#MirzaGhalib

Mirza Ghalib · 1797–1869

In the books · 1 chapter

Who this is

Economics and politics — the first great economic critic of British rule, thrice president of the Indian National Congress, first Indian elected to the British Parliament.

“A mathematics professor sat down with the empire's own statistics, worked out that India earned about twenty rupees per head per year — famine-ration poverty — worked out where the rest was going, and then got himself elected, by a handful of votes in a London slum district, to say so on the floor of the House of Commons.”

— The Great Indians, Ch. 173

The big idea, in the book's words:

“Britain was not merely ruling India; it was draining her — tens of millions of pounds a year flowing out with nothing coming back — and he proved it patiently, from the government's own figures, then carried the proof into the Parliament that ruled him.”

— The Great Indians, Ch. 173