Between 1765 and 1900, the richest 10 per cent in the UK extracted wealth from India alone worth US$33.8 trillion in today’s money — enough to carpet the surface area of London in the 50-pound notes almost four times over, an Oxfam global report said on Monday.
According to authors Utsa Patnaik and Prabha Patnaik, of the US$64.82 trillion extracted from India by the UK over a century of colonialism, US$33.8 trillion went to the richest 10 per cent.
In the UK, a significant number of the richest people today can trace their family wealth back to slavery and colonialism, specifically the compensation paid to rich enslavers when slavery was abolished, the report stressed.
“The modern multinational corporation is a creation of colonialism. It was pioneered by such corporations as the East India Company, which became a law unto itself and was responsible for many colonial crimes,” said the Oxfam report.
In 1750, the Indian subcontinent accounted for approximately 25 per cent of global industrial output. However, by 1900, this figure had precipitously declined to a mere 2 per cent.
“This dramatic reduction can be attributed to Britain’s implementation of stringent protectionist policies against Asian textiles, which systematically undermined India’s industrial growth potential. US$64.82 trillion was drained from India by Britain over 200 years,” the report’s findings showed.
In 2024, globally total billionaire wealth increased by $2 trillion, with 204 new billionaires created. This is an average of almost four new billionaires per week.
“Total billionaire wealth grew three times faster in 2024 than in 2023. Each billionaire saw their fortunes grow by $ 2 million a day on average. For the richest 10 billionaires their fortunes grew by US$100 million a day on average,” the report showed.
Last year, Oxfam forecasted a trillionaire within a decade. If current trends continue, there will now be five trillionaires within a decade, it added.
(IANS)
