I have an essay on this, and I want to do a good job on the essay, especially because this is so interesting. However, I have been doing some research and it seems that this is a hotly debated topic with many different viewpoints. If you guys could help me out with the big opinion and some support to your ideas, that would be great. Thanks!
This question keeps popping up on this sub from time to time. Here are a few previous submissions with detailed perspectives from either side. As an Indian with mainly pro-western views, I do believe sincerely that Imperialism was mainly negative and I will be willing to offer my subjective opinion on this topic if you would like a few quotes too.
An AMA by historians on British India during the colonial period up to partition here
A general discussion about benefits of Imperialism here
A discussion about why India was the crown jewel of the British Empire here
A discussion about Indian famines during the time of the British Raj here and here
A discussion about the British East India Company and its parallels to modern corporations here
Dadabhai Naoroji, the Indian intellectual, famously wrote his own assessments of British rule upon his country. One, written in 1871 and titled "The Benefits of British Rule for India", can be found at [Internet History Sourcebook] (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1871britishrule.asp) (although that is not an entirely appropriate title, as the piece also explores the costs).
Another, entitled "Memorandum No.2 on the Moral Poverty in India and Native Thoughts on the Present British Indian Policy" and which can be found in Voices of Indian Freedom Movement, edited by J.C. Johari (New Delhi: Akashdeep Publishing, 1993), observes the "thoughtless and pitiless action of the British policy; it is the pitiless eating of India's substance in India...the sad bleeding to which India is subjected, that is destroying India". This from one of the most culturally pro-British Indian intellectuals of the day.
One of the factors that can be used to paint the British raj in a negative light is education and literacy.
In close to 70 years of British rule from 1881 to 1947 the literacy in India went from 3.2% to 12.2%. In an equally long timeframe 1947-2011 the literacy rate went from 12.2% to 74%. Seeing these numbers it is difficult to argue that the British did much to foster better education and literacy in India, ensuring that the country remained rural and backward.
Another common argument uses the economy and the % of world GDP as metrics. I however cant comment on it as I dont the numbers right now
I am pulling these numbers from wikipedia.
This might be in interesting place to start your reading:
Late Victorian Holocausts, by Prof. Mike Davis.