State your opinion: European colonialism led to economic exploitation of India.

Answer: I agree with this statement.

• The British took raw materials such as cotton and indigo from India cheaply and sold machine-made goods in the Indian market; Indian handicrafts and weaving were ruined.
• Heavy land revenue under the Permanent Settlement and other systems impoverished farmers, and famines became frequent.
• Huge wealth went to England as salaries, pensions, profits and ‘Home Charges’; Dadabhai Naoroji called this the ‘drain of wealth’.
• Railways and ports were built mainly to serve British trade.

Thus colonial rule made India a supplier of raw materials and a market for British goods.