[mangamadaiyan]

BTW -- being a fully resident citizen of said nation who was born a few decades after 1947 -- I personally do have an ambivalent attitude towards the British Raj. I guess not all of the administrators were merciless tyrants and scoundrels, and neither were all of them benevolent angels. I don't subscribe to Ishiguro's views expressed in the quote under discussion, either.

That said, one cannot wish the facts away, which is what I was trying to put across, albeit ham-handedly, in my earlier comment.

[agakshat]

Any development which the British did was purely to serve their own purposes and improve the efficiency and speed of their looting the country. Why should we be grateful for that? The opportunity cost there for the Indian subcontinent (if not India as a nation) was massive, and the British took it from us.

I’m proud to say I’m not ambivalent about it in the least.

[mangamadaiyan]

I think what you're missing is that the distribution of wealth was probably just as uneven - if not worse than it is now. Most of it was concentrated in the hands of a few. So what was looted wasn't going to be used for the good of the common folk anyway. The ruling royals (most of them; there were a few exceptions like Mysore and a few of the Holkars) were worse governments than the Brits ever were.

You're free to believe whatever you want to, and feel pride in whatever makes you feel good. That is your prerogative - but do mind the facts!

Edit: To be clear, I'm _not_ trying to justify what the Brits did. Bear in mind though, the royals that they replaced were in many cases much worse administrators - so the argument about the opportunity cost holds little water.