British Imperialism in India"All the leaders had spent their early years in England. They were influenced by British thinking, British ideas, that's why our leaders always said to the British "How can they do you do these things? They are against your own fundamental values." We didn't have hatred, in fact it was the opposite: it was their values ​​that made us rebel." -Aruna Asaf Ali, leader of the Indian National Congress. (Masani, quoted in Wood, 32, 1989) There is no doubt that British imperialism had a great impact on India. India, having previously been a group of independent and semi-independent principalities and territories, underwent great changes under British administration. Originally intended to consolidate its hold on India by creating a population that spoke the same language as their rulers, the British decision in the 1830s to educate Indians in a Western way, with English as the language of instruction, was the beginning of a chain of events, including a rise in Indian nationalism, which led to Indian resentment towards British imperialism and, ultimately, the loss of British control over India. One of the most important factors in the loss of British control over India was the establishment of English as a unifying country. tongue. Before British colonization, India was fragmented and multilingual, with 15 major languages ​​and around 720 dialects. English served as common ground for Indians and allowed separate cultural and ethnic groups to identify with each other, something that had rarely, if ever, happened on a large scale before. Although they were mainly educated Indians of a privileged caste to speak English, these were the most influential people in terms of facilitating the communication of nationalist ideas to the entire population. The publication of magazines and newspapers in English also had a great influence on the rise of Indian nationalism. Although most Indians received nationalist ideas orally, these newspapers allowed Indians who knew English to come into contact with the ideas of social and political reformers. Political and social reform in India was achieved as a result of European political principles brought to India by the British. Indians were anglicized and the British ideal for an Indian was to be "Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, opinions and intellect", as stated by a British legislator (Rich, 214, 1979) . This Western education inevitably led educated Indians to encounter European principles such as human rights, freedom of speech, travel and association, and liberalism..