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Writer's pictureFolkloristan

Atrocities of the British Raj in the Indian Subcontinent


Queen Victoria

Estimates claim that between 1880 too 1920, British colonial policies in modern-day Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, claimed some 100 million lives—more than the death toll of famines in the Soviet Union, Maoist China, and North Korea put together. Atrocities of the British Raj in the Indian Subcontinent:


Gas Chambers:

During the Rawalpindi Experiments, hundreds of soldiers were sent to gas chambers and exposed to mustard gas. Many suffered severe burns and there were no follow-up medical check-ups to gauge the long-term effects of the gassing.


Flu Pandemic:

The Spanish flu reached India via British ships. Whilst Europeans largely remained unaffected, it was not so for the locals. The Raj took no action to contain it, claiming that “They are a difficult class to deal with.” And a “good rain” shall fix everything.


Qissa Khwani Massacre:

In April 1930, British troops not only opened fire at unarmed civilian protesters, but also rammed armoured vehicles into the people, running them over. British records claimed 20 casualties, but local estimates go upto 400.


Hathikhel Massacre:

Four months after Qissa Khwani, 80 people were killed in the small village of Spin Tangi as British troops shot to kill. It followed the Takkar Massacre, a month earlier, in Mardan which killed 70 and injured 150.


Salanga Massacre:

In January 1922, British troops opened fire at Salanga Bazar amid boycotts of British goods. Some 4500 revolutionaries were killed. Their bodies were then dumped in a mass grave and the river. To this day, a memorial is held at the market, to commemorate it.


Colonising Insanity:

Lunatic asylums were a thriving business for the British in India. Several “Native-Only” asylums were established and many of them turned into forced labor houses in the name of treatment.


Theft

Britain drained nearly $45T from India between 1765 and 1938. Indian goods could only be bought using Council Bills, the Crown’s currency, which had to be bought with gold. Traders paid London for the Council Bills and then used them to pay Indian producers.


Downgrading the economy: 

The Subcontinent was primarily known for finished goods, but was reduced to growing raw produce, whilst the manufacturing was shifted to Britain causing a rise in poverty. Production of Muslin, Cheent, and Indo-Persian carpets was killed altogether.


Jalianwala Bagh:

In 1919, General Dyer opened fire on peaceful protesters, blocking the only exit of a park. The troops fired until they ran out of ammunition. Over a thousand were estimated to be killed, just as many injured.

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