Question

Read the excerpt from an informational document.



[I]f we could but induce our retired merchants, engineers, doctors, solicitors, barristers, judges, and civilians to make India permanently their home, what an amount of talent and ability, political experience and ripe judgement, we should retain in India for the benefit of us all! All these great questions in regard to the financial drain on India, and those questions arising from jealousy of races and the rivalry for public employment, would at once disappear. And when we speak of the poverty of India, because of the draining away of vast sums of money from India to England, it has always seemed to me strange that so little thought should be bestowed upon the question of the poverty of our resources caused by the drain of so many men of public, political, and intellectual eminence from our shores every year.

—Badruddin Tyabji, 1887

Which detail from the excerpt best supports the thesis that British imperialism and policies were having a negative effect on India?

“induce our retired merchants”
“what an amount of talent and ability”
“draining away of vast sums of money from India”
“so little thought should be bestowed upon . . . poverty”

Answer 1

“draining away of vast sums of money from India” — it directly points to the economic harm caused by money being sent from India to England under imperial rule.