Colonization of India.
Systemic Exploitation by British Shrunk the Humans.
The Question That Revealed a Historical Blindness
This is the tale of exploitation of India by British and other invaders:
“For 500 years they were subjugated, colonized, exploited, taxed and forced to convert faith and sell for less price. They were so underfed that their height shrunk to below 5 feet and they were ridiculed for their small size and dark skin. Their motherland dissected, population divided and left by the colonizers to be ruled by their trained proxies who imposed socialist ideology and kept them under fed. After the socialist lost power within one generation they regained the height and now 6 feet is normal height, something which was an awful specter just a generation ago.”
When this description was presented, AI failed to recognize for what it was: a comprehensive account of one of history’s longest and most systematic campaigns of human exploitation. The failure to immediately identify this as describing the Indian subcontinent’s colonial experience reveals a troubling disparity in how different historical atrocities are processed and remembered.
Had this same description been applied to other historical tragedies, the recognition would have been immediate. Yet the 500-year subjugation of India, involving multiple colonial powers and leaving physical marks on the human body itself, required guided recognition. This article documents not only that exploitation, but also the remarkable recovery that followed independence.
The 500-Year Timeline: From Turkic Conquest to Independence
Phase I: Chagatai Turk Rule (1526-1717)
The rulers whom the British later termed “Mughals” were actually Chagatai Turks, not Mongols. The designation “Mughal” was applied by the British later to distinguish them from “Mongol” and demonstrating the British as successor of established Turkic dynasties. Mughal localised the Turkish dynasty.
The systematic exploitation began with heavy taxation that left peasant cultivators with barely half their agricultural output. Religious persecution included the re-imposition of the jizya (religious tax on non-Muslims) by Aurangzeb in 1679, discriminatory trade taxes that charged Hindu merchants 5% versus 2.5% for Muslim merchants, forced conversions to Islam, temple destruction, and cultural suppression.
The effective end of Chagatai Turk power came around 1717, shortly after Aurangzeb’s death in 1707, when the Maratha Empire became the dominant power, with Delhi essentially under their influence. By 1750, Marathas ruled most of India until their defeat at the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761.
Phase II: European Colonization (1500s-1947)
European exploitation began with Portuguese control from 1505, establishing trade monopolies and implementing the brutal Goa Inquisition from 1560-1812. The Portuguese used systematic torture devices—physical machines on which people were tied and their bodies twisted until they agreed to convert to Christianity. More than 16,000 people were officially tried by this Inquisition, with hundreds of Hindu temples destroyed and churches built on the ruins.
British exploitation intensified after 1757 with the implementation of the zamindari system, where intermediary landlords extracted wealth for the British while taking blame for the exploitation. The British drained an estimated 45 trillion dollars from India between 1765-1938, representing 17 times the current annual GDP of the United Kingdom. This systematic extraction was achieved through heavy taxation, trade monopolies, and the creation of artificial famines that killed millions.
Systematic Malnutrition and Dehumanization
The exploitation created widespread malnutrition that left visible marks on the human body. Extreme poverty increased under British rule from 23% in 1810 to more than 50% by the mid-20th century. Multiple famines, including the Bengal Famine of 1770 (killing 1-10 million) and the Bengal Famine of 1943 (killing 800,000-3.8 million), created generations of stunted growth and compromised physical development. In short average height of people fell to below 5 feet. The Physical Manifestation of British rule is missed by everyone.
Crown-Sanctioned Racial Dehumanization: 
“Dogs and Indians Not Allowed”
The most systematic and deliberate racial dehumanization occurred AFTER the British Crown took direct control in 1858, not during the earlier East India Company period. The widespread signage at restaurants, clubs, and establishments across British Raj India: “Dogs and Indians Not Allowed” was implemented under the direct authority of the Crown, with the sanction of the very royal family that rules Britain today.
This wasn’t isolated discrimination, it was systematic equating of Indians with animals in their own homeland. Colonial policies deliberately favored lighter-skinned Indians for government positions while constantly demeaning darker-skinned Indians, who were prohibited from entering restaurants, educational institutions, and social spaces. The British treated lighter-skinned Indians as “allies” while giving darker-skinned Indians “odder jobs and more tedious work.”
The systematic ridicule targeted both physical attributes deliberately damaged by colonial policy: “small size” (caused by systematic malnutrition) and “dark skin” (treated as inherently inferior). This created a calculated double layer of humiliation designed to break psychological resistance along with physical health.
Revolutionary Pritilata Waddedar, at age 21, specifically targeted a club displaying “Dogs and Indians not allowed” signage in 1932, demonstrating how these symbols of racial degradation became focal points of resistance.
