India suffered humiliation for two centuries under colonial rule, and a study stated that the wealth the British took from India was close to 45 trillion dollars in today’s monetary value. It’s a colossal sum to put this in context. Forty-five trillion dollars is 17 times the total annual gross domestic product of the united kingdom. Today, when the east India company took control of the subcontinent and established a monopoly on Indian trade, the company began collecting taxes in India. It cleverly used a portion of those revenues, roughly one-third, to fund the purchase of Indian goods for British use. In other words, rather than paying for Indian goods out of their own pockets, British traders obtained them for free by buying from peasants and weavers with money that had recently been taken from them.
It was a scam, grand theft on a grand scale. Yet most Indians were unaware of what was going on. In short, the industrial revolution was heavily reliant on systematic theft from India. According to recent news, the UK government’s digital culture, media, and sport department is auctioning off the tipu sultan’s throne final, which was stolen from India. It will be auctioned off for 1 million pounds, that is 14 crore, 98 lakh, 64, and 994.
As the saying goes, you can’t put a price on something which is priceless, but the UK government may be proving you wrong by auctioning the gold tiger head the looted goods, which is invaluable and once belonged to mysuru rulers, tipu sultan in 18th century India, which Was on Friday placed under a temporary export bar in an attempt to find a united kingdom buyer for it. The British government has placed an export bar on the final or crowning ornament to allow time for a UK gallery or institution to acquire the piece of historical value. The final is one of eight gold tiger heads that adorned the ruler’s throne, popularly known as the tiger of Mysore tipu sultan’s symbols were the tiger and its stripes. He famously stated that it is better to live one day as a tiger than one thousand years as a sheep.
Until his defeat and death in 1799, the tipu sultan was regarded as the greatest threat to the British east India company following tipu’s defeat. Many objects from his treasury arrived in Britain, where they influenced poetry, fiction, and artists and piqued the public’s interest, the UK arts minister, lord Stephen Parkinson, stated this fascinating final tells a story of tipu sultan’s reign and prompts us to reflect on our imperial past. I hope a buyer from the united kingdom comes forward so we can all continue learning more about this important period. In our shared history with India, the UK’s department for digital culture, media, and sport also issued a tweet. Britain stole vast sums of money and invaluable property that rightfully belonged to Indians. Isn’t it necessary to return those to their rightful place and, most importantly, tipu sultans?
Throne final is linked to Indian history rather than British imperial history.
