The policy of annexation affected not only the Indian rulers, but all those who were dependent upon them such as soldiers, crafts people and even nobles.the traditional scholarly and priestly classes lost their patronage from these rulers,chieftains, nobles and zamindars, and were thus impoverished. Thus, by the mid nineteenth century,no single Indian power was there to challenge or resist the British.Assam, Arakhan, North Eastern region and portions of Nepal and Burma were already annexed (1818 to 1826).
so the answer is the economic life of the people could not stand without the hand of the british empire.
Their impact on the cultural and social life of India was, however, gradual. ... Besides, Western education was expected to reconcile the people of India to British .... It was a settlement with the village community because common ownership
