[pasabagi]

One thing to keep in mind is the balance of power between ruler and ruled. The British, representing a global empire, had always an enormous amount of power over their subjects. They could ignore, murder, torture, or starve their subjects in any one region, then draw upon the resources of all the other regions to suppress revolts. A dictator, no matter how unpleasant, usually doesn't have these resources to call upon, so they have to be much more careful, otherwise they lose enough legitimacy in the eyes of the ruled that the country becomes ungovernable - i.e. there are insufficient state resources to control the unrest.

This is why colonial states tended to be far more brutal than normal dictatorships: ultimately, they don't need to convince anybody that their rule was legitimate, because their core support is global, rather than domestic.