’ Delhi are also a gift of the British colonial era.

However, I think the creation of the most disciplined and modern regimented army is the greatest gift of the British rule to the independent India.