Let’s not try to pin the blame for the decline of soaring on colonialism in India!

On Monday, March 15, 2021 at 11:51:08 AM UTC-4, Martin Gregorie wrote:
On Mon, 15 Mar 2021 08:04:17 -0700, waremark wrote:

Martin, thanks for the history. I think some historians would be more
keen to defend Robert Clive - in an era of European colonialism, it was
more his achievements - both military and organisational - than any
other which resulted in India becoming a British dependency instead of
French.

Well, that was basically a precis of what William Dalyrimple had to say
on the subject, and I think he's pretty well regarded as an expert on
Indian history. Sure, Clive conquered Bengal, and was certainly quite a
capable operator, if greedy with it, but if the cost of that operation,
along with some rather ill-judged ventures in what is now Indonesia,
hadn't drained John Company's bank reserves then presumably Bengal would
have remained a company preserve along with the rest of the subcontinent
- after all, it was John Company's army that did the deed. It certainly
seems that the company's financial problems led to the British Government
bailing it out and recouping that loss by taking over control of India.
--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org