India was made up of numerous warring states, until one massive war that turned them into a possession of Britain. I'm not aware of how their economic situation changed after that, but if Africa is any indicator... http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/2007/08/country...
I am not sure if it was all negative... I am sure the British brought good things to India. I do believe a century long British rule changed the focus and stifled innovation and free thought. How would it have gone had the British never ruled... hard to tell.
Did the British rule of Britain have the same effect? How, then, could they have produced Newton and Babbage when Indian mathematicians were on the same path centuries (or millennia!) earlier?
Just to stir the pot a bit - whenever I hear debates about empires, colonialism etc, I'm always reminded of the phrase, 'What have the Romans ever done for us?'.