The Transition in India to the Transformation of Asia

Abstract

Before the British conquest of Bengal in the second half of the eighteenth century, the most far-reaching European impact in Asia was that of the Dutch East India Company in some islands of Indonesia—and even this was modest enough, although foreshadowing developments in the nineteenth century (van Leur 1955: 273, and passim). It was in several of the smaller islands of Indonesia that specialization in export agriculture was first demanded and enforced in South Asia. By making each of these islands specialize in the production of a particular spice, to the exclusion of others, the Dutch sought to strengthen their monopoly position. This meant that the Dutch began to exercise political control, at least in the form of “indirect rule” by local rulers. Moreover,

with the extension of Dutch territorial control in Java, large quantities of products which had hitherto been paid for at market prices began to be received on more advantageous terms under contracts and treaties concluded with the Indonesian rulers. In addition to demanding specific amounts of rice, sugar, pepper, and coffee from the people of Java, the Dutch also required personal services in the manufacture of salt, cutting of timber in the forests, dredging of canals, construction of roads and bridges, and all kinds of public works.

Nearly all our major problems today have grown up during British rule and as a direct result of British policy; the princes; the minority problem; various vested interests, foreign and Indian; the lack of industry and the neglect of agriculture; the extreme backwardness in the social services; and, above all, the tragic poverty of the people. The attitude to education has been significant. … To all these methods must be added the deliberate policy, pursued throughout the period of British rule, of creating divisions among Indians, of encouraging one group at the cost of the other … by organizing Quisling classes. … Imperialism must function in this way or else it ceases to be imperialism.

—Jawaharal Nehru, The Discovery of India (1960)