In 1930 the American historian and philosopher Will Durant wrote that Britains conscious and deliberate bleeding of India... was the greatest crime in all history. He was not the only one to denounce the rapacity and cruelty of British rule and his assessment was not exaggerated. Almost thirtyfive million Indians died because of acts of commission and omission by the Britishin famines epidemics communal riots and wholesale slaughter like the reprisal killings after the 1857 War of Independence and the Amritsar massacre of 1919. Besides the deaths of Indians British rule impoverished India in a manner that beggars belief. When the East India Company took control of the country in the chaos that ensued after the collapse of the Mughal empire Indias share of world GDP was 23 per cent. When the British left it was just above 3 per cent. The British empire in India began with the East India Company incorporated in 1600 by royal charter of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth I to trade in silk spices and other profitable Indian commodities. Within a century and a half the Company had become a power to reckon with in India. In 1757 under the command of Robert Clive Company forces defeated the ruling Nawab SirajudDaula of Bengal at Plassey through a combination of superior artillery and even more superior chicanery. A few years later the young and weakened Mughal emperor Shah Alam II was browbeaten into issuing an edict that replaced his own revenue officials with the Companys representatives. Over the next several decades the East India Company backed by the British government extended its control over most of India ruling with a combination of extortion doubledealing and outright corruption backed by violence and superior force. This state of affairs continued until 1857 when large numbers of the Companys Indian soldiers spearheaded the first major rebellion against colonial rule. After the rebels were defeated the British Crown took over power and ruled the country ostensibly mo