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Surrounded by impenetrable obstacles on all sides, Indians didn't feel the need to develop high skills in warfare. This turned out to be a mistake as Europeans managed to establish hegemony over the peninsula. Buddha's message (around 500 BC) of turning the other cheek was the last straw, which turned otherwise brave Indians into pussycats. When Alexander came (325 BC), his land conquests were followed by treasure grabs. His Persian conquest resulted in loads of money and goods being transferred to Greece. He attempted the same in Turkish territory, north of Afghanistan, but then retreated. There were no plum pickings there. Instead he turned his attention toward India. In one tactical move across the Indus River, he got victory and money from the Jhelum king.
The point is that India had always been prosperous. Outsiders always wished to steal India's wealth. Hence they kept coming for two thousand years. Some took the money and left, others made India their home. Lack of military skills had made India an easy target for conquest.
From 1,000 BC till 1,000 AD the Indian economy was based on agriculture, textiles and animal husbandry. Cotton and cotton-spun cloth, as well as grain, were the main items of internal trade. Farming and land ownership were the main occupations, followed by craftsmanship and trade. Herodotus, the Greek historian, found cotton in India and took it to Europe. He loved it and called it "wool that grows in the fields." Prior to that, the Greeks and other Europeans dressed in animal hides.
King Ashoka (260-218 BC) is believed to have ruled 10 million subjects and maintained an army of 100,000 men. Toward the later part of his rein, his conversion to Buddhism spelled disaster. But the impenetrable walls on all sides prevented any outside interference for 1,000 years. (Alexander was a distant memory after the flight of his garrison from India.) Hence India was safe and its economy secure.
At about 1,000 AD, before the Muslim invasion across the Hindukush Mountains, India's prosperity was comparable to China's. The latter had similar successes throughout its ancient history, though it benefited more from the silk trade. India lost its cotton monopoly when the West learned to grow and spin it. The Chinese, however, guarded their silk know-how well and retained their advantage. With trade and technology India and China were economic powerhouses while Europe was passing through the Dark Ages.
Politically, 1,100 to 1,700 AD was not a stable time as Muslim invaders looking for wealth invaded India. They looted treasure and inflicted untold atrocities on the people. Still the economy prospered. Afghans and Turks who ruled India had no penchant for economics. They left this to the Indian merchants, financiers and landowners. Invaders got their wealth either by brute force or by taxing the land.
During Akbar's rule (1560 AD) the first land reform took place. He wished to stabilize the Turkish rule and hired a local named Lala Toddar Mull to reform the system. Toddar Mull, initiated the "Patwari" system, which is still in existence today. He organized the merchants and wholesalers and established well-organized markets. As a moneylender himself, Toddar Mull organized recognition of lender's rights for interest in lieu of capital borrowed. Prior to that, interest payments were not well organized. All these reforms lead to an explosive growth in the Indian economy. Akbar ruled 50 million prosperous subjects and a huge economy. At that time India and China together accounted for 50 percent of the world's GNP.
A major economic catastrophe occurred when Nadir Shah (1739), a Persian buccaneer, invaded Delhi and decamped with booty worth $1 billion in today's money. He was so happy with the take that he remitted all taxes of the Iranian people for the next five years. Much of the royal gold, silver and precious stones were lost forever. Still, within 20 years India bounced back. Its unencumbered economy accumulated wealth very quickly.
Next came the Portuguese, the British and the French. The major plunder of India began with the arrival of the European powers in the Indian Ocean. The Portuguese came first looking for spices, led by Vasco de Gama in 1500. They had discovered the sea route via the Cape of Good Hope. They asked for an innocuous-looking trade agreement and a few trading posts. The British could not let the Portuguese and the Dutch have a monopoly, and they followed next, led by Sir Thomas Roe in 1616. This trade was beneficial for all sides. Indian merchants, not knowing the Portuguese, Dutch and British business practices, asked for settlement in gold and silver. All these powers had an abundance of gold, looted from the Americas. They very willingly made that settlement.
India, in about 150 years of trade with the West (circa 1750), had accumulated a huge horde of gold and silver -- which the British wished to grab back. They waited and found their opportunity. The Mogul Empire was breaking apart and India was unable to protect itself. Hence they initiated their first conquest in Bengal. The Battle of Plassey was fought in 1757. It was never a battle in the real military sense -- it was a battle of wits and intrigue. The British bribed one of the opposing side's generals and carried the day. In the process, the British seized from the Bengal king a monstrous booty of 20 million pounds sterling. In today's terms it would be worth $500 million. The most important aspect of this victory was not only the money grab but grabbing the post of prime minister of the state known as Diwani. The prime minister now had a hold on future revenues, commerce, trade and livelihood of the people.
The British repeated the same story when they grabbed Avadh province, where the loot was twice as much. Other parts of India suffered the same fate. The Sikh kingdom in Punjab lost its treasury and the prized Koh-e-Noor diamond. The transfer of cash and precious metals by the British back to England toward the beginning of the 19th century reached tremendous proportions. It was all happening at the expense of the Indian economy.
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(Hari Sud is a retired vice president of C-I-L Inc., a former investment strategies analyst and international relations manager. A graduate of Punjab University and the University of Missouri, he has lived in Canada for the past 34 years. ©Copyright Hari Sud.)
