I think Dadabhai Naoroji summed it up quite nicely in his speech before the British Parliament .

In his address, Naoroji gives an accounting of the effects of British rule on the subcontinent. As positive marks, a stable civil administration capable of providing infrastructure and maintaining order, education, political rights and property rights, access to capital. As negative aspects of British rule, no Indian people highly placed in the administration of their affairs, no say in the disbursement of heavy taxes Indians had no say in levying, persistence of poverty, policies that led to a loss of manufacturing prowess. At one point, he refers to British rule in India as an knife made of sugar. Sweet in some ways, but a knife nonetheless.

Source: Dadabhai Naoroji, Essays, Speeches, Addresses and Writings (Bombay: Caxton Printing Works, 1887)

Also in his text Poverty and Un-British rule in India, Naoroji points out that the situation was not beneficial to either party at greater length.