Okay, so look, the British did some things in the countries they colonized. Apparently Prince Albert laid a cornerstone here, and maybe he actually had the Lahore Museum built. I went and looked it up on Wikipedia for you: “The present building was constructed as a memorial of Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria held in 1887, and financed through a special public fund raised on the occasion.”
Fine. But I am SO VERY TIRED of the people (including lots of people from the colonized countries) who come at me with “But didn’t the British do good things like build railways,” etc.
Because they may have built railways, and museums, but AT THE SAME TIME, they systematically stole vast amounts of wealth from the countries they colonized, so much stolen wealth that those countries are still feeling the effects, more than seventy years (that’s three generations!) after they kicked the colonizers out.
If you look at charts of countries that were colonized versus countries that weren’t (there’s a nifty graphic around that shows this, and if someone can find it and throw it in comments, I’d appreciate it), you’ll see how across the world, countries were mostly doing basically the same, slowly improving, and then colonization. Colonizer countries take off stratospherically, compared to colonized countries. That’s what a massive influx of stolen capital will do for you.
So if I hear “But what about the railways” one more time, I will not be responsible for the consequences. You have been warned.
And yes, it’s a beautiful building. Just remember the cost.
