Eastern Powers: China and India

William Dalrymple and Peter Frankopan discuss how and why the all-powerful India and China fell victim to the empires of Europe - and the dangers and opportunities of their 21st century ascendancy

[@oliviaschnepf2994]

This was mit very good... the two Men needed a good Moderator

[@zzzzz653]

I disagree with Dalrymple that India was divided into numerous smaller kingdoms and that is why there are no great monuments in India matching the scale of the monuments in SE Asia. Besides the Mauryas, Guptas & Mughals we also had the Kushan empire. In the very period when Hiuen Tsang supposedly mentioned the 69 kingdoms of India, much of North India was ruled by Harsha in whose court the Chinese pilgrim paid a visit. Moreover, Harsha had to contend with a South Indian emperor Pulakeshin who was more than a match for Harsha in battle. After Harsha, we had the Pratiharas, Rashtrakutas & Palas, and then later the Cholas & Chalukyas, each of which were gargantuan empires in their own right. It is a little absurd to think that without much political unity and therefore political power, Indian Civilization could have exerted such massive influence outside of the Indian subcontinent. It maybe granted that all of India was often not under a single empire but India almost always had large empires. The peculiarity of Indian polity was that a smaller kingdom was allowed to exist and function unhindered as long as it accepted the suzerainty of the imperial power. This certainly was the case during Harsha’s reign and we know that this political doctrine is well laid out in Arthashastra.

[@sdutta8]

Why did India’s per capita GDP remain below $1000 dollars between 1700 and 1950, which covers both the peak of world beating Moghul GDP and British looting? This suggests that that these peaks and valleys of Indian GDP didn’t affect the average Indian. True? Over the same period, British per capita income rose from about $2000 to $10,000. In fact, the rise of per capita GDP increase in Britain accelerated after her loss of the Empire. This is not the narrative that I am hearing from you and Dr. Shashi Tharoor.

[@zzzzz653]

Industrialisation coupled with exploitative extraction of resources from their colonies led to the rise in GDP of European powers. India had no such luxury and Mughal empire was quite weak after 1707-1713 CE, roughly. From 1757 onwards the British were on the ascendency in India and from the beginning of the 19th century were the dominant power in India. So you should wonder what were the British doing ? Why did they not industrialise India ? Far from it, they deindustrialised the old form of Indian industry to benefit its people in Britain. So you should really ask the question to the British.