William Digby
Topic: Colonial Economy: Land Revenue, Drain, Deindustrialisation · NCERT: Class 8, Ch 4 "The Colonial Era in India"
Meaning
William Digby was a British journalist who sharply criticised British rule in India. In 'Prosperous' British India (1901) he used official figures to show that British rule had made India poorer and had drained its wealth to Britain. The quote marks in the title were meant to mock the claim that India was prospering. He is grouped with Naoroji and R.C. Dutt as a writer on the drain of wealth.
Example
Digby wrote in 1901: "Modern England has been made great by Indian wealth… taken by the might and skill of the stronger." It is a striking case of a Briton agreeing with the Indian nationalist charge.
Don't confuse with
- Brooks Adams: he was an American historian who argued in 1895 that plunder from Bengal after Plassey paid for Britain's Industrial Revolution, beginning in 1760. Digby was British and wrote about how Indian wealth had made modern England great.
Related concepts
- Drain of wealth
- Dadabhai Naoroji
- Poverty and Un-British Rule in India
- Romesh Chunder Dutt
- Economic History of India
- Home charges
- Colonial railways
- First railway line 1853
- Great Indian Peninsula Railway
- Guaranteed interest system