Question : Examine the major factors shaping the British Land Revenue Policy in India. How it affected Indian Society?
(2007)
Answer : The British needed the land revenue to pay for purchase of Indian handicrafts, to meet the cost of conque3st of whole of India, to pay for employment of thousands of Englishmen in superior administrative services and to meet the costs of economic and administrative charges. To meet the revenue requirements, the British introduced different types of land tenures in India.
Under the Permanent Settlement, the zamindars and revenue collectors was converted into the many landlords. They ....
Question : “A self-sufficient village, based on agriculture carried on with the primitive plough and bullock-power, and handicrafts by means of simple instruments, was a basic feature of Pre-British Indian economy.”
(2006)
Answer : Several attempts have been made to characterize the pre-British period Indian economy. One recurrent theme is that the Pre-British Indian economy was characterized by self-sufficient villages based on the union of agriculture and handicrafts.
The village economy was held to be self sufficient and self subsisting. The basic land relationships in the villages were governed by custom and usage. Another marked feature of the pre-British economy was the union of agriculture and basic crafts in the ....
Question : What do you mean by the commercialization of Indian agriculture? Discuss its results.
(2006)
Answer : The British rule had pronounced and profound economic impact on India. The various economic policies followed by the British led to the rapid transformation of India’s economy into a colonial economy whose nature and structure were determined by needs of the British economy. One important aspect of British economic policy was commercialization of agriculture.
The commercialization of agriculture means that the agricultural crops and goods are produced by the peasants for sale in the market and ....
Question : “The impact of government on the people meant essentially the impact of government on the village”.
(2005)
Answer : The British rule had pronounced and profound impact on India. There was hardly any section of society or corner of country which could escape the long arms of British colonialism. India being a country with predominance of agriculture, any impact of government on the people turned out to be essentially the impact of government on the village. One result of the British rule was the sudden and quick collapse of the urban handicrafts industry caused ....
Question : Trace the development of the famine policy of the British in India between 1876 and 1921. Did it provide relief to the people?
(2005)
Answer : A major characteristic of British rule in India and the net result of the British economic policies was the prevalence of extreme poverty among its people. The poverty of the people found its expressions in series of famines which ravaged all parts of India in the second half of the 19th century the fist of these famines occurred in Western UP in 1860-61 and cost over 2 lakhs of lives.
In 1865-66, a famine engulfed Orissa, ....
Question : Examine the impact of British rule on Indian Society in the 19th Century.
(2004)
Answer : British imperialism was more pragmatic than that of other colonial powers. Its motivation was economic, not evangelical. There was none of the dedicated Christian fanaticism which the Portuguese and Spanish demonstrated in Latin America and less enthusiasm for cultural diffusion than the French (or the Americans) showed in their colonies. For this reason they westernized India only to a limited degree. British interests were of several kinds. At first the main purpose was to achieve ....
Question : ‘Permanent Settlement disappointed many expectations and introduced there results that were not anticipated.’
(2004)
Answer : The Permanent Settlement also known as the Cornwallis Code or Permanent Settlement of Bengal was an agreement between the East India Company and Bengali landlords, with far-reaching consequences for both agricultural methods and productivity in the entire Empire and the political realities of the Indian countryside. It was concluded in 1793, by the Company administration headed by Lord Cornwallis. The East India Company, on being awarded the diwani or overlordship of Bengal by the empire ....
Question : Discuss the causes that led to the ‘economic drain’ in Bengal following the Battle of Plassey.
(2004)
Answer : The East India Company did conquer India single handedly but with the help of Indians who constituted some three fourth of their army. These Indian mercenaries were called ‘Sepoys’ by the British Company.
It was through Bengal that the British started their colonization.In 1757, a historic battle was fought at Polashi (Plassey, as spelled incorrectly) in which the British won Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. This was the battle that changed the course, not only of Bengal ....
Question : Absentee Landlordism was a consequential feature of Bengal’s permanent land settlement.
