Question : “Under the forceful thrust of British colonialism, Indian economy was transformed into a colonial one, the structure of which was determined by the requirements of Britain’s fast developing industrial economy” Examine.
(2015)
Answer : The European and the British traders initially came to India for trading purposes. The Industrial Revolution in Britain led to the increase in demand for raw materials for the factories there. At the same time, they also required a market to sell their finished goods. India provided such a platform to Britain to fulfill all their needs.
Their new administrative and economic policies helped them consolidate their control over the country. Their land revenue policies help ....
Question : A powerful left-wing group developed in India in the late 1920s and 19 30s, contributing to the radicalization of national movement.” Critically examine.
(2015)
Answer : A powerful left-wing group developed in India in the late 1920s and 1930s contributing to the radicalization of the national movement.
The goal of political independence acquired a clearer and shouter social and economic content. The stream of national struggle for independence and those of the oppressed came together. The left wing within the Congress came to be symbolized by Jawahar Lal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose.
The left wing in the Congress owed its emergence to ....
Question : “Weaving”, says R. C. Dutt, “was the national industry of the people and spinning was the pursuit of millions of women.” Indian textiles went to England and other parts of Europe, to China and Japan and Burma and Arabia and Persia and parts of Africa. Elucidate.
(2013)
Answer : Before the beginning of Industrial Revolution in England, the East India Company concentrated on export of Indian manufactured goods, textiles, spices etc., to Europe where these articles were in great demand. The Industrial revolution reversed the character of India’s foreign trade. Tremendous expansion (of productive capacity of manufacturers resulted in increased demand of raw materials for British industry and the need to capture foreign markets for finished products.
As a first step, attempts were made to ....
Question : “Ryotwari falls into three stages-early, middle and late, and the only description common to all is that it is a mode of settlement with small farmers, so small, indeed, that their average holding is, on recent figures, only about 6(½) acres.”
(2013)
Answer : The ryotwari system, instituted in some parts of British India, was one of the two main systems used to collect revenues from the cultivators of agricultural land. These revenues included undifferentiated land taxes and rents, which were collected simultaneously. Under the Ryotwari system of land revenue settlement, every registered landowner were called proprietor. These proprietors were responsible for the direct payment of the land revenue to the state. The Proprietor had the right to sublet ....
Question :
“The railways, instead of serving as the catalyst of an industrial revolution as in western Europe and the USA, acted in India as the catalyst of complete colonization.” Examine.
(2012)
Answer : Lord Dalhousie paid great attention to the railways and the telegraphs. There were two reasons for introducing railways. Firstly, these would improve communication and thereby help in the defence of the country and the maintenance of peace and order. Secondly, these would encourage British investment in India. Lord Dalhousie opened the first railway line between Bombay and Thane in 1853. This railway had been planned by Lord Hardinge. Calcutta was connected with Raniganj coal fields ....
Question : “The forces of free trade and the British determination to create a political and administrative environment conducive to trade and investment had shaped the British Policy towards India in the first half of the nineteenth century”. Elucidate.
(2012)
Answer : The battle of Plassey in 1757 laid the foundation of British colonization in India, when the East India company established its hold over Bengal. Subsequently, Britain’s socio economic organization and its developed technology helped in gradual tightening of the colonial grip over India. The Indian economy was transformed from a surplus and self-sufficient economy into a colonial economy. After Plassey, the nature of English trade also changed from competitive to monopolistic.
R.P. Dutta in his monumental ....
Question : “The need for unilateral transfer of funds to Britain was a constant factor and, in fact, progressively increased over time.”
(2011)
Answer : The beginning of the economic exploitation can be traced to the early rule of the company. Soon it was realized that wealth was flowing out to Europe and restrictions were put on Indian Goods. In the first quarter of the 10th century, Britain forbade the sale and use of printed and dyed cloth to save their own mills in Lancashire and Manchester. After 1813 the company was forced by law to export every year a ....
Question : To what extent did the process of commercialisation of agriculture affect rural scene in India?
(2010)
Answer : Commercialisation of agriculture is a phenomenon where agriculture is governed by commercial consideration i.e. certain specialised crops began to be grown not for consumption in village but for sale in national and even in international market.
Commercialisation of Agriculture (COA) adversely affected the rural peasantry. The negative aspect of C.O.A. are as follows:
Question : What role did economic ideas play in early phase of British rule in the shaping of land tenure policy?
(2010)
Answer : Economic ideas played a very important role in shaping of land tenures during early British rule. The influence of physiocrats in Permanent Settlement and that of utilitarians in Ryotwari clearly underscores this.
Since 1770 i.e. even before Cornwallis arrived, number of company officials and European observers like Alexander Dow, Henri Patullo were advocating for land tax to be permanently fixed. Despite their various ideological orientation they shared a common faith in Physiocratic school of thinking that ....
Question : Railway development in India provides an interesting instance of private enterprise at public risk.
(2010)
Answer : Under Dalhousie’s plan railway construction was to be undertaken by British private enterprises under the supervision and control of Govt. Some joint-stock companies incorporated them with free grants of lands and guaranteed interest at rates varying between 4½ and 5% on capital outlay. Any profits over the guaranteed rate of interest were to be shared with Govt. and it reserved the right to purchase the lines after 25 or 50 years. The British bankers and ....
Question : “Though the Permanent Settlement had serious defects, it gave tranquility to the countryside and stability to the government”.
(2009)
Answer : The most famous measure of Lord Cornwallis was the Permanent Settlement of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa, concluded in 1793, when the then existing assessment of land revenue, which had been made for ten years, was declared to be perpetual.Two years later the same supposed boon was conferred upon Banaras carried out by Lord Cornwallis against the advice, but with the help, of his most esteemed councillor, Sir John Shore.
The question of incentives now being understood ....
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 : 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 : “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 : 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 : “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 : 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 : ‘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 : 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 : 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 : 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 : 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; ....
