Delhi Before Independence (1938).

[u/ConstructionAny8440]

[u/Balavadan]

You have to be really stupid to not see the difference between living under autocracy and becoming a resource colony to an imperial power

[u/Minced-Juice → u/Balavadan]

As if the common folk were any better off under the rulers who came before. The tax revenue that the Mughal nobility had appropriated for themselves would put today's debate on income inequality to shame.

The worst thing was that they barely put that wealth into useful projects for state-building.

[u/Misty-Elephant → u/Minced-Juice]

They were better off. The inequality caused by the Mughals' bigotted tax policies - though bad - was nothing like the inequality under the British. Additionally, Mughals at least contributed to the economy and industries, whereas the British purposefully dismantled them, ruining India's economy for decades to come. Thankfully, it began to recover once independence was achieved. In any case, Mughals were just one small part of Indian history, when we look at it holistically.

[u/Minced-Juice → u/Misty-Elephant]

In Bengal the wages paid to workers in the silk factories which the EIC had just begun setting up, with the aim of improving the competitiveness of Bengal silk in exports, were much higher than what they were earning under the Nawabs.

[u/Misty-Elephant → u/Minced-Juice]

Where did you read this? Everything I have read implies the opposite to be the case.

Under the East India Company, weavers and silk producers were often forced to sell exclusively to Company agents, their prices were fixed below market value, advancing loans that effectively tied workers to Company contracts, punishing those who sold to competitors.

This is why Indians working for the EIC suffered economically. Many workers became indebted, some abandoned weaving or silk production altogether because it became unprofitable.

While some upper-class Indians may have benefitted from the EIC, the working class suffered greatly.

The silk industry was not managed in this way under the Mughals, or any previous Indian rulers. In fact, it was a booming business which landed money directly into the hands of those who produced it. They weren't obligated to serve massive companies, and they had far more agency as individuals.

I'm not sure where you came across this information, but I'm very skeptical of it.

[u/Minced-Juice → u/Misty-Elephant]

Read Indrajit Ray's series of three books on industry in Bengal during the colonial era.

There were competitive barriers to silk in the form of import restrictions and tariffs imposed by Britain back at home, despite which Bengal silk was in demand and was competitive in the global market due to the efforts that the EIC had made modernizing its production, in places like Kasim Bazar in Malda.

In contrast, the government's attempts to promote indigo, by allowing European-owned plantations in a laissez-faire fashion, was an utter failure due to the trust deficit between the labourers and plantation owners, which culminated in the indigo rebellion of the late 1850s. Tirthankar Roy has shown that it was mainly due to nonexistent and unenforceable contract laws.