The UK extracted USD 64.82 trillion from India over a century of colonialism between 1765 and 1900 and USD 33.8 trillion of this went to the richest 10 per cent — enough money to carpet London in notes of 50 British pound almost four times over.This forms part of rights group Oxfam International’s latest flagship global inequity report released every year on the first day of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting.The report, titled ‘Takers, not Makers’ and released here on Monday hours before the start of the annual meeting of the rich and powerful across the globe, cited several studies and research papers to claim that the modern multinational corporation is a creation of colonialism only.”Legacies of inequality and pathologies of plunder, pioneered during the time of historical colonialism, continue to shape modern lives. This has created a deeply unequal world, a world torn apart by division based on racism, a world that continues to systematically extract wealth from the Global South to primarily benefit the richest people in the Global North,” Oxfam said.Using various studies and research papers as its basis, Oxfam calculated that between 1765 and 1900, the richest 10 per cent in the UK extracted wealth from India alone worth USD 33.8 trillion in today’s money.”This would be enough to carpet the surface area of London in British pound 50 notes almost four times over,” it said.In the UK, a significant number of the richest people today can trace their family wealth back to slavery and colonialism, specifically the compensation paid to rich enslavers when slavery was abolished, it added.On the modern multinational corporation being a creation of colonialism, Oxfam said it was pioneered by such corporations as the East India Company, which became a law unto itself and was responsible for many colonial crimes.”In the modern day, multinational corporations, often occupying monopoly or near-monopoly positions, continue to exploit workers in the Global South, particularly women workers, on behalf of rich shareholders primarily based in the Global North,” it said.Global supply chains and export processing industries represent modern colonial systems of southnorth wealth extraction.
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