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Quiz Questions 3 February 2023 (Key)
Q1. The outflow of gold & silver from Britain slowed after the Battle of Plassey, and entirely stopped after the assumption of Diwani because:
Diwani allowed the Company to use the vast revenue resources of Bengal
Nawabs of Bengal were forced to give land and vast sums of money as gifts to Company officials
British goods exported to india increased many fold
Indian product became less popular after battle of plassey
A – Explanation:
Finally, in 1765 the Mughal emperor appointed the Company as the Diwan of the provinces of Bengal. The Diwani allowed the Company to use the vast revenue resources of Bengal. This solved a major problem that the Company had earlier faced. From the early eighteenth century its trade with India had expanded. But it had to buy most of the goods in India with gold and silver imported from Britain. This was because at this time Britain had no goods to sell in India. The outflow of gold from Britain slowed after the Battle of Plassey, and entirely stopped after the assumption of Diwani. Now revenues from India could finance Company expenses. These revenues could be used to purchase cotton and silk textiles in India, maintain Company troops, and meet the cost of building the Company fort and offices at Calcutta.
Q2. Which of the following factors became the basis for the economic critique of colonialism by early nationalists?
1)Ruin of traditional handicraft
2)Home charges
3)Manner of development of Railways
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
1 only
2 and 3 only
1 and 3 only
1, 2 and 3
D – Explanation:
Indian intellectuals of the first half of the 19th century had adopted a positive attitude towards British rule in the hope that Britain would help modernize India. The process of disillusionment set in gradually after 1860 Leaders like DadabhaiNaoroji, Justice M G Ranade and R C Dutta propounded the drain theory associated with the colonial rule. The early leaders highlighted the following issues due to colonial rule: 1) progressive decline and ruin of India’s traditional handicrafts. 2) railways had not been coordinated with India’s industrial needs. 3) saw foreign capital as an unmitigated evil which exploited and impoverished India. 4) criticized the colonial pattern of finance. Taxes were so raised, they averred, as to overburden the poor while letting the rich, especially the foreign capitalists and bureaucrats, go scot-free. 5) On the expenditure side, they pointed out that the emphasis was on serving Britain‘s imperial needs while the developmental and welfare departments were starved. 6) The nationalist leaders pointed out that a large part of India‘s capital and wealth was drained to Britain in the form of salaries and pensions of British civil and military officials working in India known as home charges.
Q3. Consider the following statements about Mahawari System:
1)It was devised by Thomas Munro, Governor of Madras
2)The estimated revenue demand was fixed on village basis and it was to be revised periodically
3)The system was prevalent in North Western Provinces of the Bengal Presidency
4)Village headman was made responsible for collecting the revenue and paying it to the Company
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
1, 2 and 3 only
1, 2 and 4 only
1, 3 and 4 only
2, 3 and 4 only
D – Explanation:
In the North Western Provinces of the Bengal Presidency (most of this area is now in Uttar Pradesh), an Englishman called Holt Mackenzie devised the new system which came into effect in 1822. He felt that the village was an important social institution in north Indian society and needed to be preserved. Under his directions, collectors went from village to village, inspecting the land, measuring the fields, and recording the customs and rights of different groups. The estimated revenue of each plot within a village was added up to calculate the revenue that each village (mahal) had to pay. This demand was to be revised periodically, not permanently fixed. The charge of collecting the revenue and paying it to the Company was given to the village headman, rather than the zamindar. This system came to be known as the mahalwari settlement.
Q4. Under Ryotwari system the settlement was made with:
Zamindar
Village headman
Cultivator
Taluqdars
C – Explanation:
In the British territories in the south there was a similar move away from the idea of Permanent Settlement. The new system that was devised came to be known as the ryotwar (or ryotwari ). It was tried on a small scale by Captain Alexander Read in some of the areas that were taken over by the Company after the wars with Tipu Sultan. Subsequently developed by Thomas Munro, this system was gradually extended all over south India. Read and Munro felt that in the south there were no traditional zamindars. The settlement, they argued, had to be made directly with the cultivators (ryots) who had tilled the land for generations.
Q5. For which of the following reasons Britishers wanted tribal groups to settle down and become peasant cultivators:
1)Settled peasants were easier to control and administer than people who were always on the move
2)British wanted a regular revenue source for the state
3)British wanted to stop Shifting cultivation
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
1 and 2 only
1 and 3 only
2 and 3 only
1, 2 and 3
A – Explanation:
The British were uncomfortable with groups who moved about and did not have a fixed home. They wanted tribal groups to settle down and become peasant cultivators. Settled peasants were easier to control and administer than people who were always on the move. The British also wanted a regular revenue source for the state. So they introduced land settlements – that is, they measured the land, defined the rights of each individual to that land, and fixed the revenue demand for the state. Some peasants were declared landowners, others tenants.