(2003)
Answer : In Bengal the revenue had previously been collected through hereditary Zamindars. The Zamindars of Bengal were really the rural agents of government. Below the Zamindars came the cultivating peasants. They were exposed to the rods of the Zamindars as the Zamindars were liable to the rods of the government officers, but like the Zamindars themselves they had a traditional hereditary right and were rarely dispossessed. But in British period every right had been confiscated.
The great ....
Question : India underwent suffering and mortality in the wake of recurring famines in the later half of the 19th century.
(2003)
Answer : A major characteristic of British rule in India, and the net result of British economic policies was the prevalence of extreme poverty among its people.
The poverty of the people found its culmination in a series of famines which ravaged all parts of India in the second half of the 19th century. The first of these famines occurred in western UP in 1960-61 and cost over 2 lakh of lives. In 1865-66 a famine engulfed Orissa, ....
Question : What was the impact of early British Land Policy on the village communities of North India?
(2003)
Answer : The British imperial ruler of India unleashed far-reaching changes in Indian agrarian structure. New land tenure, new land ownership concepts, tenancy changes and heavier state demand for land revenue triggered of far-reaching changes in rural economy and social relationship. Early British administrators of the East India Company considered India as a vast estate and acted on the principle that the company was entitled to the entire economic rent, leaving to the cultivators merely the expenses ....
Question : "The recurring famines in the 19th century were the inevitable consequence of the British policy and expose the real character of the paternal solicitude for the peasantry on the part of the British administration." Examine this statement critically.
(2002)
Answer : India has frequently been subjected to horrors of famine. From 1858 to the end of the 19th century, more than twenty famines occurred in India. A major characteristic of British rule in India, and the net result of British economic policies, was the prevalence of extreme poverty among its people. While historian disagree on the question whether India was getting poorer or not under British rule, there is no disagreement on the fact that throughout ....
Question : ‘The British Industrial policy in the nineteenth century ruined the Indian handicrafts’!
(2001)
Answer : ‘The British Industrial policy in the 19th century ruined the Indian handicrafts’.The British Industrial policy destroyed the handicrafts and the cottage Industries of India which were the primary sources of its foreign trade and wealth. It began in Bengal. Bengal wasfamous for cotton textiles and silk. The servants of the company after assuming political influence in Bengal, exploited the craftsmen in Bengal mercilessly. They gave them raw products on high prices and asked them to ....
Question : Discuss the main features of the ‘Roytwari Settlement’ in South India. Did it satisfy the aspirations of the peasantry?
(2001)
Answer : In the south and south-west India, there were no zamindars with large estates with whom the settlement could be made by the company. Many British officials believed that the Permanent Settlement put the company to a financial loss as it could not raise the demand of revenue. Some of them also argued that the Permanent Settlement was oppressive to cultivator as they were left to the mercy of the zamindar A few held that a ....
Question : Discuss the view that the British rule brought about economic changes in India to serve the needs of the imperial economy and establish a dependent form of underdevelopment in this country.
(2000)
Answer : Commercial Policy : From 1600 to 1757 the East India company's role in India was that of a trading corporation which brought goods or precious metals into India and exchanged them for Indian goods like textiles and spices, which it sold abroad. Its profits came primarily from the sale of Indian goods abroad. After the Battle of Plassey in 1757, the pattern of the company's commercial relations with India underwent a qualitative change. Now the ....
Question : The Permanent Settlement was a 'bold, brave and wise measure'.
(1997)
Answer : In 1765, the East India Company acquired the Diwani, or control over the revenue, of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. Initially, it made an attempt to continue the old system of revenue collection though it increased the amount. In 1773, it decided to manage the land revenues directly. Warren Hastings auctioned the right to collect revenue to the highest bidders. But his experiment did not succeed. This introduced instability in the company's revenue at a time ....
Question : The changing life in Indian Village marked best the impact of the British administration on the Indian people. Explain, identifying the process and the extent of the change.
(1996)
Answer : The British conquest had a pronounced and profound economic impact on India. The economic policies followed by the British led to the rapied transformation of India's economy into a colonial economy whose nature and structure were determined by the needs of the British economy. In this respect the British conquest differed from all previous foreign con-quests. The previous conquerors had overthrown Indian political powers but had made no basic changes in the country's economic structure; ....
