AH Challenge: British Empire to Rival the Japanese

This isn't an AH challenge about painting the world pink, but rather about economic development in the Japanese and British Empires.

I'm reading Does Conquest Pay, about the exploitation of nations in the modern era, and it turns out, boy, does it. But he unintentionally raises an interesting question.


Under Japanese Rule, annual GDP growth in Korea was around 3%; in Manchuria and Taiwan, it was around 4%. For India, British economic growth barely beat Malthus over the entire period of rule. By 1940, half of all Taiwanese children, and a third of all Korean and Manchurian children were attending primary school.

These sorts of numbers make the British achievement in India a bit... unimpressive. So, how can we get a British Empire that rules India as competently as the Japanese did East Asia?
 
These sorts of numbers make the British achievement in India a bit... unimpressive. So, how can we get a British Empire that rules India as competently as the Japanese did East Asia?
With a pre-1900 PoD, it's easy: have the British not throttle Indian industrialisation in the cradle, and grow rich off of taxing it modestly instead. The minor problems here are that eventually the Indians wonder what they're paying taxes to the British for, British industry will want to know what the Government is going to do about the fact that it's being outcompeted by India.

This approach would still work post-1900, but all the above problems are multiplied.
 
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