Colonisation of India was an occurrence of singular significance. The largest colony in the world was created by the classic capitalist power. The long historical process, from about the middle of the eighteenth century till the beginning of the twentieth century, was fraught with devices of resource exploitation of an unprecedented kind interceded by an environmental perception that oriented resources principally towards market. The colonial discourse on environment has been nicely elaborated by Alfred Crosby in his work Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe.
The English colonial control of India began with the acquisition of the power to collect land revenue the Diwani rights of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. What seemed on the face a simple political process had grave and quite far reaching implications. Irfan Habib describes the process and its meaning exquisitely: “The East India Company, which obtained this power, was controlled by the great merchant-capitalists of London.
These merchants had so far conducted a trade, based on the import of Indian piece goods, silk, indigo and spices that were financed mainly by the export of treasure. Now, suddenly, they found in their conquests the ultimate bliss that every merchant dreams of: to be able to buy without having to pay, and yet be able to sell at the full price.
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This could be achieved by treating the entire revenue of the country as gross profits. From these the expenses necessary for maintaining government and army, and law and order the costs of maintenance of the existing system of exploitation had to be deducted in order to yield the net profits. These could, in turn, be invested for the purchase of Indian commodities, the so-called ‘investments’.
The purchase of these commodities in conditions where the buyer had a monopoly, and their sale in markets throughout the world, further enlarged the profits before the ‘tribute’-a word freely in use for it at the time -was finally received in England.
The revenues from the conquests dwarfed the amount of bullion that had once financed English trade; and, accordingly, the exports of Indian commodities underwent an enormous increase. British imports originating in ‘East India’ increased from £1.5 million in 1750-51 to 5.8 million in 1797-98, from 12 per cent of total British imports to 24 per cent.
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In contrast, the British exports to East India rose only from 6.4 per cent to 9 per cent of total British exports. Unlike the later imperialists, fighting for markets in the colonies, these pre- industrial conquerors were hunting for colonial commodities, which had the whole world as their market”.
Interestingly the profits so gained by English did not come from commerce but were made available through the collection of land revenue. Thus if the profits had to be increased the land revenue too needed to be enhanced.
A great pressure was exerted on the farmer peasants for maximising the land revenue. The results were terrifying as the agriculture was ruined. The colonial perception of the commercial use of resources had yielded disastrous results.