Quote Originally Posted by rvg View Post
Better? Better how?
How? I told you, 100% coverage by professional law enforcement and Fire Service for starters. Our legislature is also not currently paralysed.

So, they were "free" but didn't know it, so they chose to be free instead.
You can mince words as much as you like, but the preamble to the 1911 act indicates that the goal was Indian self-governance developed over time.

And that's the problem. When some "Foreign and Commonwealth Office" is telling me whether or not my people are ready to run their own affairs I can conclusively say that they aren't free.

Hell no. Seriously, the whole idea of the Wise and Benevolent "Foreign and Commonwealth Office" deciding on whether or not I'm mature enough to be free is infuriating.
You are ban of bloody insurrection, then?

I find that difficult to understand. I can appreciate the desire to "seize" freedom, but if the result is that you bequeeth a corrupt state or future Civil War to your children it isn't worth it, especially if your children will be granted peaceful freedom anyway. Self-rule is only one form of freedom, and it has no value if the only rule you can exercise is where your feet rest before some warlord runs you through.

Take the average Afgan, you think he enjoys his "freedom", or might he have prefered his King and a modicum of peace?

By the time of the British conquest much of India was already under Hindu Marathan rule.
The British Raj included almost 600 petty states. Parts of India might have been unified, but the history suggests it was unlikely to last.

I do not seek to diminish Britain's contribution to India's industry, but I doubt it was done for the sake of the people of India.
Then you don't know much about British Colonial policy - which was to trade, not to extract. The British philosophy was "Paternalism", British supremacy in art, governance, technology and science was considered self evident. One of the prime objectives of the Empire was to spread those virtues.

Senators were chosen by State legislatures, i.e. it was still a democratic process.
But not directly elected, and nor is the president even today. Those who could stand for election were the wealthy with the money to campaign and then travel between Washington D.C. and their home States. As I said, little different from England at the time.

quote]Centuries? You mean sharper arrow points and such? So, a Viking felled by the Indian arrow would be dead, but the Indian felled by the Viking arrow would be deader? Metalworking would have given the Vikings some edge, but it would still be a melee. Considering the Natives' larger numbers, Viking prospects weren't looking too good.[/QUOTE]

I mean Dragon Boats, maile armour, iron helms, swords, battle axes, limewood shields, longbows.

It is a common misconception that metel weapons are sharper than flint or obsidion ones when in fact the reverse is true. The sharpest blades are obsidion, the edge being 1 micron wide as opposed to the 20 microns of the sharpest steel blade
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However, the Norsemen would have had every other advantage. In particular, the Norse were conditioned to fight pitched battles and to defend fortified strongholds. By contrast, the Natives would have had stone axes and spear heads and probably shortbows with flint arrowheads. Flint can't cut iron maile, but iron can shatter flint.