57
Sir Bartle Frere, Governor of Bombay, shared his excitement at the way railways were making Indians more independent.
… Let us add to this effect on the labouring population the inevitable and irresistible tendency of railways to break the bonds of caste and to destroy the isolation in which the various classes and races of natives have hitherto lived, and you have an aggregate of moral results such as may well be the subject of grave thought to those who are interested in the future of India …
Tags: India, India
60
The British Empire may be said to have started when Elizabethan importers got into a fight with the Dutch over the price of pepper.
… But they, finding that they could no longer trade with Lisbon, resolved to seek the way to India for themselves and trade direct … Just as the Moors had tried to keep the Portuguese out of India … Even after the Dutch reached India the Portuguese tried to make mischief between them and the natives … They founded a Dutch East India Company … But now they were angry, and resolved in their turn to go to India direct for what they wanted …
Tags: India, India