Talk about straw men and a lack of facts. Nobody said India would have &quot;kept up&quot; with the West or was on the verge of an industrial revolution. I am merely saying that the British miracle was less because they were so smart and more because they had an entire subcontinent, and later vast empire, at gunpoint. Without which they would have had to trade on equal terms in a global market.<p>Point is Britain would done worse (along with the rest of the west), and India would have been much better off. How much? Who knows. Note that Germany with its industrial prowess only caught up in the 2nd half of the 19th century. They coincidentally had little in the way of colonial assets. Coincidence?<p>I have provided lots of sources pointing at data. You just say &quot;because your belief flies in the face of near any widely accepted understanding of history.&quot;<p>Widely accepted where? Britain? Because that&#x27;s whose opinion matters, not economic historians who dedicate their lives to understanding these things right? Like I said, reddit with you. Hope you are a troll.