The richest 10 per cent of the British Empire took home $33.8 trillion from India between 1765 and 1900, according to a report by rights group Oxfam.
This amounts to more than half the $64.82 trillion extracted by the colonial power in total, said the report published on January 20.
"This would be enough to carpet the surface area of London in British pound 50 notes almost four times over," the report said.
The report titled, Takers, not Makers, said British protectionist policies against textiles destroyed India's industrial output. In 1750, India accounted for around one-fourth of the industrial output globally but this plummeted to just 2 per cent by 1900.
It stated that the biggest beneficiaries of India's extracted wealth were the richest enslavers who were compensated by the British government while abolishing the racist system. This makes it 52 per cent of the income from India.
The UK's middle class was the second biggest beneficiary of the Indian wealth, receiving 32 per cent of the income.
The group also pointed out how the British and the Dutch used opium trade to increase the control on colonies. It also alleged that the English East India Company became "a law unto itself", committing colonial crimes and exploitations that are followed by modern multinational corporations.
The report added that the colonial history created a "deeply unequal world" wherein the wealth of the Global South is extracted to benefit the Global North. It claimed the wages in the Global South are 87 to 95 per cent than Global North.
