IAS Mains Expected Questions - History

Stages of colonialism – changes in administrative structure and politics – factors leading for the British supremacy, assistance of Indian Powers and the causes of failures

Stages of colonialism

1. Identify the distinct stages of colonialism in India. How did these stages affect the Indian economy?

2. 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.

3. “The British Raj had a deeply racist aspect and it ultimately existed to protect colonial exploitation.”

4. How do you account of the rise and growth of the Business enterprise in India during the first half of the 20th century?

5. ‘The hey-day of the British power in India was also the high noon of laissez faire’ economic doctrine.’

6. Consequences of the ruin of handicraft industries under the rule of the East India Company.

7. Examine the impact of British rule on Indian Society in the 19th Century.

8. “So Long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance , I hold every man a traitor who having been educated at their expense, pay not the least need to them.”

9. “The educated middle class in the 19th century often found the domain of reason to be oppressive, as it implied the historical necessity of ‘civilizing’ colonial rule”.

10. Give a brief account of the industrial and agricultural policy of the Government of India between 1858 and 1914. How far is it correct to say that it was more in the interest of British capital than the Indian people?

11. The crisis of the colonial order during 1919 and 1939 was directly linked to the constitutional reforms, disillusionment and militant anti-colonial struggles.Elucidate.

12. "The poverty of the Indian people was the consequence of the Government's land revenue and taxation policy!" Discuss this statement with reference to British rule in India in the 19th Century.

Dadabhai Nauroji

1. Write a critique on the impact of the Drain Theory of Dadabhai Nauroji in the growth of economic nationalism.

2. What is meant by 'un-British' rule in India? How did the Indian nationalists react against it? Evaluate the role of Dadabhai Nauroji in exposing the evils of British rule in India.

3. Trace the course and explain the consequences of the drain of wealth from Bengal in the eighteenth century.

Village economy

1. The impact of government on the people meant essentially the impact of government on the village.’

2. “A self-sufficient village, based on agriculture carried on with the primitive plough and bullock-power, and handicraft by means of simple instruments, was a basic feature of pre-British Indian economy.”

3. What was the impact of early British land policy in the village Communities of North India?

4. “The impact of government on the people meant essentially the impact of government on the village.”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.

Industrial Policy

1. ‘The British industrial policy in the nineteenth century ruined the Indian handicrafts’.‘The role of the East India Company proved disastrous to the handicraft industry in India for a number of reasons.’

2. Trace the gradual decline of the Indian town handicrafts between 1757 and 1880. In what way did it contribute to the economic unification of India?

3. How did the Policy of free trade hurt Indian textile industry and crafts in the latter half of the 19th century?

Agriculture

Permanent Settlement

1. Trace the circumstances that led to the introduction of the Permanent Settlement in Bengal. Discuss its impact on landlords, peasants and the Government.

2. ‘Permanent Settlement disappointed many expectations and introduced there results that were not anticipated.’ ‘Absentee landlordism was a consequential feature of Bengal’s Permanent land settlement. The Permanent Settlement of land revenue in Bengal was a “bold, brave and wise measure.

3. The permanent system of Bengal though initiated with best of best of intentions, was a sadly blundering affairs.

4. “Though the Permanent Settlement had serious defects , it gave tranquility to the countryside and stability to the government”.

5. Show how British rule led to the spread of land-lordism in certain parts of India, and how the, peasant was progressively impoverished under this rule.

6. What was the impact of early British land policy in the village communities of North India?

Ryotwari System

1. Discuss the main features of the ‘Ryotwari Settlement’ in South India. Did it satisfy the aspirations of the peasantry?

2. Explain the essential features of the Ryotwari system of land revenue with special reference to Thomas Munro’s contribution to its evolution.

Famine policy

1. ‘India underwent suffering and mortality in the wake of recurring famines’ in the later half of the 19th century.

2. “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.

3. Critically examine the impact of the famine policy on rural India. Describe the official remedial measures undertaken.

4. Trace the development of the famine policy of the British in India 1876 and 1921. Did it provide relief to the people?

5. Identify the various forms of ‘rural protest’ in India in the second half of the nineteenth century.

6. ‘India underwent suffering and mortality in the wake of recurring famines’ in the later half of the 19th century.

Commercialization of Agriculture

1. Bring out the pattern of commercialization of agriculture in the 19th century. Was it a forced process for the vast majority of poorer peasants?

