India became independent in 1947 inheriting from the Raj great infrastructure and a working administrative system. That was one year before the proclamation of the CRP at a time where China decided to somehow destroy itself with idiotic agrarian reforms.
Now take a look at India and China nowadays. Maybe some hard questions need to be asked regarding what India did in the past 70 years. Colonial history is an easy excuse to brandish. Does it truly help? I’m unconvinced.
No serious person blames colonialism for India's slow development (stop listening to loud mouths online).
Honest people know it's because India, while a liberal democracy, was actually more socialist and centrally planned than China, up until the 90s when the first free market reforms were made. This is almost two decades after China opening up.
Honestly people on the internet have warped views of both India and China.
As for what India did... This is an ancient society which still has customs and such dating back God knows how long. It is not easy to change. Simply existing as an independent nation after almost 1000 years of foreign rule is an achievement.
I've not been to India in almost a decade now, but when we visited regularly growing up, the amount of progress every trip was astonishing. I don't see how anyone can deny that
With the example of the USSR and China, central planning excels for an initial industrialization. The state of Indian industry now is that where China has difficulty outsourcing to the region.
I remember an article linked on this site praising India for not relying on electricity for industrial labor, but that is a sign of underdevelopment of infrastructure. Infrastructure is something that is usually invested in by the state.
Culture is a major reason, and cultural revolutions were a method to reorient the population to a new societal goal. An Indian mentality can be summed up as "doing the needful" without questioning what it is.
India's share of world GDP fell from ~24% in 1700 to ~4% in 1950. There was an explicit de-industrialization of India - colonial Britain destroyed the textile industry deliberately. Keep them poor and stupid was an explicit state policy.
India was heavily exploited by the British compared to China. Extraordinary raw transfer of minerals to the British - most geographical areas were fully exploited of gold, diamonds, coal, manganese, mica, etc. Mines were left utterly bereft - colonial Britain was world-leader in resource extraction. Enforced cash-crops agriculture -instead of local crops that could feed people, farmers were forced to plant indigo, cotton, opium, tea, etc. This resulted in several mass famines.
Independent India was left dead poor - extraordinarily more poor than China with no mineral wealth left to support industrialization.
China was only semi-colonized and retained nearly all its mineral wealth.
There was no explicit deindustrialization of India, the term is non sensical and subject to debate even amongst the postcolonial academics who tried to impose it.
There was no to little industrialisation of India. That’s very different. It didn’t escape you that the main reason India share of global GDP fell is the industrial revolution in the West leading to drastic production increase and not India producing less. The textile industry died because it failed to mechanise (and yes Britain had no interest in doing it).
The situation was similar in Singapore - a country with no natural resources- and China. Yet they somehow managed to become economic power in the 20th century.
I don’t doubt India is going to manage to succeed at some point. It currently is but systematically looking for excuses doesn’t help.
Colonial Britain carried out a well-documented and deliberate de-industrialization of India through trade policy, laws and overwhelming harsh taxes. This is very well-known history - you can reference sources online in Wikipedia and other books to educate yourself.
Nobody is looking for excuses. I merely state basic facts - China and India had very different starting points. It is also well-known that China has far better mineral wealth than India due to both natural abundance and no colonial over-exploitation.
If you wish sources and references, I can provide them, but I believe you can do this research yourself - this is arguing basic historical facts which are easily found.
Now take a look at India and China nowadays. Maybe some hard questions need to be asked regarding what India did in the past 70 years. Colonial history is an easy excuse to brandish. Does it truly help? I’m unconvinced.