How much wealth did the British Empire loot from India?

 According to several sources, including Al Jazeera

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, Business Today

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, and Firstpost

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, the British Empire looted approximately $45 trillion from India during the period of 1765 to 1938. This figure was calculated by economist Utsa Patnaik, who drew on nearly two centuries of detailed data on tax and trade. This sum is staggering, as it is 17 times more than the total annual gross domestic product of the United Kingdom today

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.The British Empire began collecting taxes in India and cleverly used a portion of those revenues (about a third) to fund the purchase of Indian goods for export to Britain. This meant that India was forced to export its resources to Britain at artificially low prices, while Britain was able to sell its manufactured goods to India at artificially high prices

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. This system drained India's wealth and resources, leading to extreme poverty and famine in the country

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.If the international earnings that were siphoned off by the British had remained in India, the country would have been much ahead in terms of proper healthcare and social welfare indicators

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. Instead, India was left depleted of its wealth and resources, while the British Empire benefited greatly from its plunder and industrial rise

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.

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aljazeera

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businesstoday

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firstpost

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cadtm