80 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Was the money raised by such injurious taxes without reference to their effect on the productive powers of the country spent on such public utilities as were calculated to enrich and elevate the economic life of the tax-paying population ? A glance at the following table giving the distribution of the expenditure by decades on the different services will show how the money was spent :—
Distribution of the Expenditure*
| Percentage Ratio of Total Expenditure on | In the Year | Col3 | Col4 | Col5 | Col6 | Col7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1809-10 | 1819-20 | 1829-30 | 1839-40 | 1849-50 | 1857 | |
| Military … Interest on debt … Civil and Political … Judicial … Provincial Police … Buildings, Fortifications, etc. | 58.877 18.010 7.221 7.525 1.991 1.639 | 64.290 12.805 8.900 6.800 2.093 1.756 | 53.754 12.124 9.575 7.107 1.535 2.810 | 57.721 9.756 12.296 9.565 2.062 1.428 | 51.662 10.512 8.902 7.180 2.062 1.661 | 45.55 7.19 9.62 9.38 . . . |
- “Past, Present and Prospective Financial Condition of British India,” by Colonel Sykes, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 1859, Vol. XXII, p. 457.
Prominent among this array of figures are those on the military expenditure and though they have dwindled in years they have invariably consumed more than one half of the total revenues of the country. But the stupendous figures opposite military do not represent the true burden of that expenditure. To them must be added the figures for the interest charge on debt, for the debt incurred was entirely a war debt. India was all throughout this period a battle-ground between the Country Powers and the East India Company. The two Mahratta Wars, the three Mysore Wars, the two Burmese Wars, the two Afghan Wars, and the Carnatic Wars, not to speak of the numerous other minor engagements, were fought in the interests of adding India to the dominions of the Company and of the Crown. While Parliament claimed that the dominions of the East India Company were the dominions of the Crown it must be borne in mind that it refused to pay a farthing of the purchase money. On the other hand, the entire cost of these wars was borne by India as so much dead weight on her scanty resources. The charges shown separately under buildings and fortifications must also be included in the military expenditure, to which category they really belonged. On making these needful additions we find the unparalled fact of a country wasting between 52 to
80 per cent. of its precious little money on war services. It