[neilk]

It’s absolutely true, and even in the sense of losing technology.

The effect of British rule on India is sometimes called “de-industrialization”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De-industrialisation_of_India?...

The British had a deliberate policy of extracting raw materials and flooding the market with machine-manufactured goods. The British markets were not open to Indian manufacturers. So not only was India de-industrialized, but many rare skills and techniques were lost during this period. I can’t find a reference, but I remember reading an early British East India Conpany account of encountering silk of such fine quality that yards of it could be folded into a tiny box. Those workers would have been put out of business by the British, and their skills lost for generations. Might be a legend but I’m sure many things like that happened.

It’s just not things like rockets or nuclear weapons.