The Corporation That Changed The World

Mr. Gopalakrishnan,
Great to see this interesting review on a book about Indian history from you after a long gap.Welcome back!!

east india company was less corrupt and offered a more organized rule than eastern indian rulers (decaying mughals, raiding afgans, marauding marhattas and murderous sikhs and the assorted pindhari-mobs). they finally put an end to a long drawn malignancy.

Thank you for this....yes, I agree with bulleya this is a must buy for desis.

Masada Complex you going to buy this or are you going to go on your soap box and say this is another white washing conspiracy from the elite in the US. Please say, and award your self another star for being the biggest idiot and brainless-dolt on chowk!

very interesting...i will have to buy this book...

the study of the East India Company should be must for any South Asian.....it is this organization, more than anything else that has shaped south asia of today.....

.......it was the company, and not the british govt. that ruled south asia, till 1857.....this was the most powerful and most profitable multinational ever......its returns outperformed microsoft of today......it was the only multinational with three armies of its own.....

.......people recognize individuals like governor generals of india as extremely powerful.......however, they were mere employees of the, "ceo" of this multinational, who sat somewhere in england......

........there are two interesting lines in this article......one about bengal being the richest province in asia (perhaps one of the richest in the world)......by the time the british, they had left it as one of the poorest places in the world......

........the second is the line about the manufacturing output of india.........25%!.......what was it when the british left?.....significantly less.....

......people tend to look at the british judicial system etc that they left behind, after 47, and consider them a positive for south asia....i consider the british rule a negative, based on items listed in the previous paragraph.....

the british and the east india company may have been good for the landmas that constitutes present day pakistan......but they certainly weren't good for what, today, constitutes india.......

even culturally, delhi of 1857, under shah zafar, was one of most culturally advanced cities in the world.......

.....in terms of military strength, the british fought their most difficult battles, not in europe, but in south asia......haider ali is the only general (other than george washington) to never have lost to the british.....he decimated them........

Arthur Wellsley - first duke of wellington - is considered the greatest general ever produced by the brits.....he defeated napeleon twice, and defeated france...however the toughest battle ever fought was not against napoleon, but against the marathas in 1803.....

ranjit singh had one of the most advanced armies in the world......and contrary to popular belief, the british almost lost in 1857....if the local sepoys had some leadership they would have defeated the british.........as over 90% of the sepoys had revolted.......

the british took over south asia, not because they were militarily or economicall or culturaly superior......but becasue they were politically superior......to give an example, when the brits defeated tipu in srirangapatna, tipu had an army of around 30,000......brits (east india company) had one of 50,000.....however it only had 4,000 brits.......the remaining were from the army of marathas and hyderabad.......

so the brits used marathas to defeat and kill tipu in 1799 and then defeated the marathas in 1803!

Re: # 1 by Bulleya

Bulleya, I agree with you that this is a must buy and you made good points. However, let us not overlook chutiyas like Jang (#3 post) who will always be ready to act as useful idiots at the best and a treacherous lot at the worst. All you have do is throw a bone of a BPO-like job at them and they will come salivating like a dog at their White masters. If you have a book that describes how we can reform or get rid of this mentality then that book is a more useful tool. It has been a bane of the subcontinent that we always had useful idiots and traitors every step of the way (Vibhishana, JaiChand, Mir Jafar, jang) and no wonder we were always colonized and unfortunately the day is not far off when we will be colonized again.