> It baffles me that...

While the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_Company was, as a broad generality, not nearly so vile as (say) the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_colonization_of_the_Am..., it certainly didn't leave many Indians with a favorable impression of European-style capitalism.

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philipallstar an hour ago | parent [-]

Definitely not nearly as vile. It certainly wasn't perfect, particularly things like the awful penal colonies, but jump-starting a giant civilisation, say, 1000+ years into the future is not straightforward either. India is experiencing a rise in nationalism, but would do well to imagine the counterfactual of what India would be like had Europe never visited.

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triceratops 9 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

> jump-starting a giant civilisation, say, 1000+ years into the future is not straightforward either

The various East India companies went to India (and the other east Indies) because those places had things rich Europeans desired - spices yes, but also high-end, high-quality textiles and handcrafted items. They were the height of civilization and had high economic productivity.

> would do well to imagine the counterfactual of what India would be like had Europe never visited

It would probably not be one country. Best case scenario: like a South Asian EU. Why do you think they wouldn't have copied European industrialization and developed themselves? Japan did it.

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ivell 24 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

> jump-starting a giant civilisation, say, 1000+ years into the future is not straightforward either.

Not sure what you are suggesting here.

	▲	Gangway0829 13 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		It's pretty clear lol. OP definitely thinks we were living in mud huts before the British gifted us railroads.