2. What is the mean by commercialization of Indian Agriculture? Discuss its result.

3. To what extent did the process of commercialization of agriculture affect the rural scene in India?

4. What role did economic ideas play in the early phase of the British rule in the shaping of land tenure policy?

5. Write a short history of the Local Self-Government till the Reforms of 1919.

6. Examine the major factors shaping the British land-revenue policy in India. How It affected Indian society?

Changes in administrative structure and politics Judiciary

1. Discuss the basic features of the judicial administration under the East India Company. Did the British introduce the modern concept of the rule of law in India?

2. ‘The Ilbert Bill was the most extreme but by no means isolated expression of white racism.’

3. ‘it was in this almost unrecognizable form that the Ilbert Bill was finally enacted it was primarily a failure of the Viceroy’

4. ‘The national democratic awakening of the Indian people found expression of white racism

Press Restrictions

1. “The vernacular press in the nineteenth century was both newspaper as well as ‘views-papers’ that enlightened the dormant masses.”

2. Discuss the major regulations enacted by the British rulers to curb the freedom of Press in India.

3. Discuss the various aspects of social legislation introduced by the East India Company in the first half of the nineteenth century.

Railway Development

1. 'The railways did in India what they did elsewhere from handicraft to mechanical industry by transport situation.' Discuss.

2. “Railway development in India provides an interesting instance of private enterprise at public risk”.

Indian Civil Services

1. When was the system of open competitive examination in the Indian Civil Services introduced? Analyse the growth of the Indian Civil Service till the passing of the Government of India Act, 1919.

2. The recruitment of Indians to civil service was the most important Question in the last quarter of 19th century . Explain

EDUCATION

1. What were the basic differences between the conservative and the liberal schools of administrators in the latter of the 19th century?

2. "The foreign power will be withdrawn but for me real freedom will come only when we free ourselves of the dominance of western education, western culture and the western way of living which have been ingrained in us."

3. Assess the growth and development of Technical Education during the British rule.

4. Review the educational policy of the English East India Company. To what extent did it serve the imperial interests of Great Britain?

5. Trace the growth and development of University education till 1919 factors leading for the British supremacy, assistance of Indian Powers and the causes of failures

Anglo Maratha wars

1. ‘The Treaty of Salabai (1782) was neither honorable to the English nor advantageous to their interests.’

2. ‘……. the hunt of the Pindaris became merged in the Third Maratha War.’

3. Trace the course of the Anglo-Maratha relations in the first two decades of the nineteenth century. Account for the ultimate defeat of the Maratha power by the British.

4. The Treaty of Bassein, 1802 was “a step which changed the footing on which we [the English stood in western India. It trebled the English responsibilities in an instant.”

5. ‘Upon the whole, then, I conclude that the treaty of Bassein was wise, just and a politic measure.’

6. The British “fought the First Maratha War in a period when their fortunes were at the lowest ebb”.

7. ‘The treaty of Bassein, by is direct and indirect operations, gave the Company the Empire of India.’

8. ‘This Anglo-Maratha War covering nearly nine years from the murder of Narayan Rao to the Treaty of Salabai emphatically discloses the vitality of the Maratha nation which had not been exhausted either by the disaster of Panipat or the death of their great Peshwa Madhavrao.’

9. How did the British establish their control over Maharashtra in the first two decades of the 19th century? Why did the Maratha challenge ultimately collapse?

Annexation of Bengal

1. The battle of Plassey was “not a great battle but a great betrayal.”

2. “The verdict at Plassey was confirmed by the English victory at Buxar”.

3. Discuss the causes that led to the ‘economic drain’ in Bengal following the Battle of Plassey.

4. “By certain of his actions Clive has marred both the glory and usefulness of his work.”

5. How did the British conquer Bengal in the 18th century ? What circumstances helped them ?

6. “Thus ended the famous battle of Buxar, on which depended the fate of India and which was as gallantly disputed as was important in its results.”

7. “Our system acts very much like a sponge, drawing. up all the good things from the banks of the Ganges, and squeezing them down on the banks of the Thames.”

8. ‘The revolution of 1760 (Bengal) was really no revolution.’

9. After 1757 there grew up a State of Bengal which was a ‘sponsored state” as well as a “plundered state”.

10. “Neither Alexander the Great nor Napoleon could have won the empire of India by starting from Pondicherry as a base and contending with a power which held Bengal and command of the Sea”.

11. ‘The British endeavoured as far as possible to live within a Ring-Fence and beyond that they avoided intercourse with the chiefs.’

Annexation of AWADH

1. “The annexation of Awadh shook the loyalty of the Sepoy’s , as it was for them an ultimate proof of untrustworthiness of the British.”

Annexation of Sind

1. The British conquest of Sind was both a political and moral sequel to the first afghan war. Comment.

2. Sir Charles Napier said, “We have no right to seize Sind, yet we shall do so, and a very advantageous, useful, humane piece of rascality it will be.”

