UK drained $64.8 trillion from India during colonial rule: Oxfam report
Davos: The United Kingdom extracted $64.82 trillion from India in 200 years of colonialism and of this $33.8 trillion went to the richest 10 per cent in the UK, finds a report by Oxfam International. It also forecasts that there will be five trillionaires in the coming decade amidst 3.6 billion people living in extreme poverty.
Colonialism saw the UK extracting $64.82 trillion wealth from India. Between 1765-1900, $33.8 trillion of this wealth went to the richest 10 per cent and this would have been enough to carpet London in £50 notes almost four times over, Oxfam said while stating that the modern multinational corporation is a creation of colonialism. It was pioneered by such corporations as the East India Company.
In 1750, the Indian subcontinent accounted for approximately 25 per cent of global industrial output. However, by 1900 this figure had precipitously declined to a mere 2 per cent. This dramatic reduction can be attributed to Britain’s implementation of stringent protectionist policies against Asian textiles, which systematically undermined India’s industrial growth potential.
The East India Company’s army in India totalled 260,000 soldiers and it was twice the size of the British peacetime army. They engaged in land dispossession, violence, and mergers and acquisitions, driving globalization and contributing to the creation of the world’s first global financial system. Financial markets, especially in London, facilitated these colonial behemoths.
Independence in colonies often ended with power being handed to a small class of local elites who benefitted from the prevailing system. In India, in 1875 the top earners were mainly European officers of the army and the administration, but by 1940 they were mainly traders, bankers and industrialists. Wealth and political power continued to be concentrated among the richest people in many countries in the Global South post-independence, with abject poverty and immense wealth separated by electric fences, golf courses and other barriers. The inequality that these countries experience today is a colonial making.
The inequality continues to rise as billionaire wealth has risen three times faster in 2024 than 2023. In 2024, total billionaire wealth increased by $2 trillion, with 204 new billionaires created. This is an average of almost four new billionaires per week.
From one trillionaire last year, Oxfam now forecasts that there will be five trillionaires within a decade. Meanwhile, 3.6 billion people still live below the $6.85 poverty line.