Oxfam, a rights group, released a report on Monday that says the UK took $64.82 trillion from India between 1765 and 1900. According to Oxfam, 10% of the richest people in Britain got $33.8 trillion from this amount. To put this into perspective, if you covered all of London with £50 notes, you could do it almost four times!
The report, titled “Takers, not Makers,” claims that many wealthy Britons today owe their fortunes to money the government paid to enslavers when slavery was abolished. Oxfam also says that a growing middle class in the UK benefited from this money, receiving a total of 32% of it after the richest 10%.
The report highlights how British colonial actions harmed India’s economy. In 1750, India produced about 25% of the world’s goods, but by 1900, this number dropped sharply to just 2%. It also criticizes the British and Dutch governments for promoting opium trade to control colonies. The British grew opium in India and sent it to China, initiating the Opium War that led to China’s difficult period known as the ‘century of humiliation.’
Oxfam argues that today’s big companies are similar to the East India Company from colonial times. The report states that colonial practices created a world filled with inequality and racial divisions. It claims that people in poorer countries earn 87 to 95% less than those in wealthier countries for similar work.
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