What I find kind of amusing is that we forget the very bloody American war for independence, and that it was fought against this same British Empire. I guess that war was fought between enlightened peoples over a slight misunderstanding. These other people should not have fought for their independence, and should have lived under the kind and benevolent tyranny of the British Empire. How dare they want to rule themselves! Don't they know that it was for their own good that the British ventured out of their island to colonize them?!
But India existed as a lot independent little kingdoms, and they commonly fought against each other.
The conquests of the Muslims against the rest were particularly bloody.
The British unified India as no other agent had, and they were somewhat less corrupt than most.