Question : How did English utilitarian thinking impact India in the British era?
(2021)
Answer : Utilitarianism, a tradition which has stemmed from the late 18th and 19th-century English philosophers and economists Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. The principle states that an action is right only if it tends to promote the happiness of everyone affected by the act.
The influence of utilitarianism has been widespread and its significance in law, politics is especially notable.Utilitarians typically advocate democracy as a means of making government interests align with the general interest; they ....
Question : “An ideology of paternalistic benevolence, occasionally combined with talk of trusteeship and training towards self-government, thinly veiled the realities of a Raj uncompromisingly white and despotic.”
(2018)
Answer : The overtly publicised reason for the British rule in India was the Benthamite model - it was for the spread of civilization among the uncivilised people of the world.
To this end, the British constructed a narrative of paternalism whereby they were portrayed as the Mai-Baap of the common peasant. This was done by institutions like the courts, the revenue collectors, the police and also the army. Traditional forms of rule and conflict resolution were abhorred ....
Question : How far is it correct to say that if Clive was the founder of the British Empire in India, Warren Hastings was its administrative organiser?
(2016)
Answer : When actually the English were losing ground and the French were gaining success. Both at Hyderabad and the Carnatic the candidate of Dupleix ruled as monarchs. In the whole of the Deccan the British prestige was at the lowest point. It was at that critical point of time Clive stepped into show the talent both in ideas and action. Under his leadership the capital of Carnatic Arcot was attacked and captured that suddenly turned the ....
Question : The Regulating Act (1773), the Pitt’s India Act (1784) and eventually the Charter Act of 1833 left the East India Company as a mere shadow of its earlier political and economic power in India.”
(2015)
Answer : By the Regulating Act of 1773, the Parliament of Great Britain imposed a series of administrative and economic reforms; this clearly established Parliament’s sovereignty and ultimate control over the Company. The Act recognized the Company’s political functions and clearly established that the acquisition of sovereignty by the subjects of the Crown is on behalf of the Crown and not in its own right. Despite stiff resistance from the East India lobby in parliament and from ....
Question : “Montague-Chelmsford reform proposals introduced ‘dyarchy’, but blurred the lines of responsibility.”
(2014)
Answer : In an attempt to remove the defects of the Morley- Minto scheme, the Government of India Act was brought about in 1919, popularly called the Montagu- Chelmsford Reforms. This Act was supposed to make the Indians acquainted with responsible governance. Under this Act, the matters on which the provincial and the central governments could legislate and act were divided into two categories of central and provincial subjects. And the provincial heads of governance were divided ....
Question : “The Dual System of Government was a complete failure from the outset. In the first place, the abuse of the private trade reached a greater height than ever. In the second place, the demands of the Company for the increase led to gross oppression of the peasantry.” Examine.
(2014)
Answer : When we analyze the results of the Dual Government in Bengal we can well visualize that it was beneficial for company’s administration in Bengal, under the prevailing circumstances and injurious to the people of Bengal who were administrated by such system. It led to disastrous results. The administration in Bengal almost collapsed. Power was divorced from the responsibility.
The British were in possession of power and money where as the Nawab had neither power nor money. ....
Question : “Plantations and mines, jute mills, banking, insurance, shipping and export–import concerns in India were run through a system of interlocking managing agencies.”
(2012)
Answer : The above statement tells us about, how the economic policy of British Imperialism controlled the Indian economy.
All the business activities like plantations and mines, Jute mills, banking, insurance, shipping and export-import concern in India were run through a system of interlocking managing agencies. This kind of business management purpose was to aid the Indian industries existing in India that would help British mercantilism. For such purpose the English agencies provided all financial and technical support. ....
Question : “The Charter Act of 1833 rung down the curtain on the Company’s trade and introduced a new concept of government in India.” Substantiate.
(2011)
Answer : East-India Company was a private concern run by proprietors who formed an executive body– Court of directors. The Company faced financial bankruptcy and in 1772 applied to British government for loans. Pitts India Act fixed two masters for India, the company and The British government. The former’s hold gradually weakened during the first half of the 19th century. By the charter Act of 1813, the Company lost its monopoly of Trade in India which was ....
Question : In terms of administrative structure the GOI Act of 1858... meant more continuation than change. Do you agree? Substantiate.
(2010)
Answer : The British Parliament Passed GOI Act 1958 which transferred the govt. territories and revenues from Company to Crown. The Act also declared that India was to be governed by and in the name of sovereign and also authorised the appointment of additional Principal Secretary of state and created Council of India.
Under the Act of 1958, the Secretary of State (British minister for Indian affairs) became constitutional advisor of Crown in all matters relation to India. ....
Question : “The annexation of Awadh shook the loyalty of the Sepoys, as it was for them an ultimate proof of untrustworthiness of the British.”
(2009)
Answer : It has been suggested that after the annexation of Awadh by the East India Company in 1856, many sepoys were disquieted both from losing their perquisites, as landed gentry, in the Awadh courts and from the anticipation of any increased land-revenue payments that the annexation might augur. A great section of the British soldiers had been recruited from the state of Awadh. These soldiers were providing their services to the Britishers. Besides, they were serving ....
Question : Examine the essential principles of the Subsidiary Alliance system. How far did it contribute in making the British Company the supreme sovereign authority in India?
(2005)
Answer : The Subsidiary Alliance system was used by Wellesley to bring Indian states within the orbit of British political power.
The system served the dual purpose of asserting British supremacy in India and at the same time of saving India from menace of Napoleon.The system played a very important part in the extension of Company’s dominions.
A typical subsidiary treaty was negotiated on the following terms and conditions.
Question : ‘The object of the Act (Regulating) was good, but system that it established was imperfect.’
(2004)
Answer : By 1773 the East India Company was in dire financial straits. The Company was important to Britain because it was a monopoly trading company in India and in the east and many influential people were shareholders. The Company paid £400,000 annually to the government to maintain the monopoly but had been unable to meet its commitments because of the loss of tea sales to America since 1768. About 85% of all the tea in America ....
Question : Towards the Princes, Canning adopted a policy of 'punishing resistance and rewarding obedience'.
(2000)
Answer : It was, therefore, decided to use the princely states as firm props of British rule in India. As the British historian P.E. Roberts remarked : 'to preserve them as a bulwark of the Empire has ever since been a principle of British policy'. Their perpetuation was, however, only one aspect of the British policy towards the princely states. The other was their complete subordination to the British authorities. While eve before the Revolt of 1857 ....
Question : The British policy towards Indian states in 1818-1858 was one of 'isolation and non-interference tempered by annexation'.
(1996)
Answer : The British completed the taks of conquering the whole of India from 1818 to 1857. Sindh and the Punjab were conquered and Awadh, the Central Provinces and a large number of other petty states were annexed. Part of the entire sub-continent was ruled directly by the British and the rest by a host of Indian rulers over whom the British exercised paramount power. These states had virtually no armed forces of their own, nor did ....
