“THE CLEAREST DIFFERENTIATOR that marks an India before the advent of the British is found in the realm of social engineering. For the preceding six hundred years, successive alien Muslim regimes had not mucked around with the traditional and social institutions of Hindus. Muslim invaders who had come from abroad had permanently settled in India after establishing empires.

However, from the start, the British knew that their stay in India would be temporary. The copious archives they have left behind show that they were aware that they would have to eventually pack their bags and leave. The British hated everything about this country – its climate, its people, their culture and society.

The oppression of the Hindu society by Muslim kings was extremely crude, violent, and evoked instant outrage. But the British oppression was more deliberate and long-term. It was imbued with a single goal: to extort the maximum amount of wealth with maximum efficiency and speed. Guns and swords would only take them so far…..”