Q6. Calico Act enacted by British governement in 1720 is related to:
Banning the use of printed cotton textiles – chintz – in England
Regulating movement of ships to indian ports
Regulating colonial purchases of spices
Banning import precious metal to buy Indian goods
A – Explanation:
By the early eighteenth century, worried by the popularity of Indian textiles, wool and silk makers in England began protesting against the import of Indian cotton textiles. In 1720, the British government enacted a legislation banning the use of printed cotton textiles – chintz – in England. Interestingly, this Act was known as the Calico Act.
Q7. Which of the following statement are correct with respect to the ‘Permanent settlement’:
1)The Land Revenue was fixed permanently.
2)The post of Zamindars was made permanent.
3)The zamindars used to collect the revenue and paid it to the company.
Select the correct answer using the codes below?
1 and 2 only
2 and 3 only
1 and 3 only
All of the above
C – Explanation:
The post of Zamindars wasn’t permanent. Their land was confiscated if they were unable to pay the already fixed revenue.
Q8. Which of the following statements is/are correct?
1)The first jute mill was set up near Odisha.
2)After Partition, the jute producing area remained in India but three-fourth of the jute mills went to Bangladesh (erstwhile East Pakistan).
Select the correct answer using the code below:
1 only
2 only
Both 1 and 2
Neither 1 nor 2
D – Explanation:
The first jute mill was set up near Kolkata in 1859 at Rishra. After Partition in 1947, the jute mills remained in India but three-fourth of the jute producing area went to Bangladesh (erstwhile East Pakistan).
Q9. Consider the following statements with respect to the Permanent Settlement and choose the correct ones:
1)The Permanent Settlement was made with the rajas and taluqdars of Bengal.
2)They were now classified as zamindars, and they had to pay the revenue demand that was fixed in perpetuity.
3)In terms of this definition, the zamindar were landowners in the village and also revenue Collector of the state.
Select the correct answer using the code below?
1 and 2 only
2 and 3 only
1 and 3 only
All of the above
A – Explanation:
The estates of the Burdwan raj were not the only ones sold during the closing years of the eighteenth century. Over 75 per cent of the zamindaris changed hands after the Permanent Settlement. In introducing the Permanent Settlement, British officials hoped to resolve the problems they had been facing since the conquest of Bengal. By the 1770s, the rural economy in Bengal was in crisis, with recurrent famines and declining agricultural output. Officials felt that agriculture, trade and the revenue resources of the state could all be developed by encouraging investment in agriculture. This could be done by securing rights of property and permanently fixing the rates of revenue demand. If the revenue demand of the state was permanently fixed, then the Company could look forward to a regular flow of revenue, while entrepreneurs could feel sure of earning a profit from their investment, since the state would not siphon it off by increasing its claim. The process, officials hoped, would lead to the emergence of a class of yeomen farmers and rich landowners who would have the capital and enterprise to improve agriculture. Nurtured by the British, this class would also be loyal to the Company. The problem, however, lay in identifying individuals who could both improve agriculture and contract to pay the fixed revenue to the state. After a prolonged debate amongst Company officials, the Permanent Settlement was made with the rajas and taluqdars of Bengal. They were now classified as zamindars, and they had to pay the revenue demand that was fixed in perpetuity. In terms of this definition, the zamindar was not a landowner in the village, but a revenue Collector of the state.
Q10. Consider the following and choose the ones correctly matched:
1)Adhiyars: a group of rich peasants were consolidating their position in the villages.
2)Jotedars: sharecroppers who brought their own ploughs, laboured in the fields.
Select the correct answer using the code below?
1 only
2 only
Both 1 and 2
Neither 1 nor 2
D – Explanation:
While many zamindars were facing a crisis at the end of the eighteenth century, a group of rich peasants were consolidating their position in the villages. In Francis Buchanan’s survey of the Dinajpur district in North Bengal we have a vivid description of this class of rich peasants known as jotedars. By the early nineteenth century, jotedars had acquired vast areas of land – sometimes as much as several thousand acres. They controlled local trade as well as moneylending, exercising immense power over the poorer cultivators of the region. A large part of their land was cultivated through sharecroppers (adhiyars or bargadars) who brought their own ploughs, laboured in the field, and handed over half the produce to the jotedars after the harvest.
The jotedars were most powerful in North Bengal, although rich peasants and village headmen were emerging as commanding figures in the countryside in other parts of Bengal as well. In some places they were called haoladars, elsewhere they were known as gantidars or mandals. Their rise inevitably weakened zamindari authority.
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