Just some of what the British did in India to enrich native understanding of their own history and culture:
Charles Masson first described the ancient ruins of Harappa in the 1840s.
Alexander Cunningham founded the Archaeological Survey of India in 1861. He and later archaeologists mapped, surveyed, and excavated hundreds of ancient sites across South Asia.
H. C. P. Bell discovered/excavated the old capital of Sri Lanka, Polonnaruwa, which was forgotten since the 13th c.
The Dravidian language family was first discovered/ identified as a distinct, non-Indo-European group of languages in 1816 by Francis Whyte Ellis, a British civil servant. Dravidian was later properly identified by Robert Caldwell.
In so doing the above distinguished the Indo-Aryan language family as a unique subgroup of Indo-European, first identified in 1786 by the British judge in India, Sir William Jones.
Jones' linguistic work also looked at mythology and contributed to the idea of a unified โancient Indian religionโ - this was popularised by Max Mรผller who formalised the idea of a single โHindu religionโ based on Sanskrit texts - and he used the term "Hindu" " which first appeared in a 1787 letter by Charles Grant, a British East India Company official.
After 1871, British administrators defined โHinduโ as a separate religious category distinct from Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, etc. The unified modern Hindu identity depends on these events.
James Prinsep deciphered the Brahmi script in the 1830s which unlocked forgotten knowledge of the Ashokan inscriptions and early Indian historical chronology
Henry Thomas Colebrooke rediscovered the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali lost since 16th century. Helped establish academic Sanskrit studies in Europe
Buddhism mostly disappeared in India during medieval times, but ancient literature was rediscovered in Nepal, Tibet, Sri Lanka etc by Brits;
Brian Houghton Hodgson collected the Mahฤyฤna sutras and Vinaya (monastic rules).
Charles Henry Allan Bennett introduced Buddhism to the West and fostered its growth in Burma and Sri Lanka.
A. H. Fox Strangways made important early contributions to documenting Indian classical music traditions - recording and systematising observation of Indian music.
Seriously if I were British, Iโd make a page or YouTube channel just for this. Amelia teaching the world about British contributions. Real reasons to be proud of your ancestry and history.
Never be ashamed of being great.