According to Oxfam, between 1765 and 1900, the richest Britons extracted $34 trillion from India in today’s terms
UK-based rights group Oxfam has said nearly $33.8 trillion of India’s wealth went to the richest 10% in Britain during the colonial era. The amount would be enough to carpet London in £50 notes more than four times over, Oxfam said in its report titled “Takers not Makers”.
The figure is nearly half of the estimated $64.82 trillion extracted from India between 1765-1900, according to the report. Great Britain ruled the country for more than 250 years, until independence in 1947. Parts of India were also colonised by Portugal, Holland and France.
The wealth extraction not only enriched the richest, but but also benefited Britain’s emerging middle class, who received a further 32% of the funds, Oxfam claimed.
The report also argued that colonialism was responsible for the destruction of India’s industrial output. Colonial powers implemented strict protectionist policies that targeted Asian textiles, which had a devastating impact on India. Oxfam noted that in 1750, the Indian subcontinent accounted for approximately 25% of global industrial output. However, by 1900, this figure had dramatically declined to a mere 2%.
Back in 2015, Indian politician and author Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament for the Indian National Congress, which is now a key opposition party, in his famous Oxford speech suggested that the UK should repay India for the economic and social damage caused during British colonial rule. Tharoor argued that Britain exploited India’s resources, enriching itself at India’s expense, and urged the UK to offer a formal apology and financial reparations. Tharoor estimates that from 1770 to 1900, 25 million Indians died in famines due to deliberate policies of the colonial government.
The report, released ahead of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, pointed out colonialism’s lasting impact on inequality and economic systems, persisting worldwide to this day. The study noted that wealth of billionaires surged by $2 trillion last year, averaging $5.7 billion per day – triple the growth rate of 2023.
“Legacies of inequality and pathologies of plunder, pioneered during the time of historical colonialism, continue to shape modern lives,” Oxfam said. “Wealth transfers not just to the ultra-rich, but disproportionately to the ultra-rich in the Global North. Ours is the age of billionaire colonialism.”
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Oxfam Executive Director Amitabh Behar said we have entered an era of “billionaire supremacy,” with the “jewel in the crown” being Donald Trump and Elon Musk. “Just last year, billionaires have added $2 trillion to their wealth. This is three times faster than the previous year. Pretty much for the top ten billionaires, it’s 100 million every day.”
Oxfam also stated that modern corporations resemble the East India Company, set up under the auspices of the British Empire to trade with other countries. This structure has created a “deeply unequal world torn apart by division based on racism” and “continues to extract wealth from the Global South to primarily benefit the richest people in the Global North,” it said.
