he ability of the Indian people to compete economically, increased poverty in the nation, dismantled the industrial base that had existed in India before the coming of the British. Though British rule was seen as benign, it was also stifling and in time engendered sufficient restlessness in Indian society that resistance was undertaken. This pattern was repeated elsewhere in the Empire, and over time the British themselves saw that resisting the freedom of the colonies was economically and politically damaging and so could not be sustained.
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