What If India Was Never Colonized? | Alternate History

The British Colonization of India has earned a key place in history, and is often considered to be a pivotal moment in the emergence of the British Empire, as the various riches of the Indian Subcontinent did well to fuel Britain's colonial ventures. As such, it's natural to wonder what might have happened if Britain never conquered India, both for its potential impact upon the UK, Europe, and the West, as well as for its impact upon India itself. What new kingdoms and states might emerge from India in the absence of British colonization? This is what if India was never colonized.

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[JoshSullivanHistory]

Dang bro, this Josh guy is pretty cool. I think I might go check him out. In all seriousness, thanks for having me back on!

[darko]

This guy talked about Marathas more than our textbooks.

[patrickrooney]

The lack of india might also decrease antagonism with Russia which means no crimean war.

[BSinator]

A topic which was not talked about in this video was that of cotton. India was a major source of cotton for the British Empire. Without India, the European powers would be much more reliant on the American south for King Cotton. This means the British and French would be more willing to involve themselves in the American Civil War, if it were to start in the first place.

[ihatemotionblur_]

Babur was ALSO a descendant of Timur, and his line chose to assign with Timur's line more than the Great Khan's

[axel]

You also forgot that a Bengal General actually betrayed the Bengal nawab and switched allegiance to Britain for him ruling Bengal

[theultra_]

My Ancestors were Royals and rebelled in 1857, last many of them died but a small amount of them escaped and relocated, My Great-Grandfather was a revolutionary in the Azad Hind army and his brother took part in the non-alignment movement, their father was a Zamindar and his riches are still not found after death, And here we are today, So technically my family is full of revolutionaries and royals.

[jamesdavis]

Additionally, if Napoleon didn't go to Egypt, the Rosetta stone might not have been recognized for what it was!

[bobmcbob]

You know, the Marathas apparently had an amazing navy, much more on par with Europe than say China or Japan were at the time, and also just huge because that’s what happens when you have a huge population and actually care to develop your navy unlike China, and their army was of course very strong, so their ability to hold off the Europeans was pretty great. Maybe even to the point that they could project a bit of power outward like Oman did for a while.Though their development wasn’t insane, they certainly had potential to be something like a mega Thailand (the added strength from size coming with the bonus of no foreign spheres of influence in the country) or even, if they were motivated by seeing some neighbour obliterated by Europeans after technologically stagnating, I’d say they had the potential for a Meiji like modernization period, the only problem being a possible China like mentality of “were strong and successful anyway we don’t need to worry”

[abadyr_]

What's that about protecting Bengali equipment?
Seems to me that preventing, or at least uncovering the betrayals of many of the nawabs' commanders would be vastly more important.

[historyrhymes]

Victoria would be empress of Canada I guess.

[이동연-cd]

For the next alternate history, I’d like to see the What if Dollfuss survives from assassination then allied with Italy to avoid Anschluss and declare a war on Germany with the allies and a new chapter of the Scar Nicholas that Hitler meet Nicholas II. :)

[medanchess]

Battle of Plassey 1757
Mir Jafar served as the main commander of the Bengali army under Siraj ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, but betrayed him during the Battle of Plassey and succeeded Daulah after the British victory in 1757.
If Mir zafar Didn't betrayed Siraj than it would've been an easy victory for Bengalis
Mir jafar did not take part in the battle of plassey because he was promised by britishers that they will made him the nawab

[bigbreadtime]

Love the vid but how could you just not mention the Sikh empire who fought and defeated the mugals multiple times while also battling the British and the Sikh empire was a major player in India at the time.

Apart from that i liked the vid

[bobmcbob]

Napoleon actually gained a lot of popularity from his campaign in Egypt and was actually invited into a triumvirate planning a coup right after returning, so no Egyptian campaign might impact Napoleons rise to power

[armandeepsingh]

Sikh Empire was also a pretty powerful Empire during its the first half of 19th century it was 4th largest army in Asia at that time

[amritrandhawa]

Not a single mention about the Sikhs, despite the fact that Aurangzeb quite literally beheaded the Sikh guru for his protests against forced conversions. Then there's also the fact the Sikh kingdom was the last Indian kingdom to fall to the British. While the Marathas were no doubt a powerful empire, they fled northern India as soon as the Afghan invasions began, leaving the Sikhs to fight off both the Mughals and the Afghans by themselves.

[DSM]

Considering the main point of the alternative scenario was that India wouldn't get colonised, you did incredible little research on India and its surroundings. First of all, Maratha lost to Afghan empire, how in the world would they conqueror all the way into Afghanistan in the alternative scenario. Not to mention the Sikh empire who was quite powerful as well. Maratha was already in decline before the British even reach it borders. It wouldn't have changed a thing for the Maratha if the British didn't colonised India. It would have been more interesting to see how it would have effected the Afghan empire and the Sikh empire instead or even Bengal, which was one of the richest region in India before the colonisation.

[ShivJ]

Great video! One comment though: The “th” in Maratha is not pronounced like the th in English, it’s meant to signify a hard T sound, like in “tea.”

I have wondered a lot about what a Maratha-ruled India would look like though. I think there’s a decent chance it would survive into the modern day, especially if it is able to undergo a degree of industrialization (which was stifled by British exploitation) as well as a democratic revolution like England’s Glorious Revolution, where the monarchy is retained under a democracy. Unlike Imperial China, the Maratha political structure was somewhat set up for a democratic transition due to its separation of powers between the Chhatrapati, or emperor, and the Peshwa, or Prime Minister. The Peshwa wasn’t elected by a Parliament but it could have reformed into that.

Of course, it’s also possible that, like in China, the Marathas are overthrown by a communist revolution lol. But we can dream.

[Providence..]

It's amazing how one change can affect so much, great video, loved Josh!