Nominate some of the processes introduced by the East India Company that have

endured in India. Compare and contrast the positive and negative aspects of
those contributions.

The East India Company played a considerable part in

enlarging Indian economy, amplifying industry, and introducing the country into
world trade, especially with the production of raw materials and cash crops like
cotton, jute, iron, steel, coal, brass, and indigo. The government helped extend
irrigation and thus broaden agriculture, India's main source of economy.
Furthermore, railroad construction, the establishment of a postal service, and the
telegraph increased the speed of communication and transportation. British social
policy benefited the country with education, labor regulation, and famine relief.
The British improved schooling for both men and women, deeming Indian
instruction a great priority. English rule increased the literacy rate by providing
education in the Indian languages. They also initialized the abolition of many
unethical practices like Sati, Child Marriage etc. These social reforms did not
exclude promotion of widow re-marriage, female education, and The British and
Foreign School Society established twenty-three girls' schools in Calcutta. Over the
course of British rule, the English government instituted many beneficial reforms in
India and helped modernize their crown colony.

The most devastating detriment of British rule was

the repeatedly denied pledge that Indians would be considered of equal social and
political status as their English rulers. Philip D. Curtin's Imperialism claims,
"Nothing, without doubt, has had more disastrous consequences than the promise,
which they have inscribed and reiterated in solemn declarations, to consider the
natives of India as equal in law to the conquerors." These consistently denied
promises of equality provoked dissent and fueled the campaign for an India ruled
by Indians. However, lack of experience in politics and administration left Indians
without the knowledge or practice of governing their own country. Although the
East India Company introduced many reforms in the Indian society, the
government chose only to institute these reforms when beneficial results were
guaranteed, so as not to upset their Indian subjects. Michael Edwardes states in his
chronicle British India: 1772-1947, "It [the government] preferred, when it acted of
its own initiative, to do so only in matters which, in the first place, did not
apparently affect the social order or interfere with custom, and, in the second,
where positive results could be achieved." Moreover, the introduction of global
economy in India destroyed native industry, and, while the landowners and
businessmen became richer, the lower classes experienced little change. The
political drain from India to England and the consequent continuous
impoverishment and exhaustion of the country are the most significant detriments
of British rule. Although the government expanded Indian economy, it
simultaneously depleted the colony's wealth to finance its own expenses in England
and abroad. Although arguably beneficial, British rule was, at its core, an
exploitation of India's economy, taking advantage of trade, agriculture, and
industry.