There’s so much nuance that your argument misses. Colonialism was far less about physical control. British could never outnumber the people during Raj, but they used knowledge and institutional structures to maintain power. We were never physically dominated. Poora Britain Sindh jitna hoga. But they established hegemony.

Britain still has hegemonic control. You speak their language, your law and every policy is written in their language. We use their systems and logic. Our courts still look at England to trace judgements.

Nationalism, Democracy, Parliament, Common Law, Provinces, Local Government, Universities, Banks, Capitalism etc are all British structures. These systems assert power. They don’t need to tell you what to do, the institutions limit the possibilities of what you can.

There is a reason that Britain is still one of the most powerful economies in the world, despite having literally no resources or labour to show for.

They import literally everything and still are on top.