Independence Day 2025: How many Indians died due to brutal British policies between 1880-1920?

India is celebrating its 79th Independence Day today. The ancient country received its freedom from the cruel British rule, which sapped the nation of its wealth and destroyed its economy. During the zenith of the BritishRaj, thousands of Indians died in massacres, and millions died of artificially induced famines and British policies in general. Here's a look at how the colonial rule wreaked havoc on India.

The period of 1880 to 1920, when the imperial power was at its height, was the most devastating for the population of India. During this time, the death rate increased considerably – from 37.2 deaths per thousand in the 1880s to 44.2 in the 1910s. The life expectancy also plummeted – from 26.7 years to 21.9 years.

An analysis conducted by Dylan Sullivan and Jason Hickel for Al Jazeera says that between 1891 and 1920, 50 million excess deaths occurred. It further says that the staggering figure is a conservative estimate.

"We do not know for sure what India’s pre-colonial mortality rate was, but if we assume it was similar to that of England in the 16th and 17th centuries (27.18 deaths per 1,000 people), we find that 165 million excess deaths occurred in India during the period from 1881 to 1920," they wrote in 2022.

The article further said that around 100 million people died prematurely due to British colonialism. The death toll was larger than the total number of deaths due to famine in the Soviet Union, Maoist China, North Korea, Cambodia under Pol Pot's dictatorship, and Ethiopiaunder Mengistu's rule.

The British used several methods to bring about this destruction. India used to be an exporter of textiles. However, with their policies, they destroyed the industry. The colonial government imposed taxes and internal duties, preventing Indians from selling cloth in India and abroad.

India was effectively reduced from a manufacturing nation to a country exporting raw materials. TheIndian population became impoverished due to this, leading to widespread starvation.

The British would tax Indians extensively and would buy Indian products with the revenue. These goods were then exported abroad. The revenue was also used to finance the industrial development of Britain and its settler colonies. This policy cost India trillions of dollars over decades.

The researchers claimed in the article that these policeswere linked to at least 100 million deaths during the 1881-1920 period.