Tibet

1. Discuss the British policy towards Tibet from the end of the nineteenth century to the Viceroyalty of Lord Curzon.

ANGLO MYSORE WARS

1. Examine the circumstance which led to the third Mysore War. Could Cornwallis have avoided it.

2. Why was Mysore considered a threat by the British to their possessions and mercantile interests in the south ? Do You think that Tipu Sultan’s posturing became his undoing?

Dalhousie Role

1. "Dalhousie's predecessors had acted on the general principles of avoiding annexations, if these could be avoided. Dalhousie acted on the principles of annexation, if he could do so legitimately. His annexations were both of war and peace." Analyse.

2. ‘Dalhousie changed the map of India with speed and thoroughness no campaign could equal.’

Lord Canning Role

1. Towards the Princes, Canning adopted a policy of “punishing resistance and rewarding obedience.”

2. The Government of India from Canning to Curzon was regarded “as a white man’s burden rather than as a call to creative effort or the preparation for a new era.”

Lord Curzon Role

1. ‘The tragedy of Curzon lay in that, with such abundance of trained talent; he was denied the crowning qualities. He was never an administrator of the first rank:’

2. ‘Curzon was an unconscious catalyst who did not understand, let alone desire, what the new century was about to bring forth, but who helped it to be born.’

3. ‘Curzon’s political obtusely created a breach between government and people which was never wholly closed in the remaining forty-two years of British rule.’

William Bentinck

1. The British Indian State experienced the ‘wind of change’ with the arrival of Lord William Bentinck..

2. The rise and expansion of British empire was an accident rather than the result of a deliberate policy and design.” Critically examine this statement.

3. How did the East India Company became the dejure power in India?

4. The British policy towards Indian States in 1818-1858 was one of “isolation and non interference tempered by annexation.”

5. The British conquered India “in a fit of absent mindness”.

6. ‘On 23 June 1757, the middle ages of India ended and her modern age began.’

7. ‘Please remember, in granting separate electorates, we are sowing dragon’s teeth the harvest will be bitter.’

8. Assess the impact of the utilitarian ideas in molding the British attitude towards India. How did the utilitarian try to solve the problem of land revenue?

9. ‘The new India was not to be built up, as late nineteenth century patriots had thought, by copious draught from the past, but rather by frequent injections from the energetic contemporary west.’

10. "Many Englishmen honestly consider themselves the trustees for India and yet to what a condition they have reduced our country".

11. ‘We are therefore unable to advise the British Government that the power which at present resides in British hands should be handed over to two entirely separate sovereign States.’

Native States

1. ‘It is sometimes asked by Ruling Chiefs, as well as by the public in India and in Europe what our policy towards Native States is. I can tell you that the basis of the policy was laid in Queen Victoria’s Proclamation of 1858 and repeated in the Coronation message of His Majesty the King Emperor.’

2. ‘If the paramount power cast its imperial cloak over the princes, it was also entitled to see that what was sheltered was in the main creditable.’

3. ‘The relations of the Native States, however conducted are essentially relations with the British Crown and not with the Indian Government.’

4. ‘No native state should be left to exist in India which is not upheld by the British power or the political conduct of which is not under the absolute control’

5. “The rise and expansion of British empire was an accident rather than the result of a deliberate policy and design.” Critically examine this statement.

6. What was the Masterly Inactivity Policy? Why was it abandoned?

7. The Indian Middle Class firmly believed that “Britain had imposed a colonial economy on India which had impoverished the country.”

8. "Satan cannot enter till he finds a flaw. ...... A great ocean separates us educated few from the millions in our country."

9. 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?

10. “The Charter Act of 1833 rung down the curtain on the company’s trade and introduced a new concept of government in India.” Substantiate.

11. “Orientalism produced a knowledge of the past to service the needs of the Colonial States.” Elucidate.

12. “The vernacular press in nineteenth century India served not just as newspapers but more importantly as views-papers.” Comment.

13. What administrative changes were introduced in India after 1858? What were the objectives of these changes?

14. The Viceroyalities of Lord Lytton and Lord Ripon formed an important landmark in the history of the Indian National Movement'. Examine the truth of the statement.

15. “Sprung from paternalism, the English Utilitarian philosophy as introduced in India rejected its human warmth between rulers and the ruled.”

16. “In terms of administrative structure, the Government of India act of 1858, … meant more continuation than change.” Do you agree? Substantiate.

17. “The need for a unilateral transfer of funds to Britain was constant factor and, in fact, progressively increased over time.”

Courtesy : IAS Master