India's Raj

Byline: Semu Bhatt The seeds of modern India were sown during the British Raj, notwithstanding the fact that the process was set in to facilitate Empire's trade and to prolong its rule. The country was made into a single administrative unit under a legal system applicable throughout that unit. The development of modern transportation, communications and canal networks under the British rule were the foundation stones of modern Indian infrastructure and economy that enhanced internal trade and mobility and initiated the process of urbanization. Laws were passed abolishing social evils like "satee" (immolation of a widow on her husband's funeral pyre), child marriages, slave business and human sacrifices; women education and widow remarriages were encouraged. The idea of national media also emerged during that colonial era - modeled on the then British media giants.