Religious Persecution and Cultural Destruction
Forced conversion was a constant throughout the 500-year period. The Portuguese Goa Inquisition employed physical torture devices to break resistance. Converted Christians were forced to adopt alien lifestyles—wearing Western clothing, eating pork and beef, and abandoning cultural practices like women wearing flowers in their hair.
Under Chagatai Turk rule, systematic temple destruction accompanied forced conversions, with Aurangzeb’s 1669 edict prohibiting Hindu temple construction and repair. The 1857 Revolt was significantly triggered by concerns over forced conversion, particularly the greased cartridge issue where ammunition was deliberately made with cow and pig fat to break Hindu and Muslim religious practices.
Recognizing the role of conversion concerns in triggering the revolt, Queen Victoria’s 1858 proclamation, taking direct control from the East India Company, explicitly promised religious non-interference and respect for Indian customs, effectively ending official conversion campaigns.But it did not stop racism and discrimination which happened under the watch of Crown.
The Remarkable Recovery: A Biological Testament to Freedom
The most striking evidence of systematic colonial damage and subsequent recovery lies in the physical transformation of the population. Personal observations from contemporary India reveal a dramatic inter-generational height increase that serves as a living testament to both the damage inflicted and the recovery achieved.
Grandfathers and grand-uncles of the current generation were “slightly over 5 feet,” reflecting centuries of malnutrition. The middle generation shows intermediate heights. Today’s young generation routinely reaches 6 feet, with 5.5 feet becoming average rather than tall. This creates the poignant irony of an entire generation literally looking down at their elders in a culture built on bowing down to elders—a physical manifestation of recovery from systematic oppression.
This height recovery, visible in every family gathering and social interaction, represents the restoration of human potential once oppressive conditions were removed. Combined with adequate nutrition, healthcare access, and athletic opportunities, the population has recovered its physical stature within just two to three generations.
Economic and Technological Renaissance
The recovery extends far beyond physical stature. India has emerged as the world’s 4th largest economy, representing one of history’s most dramatic economic transformations. From systematic impoverishment under colonial rule to becoming a major global economy demonstrates the resilience and potential that had been systematically suppressed for centuries.
Perhaps most symbolically, a nation whose people were once equated with animals and forbidden from entering establishments in their own land now has its eyes set on the Moon and Mars. India’s space program represents not just technological advancement, but a reclamation of dignity and ambition that colonial exploitation had worked to destroy.
The Historical Parallel That Doesn’t Exist
This combination of factors makes India’s experience unique in human history. The 500-year duration of systematic exploitation, involving multiple colonial powers across different eras, has no historical parallel. The systematic nature of the oppression which extended to economic, physical, cultural, and psychological spheres. It created damage visible in the human body itself.
Equally unprecedented is the scale and speed of recovery. The transformation from a systematically impoverished population to the world’s 4th largest economy, combined with advanced space technology and visible physical recovery in human stature, represents a recovery trajectory without historical parallel.
A Lesson in Recognition and Memory
The initial failure of AI to recognize this 500-year exploitation when presented comprehensively reveals important questions about how historical suffering is processed and remembered. While other historical atrocities are immediately recognizable as complete narratives, the Indian colonial experience seems to exist in fragments. Individual facts are known but not synthesized into the full picture of systematic dehumanization.
This disparity suggests that some historical tragedies receive more integrated treatment in collective memory than others. The systematic exploitation of India, despite its unprecedented duration and systematic nature, required guided recognition rather than immediate identification.
The visible recovery, literally measurable in human height, economically demonstrable in global rankings, and technologically evident in space missions—serves as proof not only of the damage inflicted but of the remarkable resilience of human potential when oppression ends.
References:
- Patnaik, Utsa. “Revisiting the ‘Drain,’ or Transfers from India to Britain in the Context of Global Diffusion of Capitalism.” Research Gate, documenting $45 trillion drain from India (1765-1938).
- Government of India Archives. Queen Victoria’s Proclamation of 1858, promising religious non-interference after the 1857 Revolt.
- Goa State Archives. Records of the Goa Inquisition (1560-1812), documenting 16,000+ trials and systematic torture methods.
- British Colonial Revenue Records. Documentation of zamindari system and agricultural taxation rates under colonial administration.
- Bengal Famine Inquiry Commission Report (1945). Official documentation of 1943 Bengal Famine casualties and causes.
- Historical Records of “Dogs and Indians Not Allowed” signage, documented in multiple colonial club and establishment records.
- Mughal Administrative Records. Documentation of jizya reimposition (1679) and discriminatory taxation policies under Aurangzeb.
- Maratha Historical Records. Documentation of Mughal Empire’s effective end by 1717 and Maratha dominance by 1750.
- Portuguese Colonial Trade Records. Documentation of Cartaz system and trade monopolies in Indian Ocean (1500-1600).
- Contemporary demographic studies showing intergenerational height differences in post-independence India, observable in family and community settings across the subcontinent.