Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) and Answers On The British Administration in India
Question 1: Who among the following finally removed the Maratha Peshwa from his position, captured his territories and sent him off to a distant place?
a) Wellesley
b) Cornwallis
c) Dalhousie
d) Hastings
Answer: (d)
Question 2: Who among the following was the first Governor-General of Bengal?
a) Robert Clive
b) William Bentick
c) Marquess Wellesley
d) Warren Hastings
Answer: (d)
Question 3: Who succeded Robert Clive to lead the East India Company?
a) Lord Bentick
b) Lord Cornwallis
c) Lord Hastings
d) Lord Wellesley
Answer: (c)
Question 4: Who among the following Governor-Generals created the Covenanted Civil Service of India which later came to be known as the Indian Civil Service?
a) Warren Hastings
b) Wellesley
c) Cornwallis
d) William Bentick
Answer: (c)
Question 5: Which among the following states was first annexed by Lord Dalhousie under the Doctrine of Lapse?
a) Nagpur
b) Jhansi
c) Sambalpur
d) Satara
Answer: (d)
Question 6: At a time when empires in Europe were crumbling before the might of Napoleon which among the following Governor-Generals kept the British flag flying high in India?
a) Warren Hastings
b) Lord Cornwallis
c) Lord Wellesley
d) Lord Hastings
Answer: (d)
Question 7: Who among the following Governor-Generals formed the Triple Alliance against Tipu Sultan?
a) Lord Bentick
b) Lord Cornwallis
c) Lord Hastings
d) Lord Wellesley
Answer: (b)
Question 8: Which one of the following pairs is not correctly matched?
a) Pitt’s India act : Warren Hastings
b) Doctrine of Lapse : Dalhousie
c) Vernacular Press Act : Curzon
d) Ilbert Bill : Ripon
Answer: (c)
Question 9: Who among the following used the term “Drain of Wealth” for the first time?
a) Surendranath Bannerjee
b) Bal Gangadhar Tilak
c) Dadabhai Naoroji
d) Mahatma Gandhi
Answer: (c)
Question 10: A famine of the 19th century which has been described as the “Sea of Calamity” was the famine in
a) Rajputana 1868-69
b) Madras Presidency 1866-67
c) Orissa 1866-67
d) Bengal 1860-61
Answer: (c)
Question 11: Who among the following was associated with suppression of Thugs?
a) General Henry Prendergast
b) Captain Sleeman
c) Alexander Burnes
d) Captain Robert Pemberton
Answer: (b)
Question 12: The last major extension of British Indian territory took place during the time of
a) Dufferin
b) Dalhousie
c) Lytton
d) Curzon
Answer: (b)
Question 13: Who remarked in 1834 that “the bones of the cotton weavers are bleaching the plains of India”?
a) Raja Rammohan Roy
b) William Bentick
c) Dadabhai Naoroji
d) RC Dutt
Answer: (b)
Question 14: After 1833, the single biggest source of drain of Indian wealth to Britain was
a) export of opium and indigo
b) British capital investment in India
c) import of mill-made textiles and wollens
d) All of the above
Answer: (b)
Question 15: Neel Darpan is a play based on the story of Indigo Rebellion of Bengal of 1860-61. Who authored it?
a) Dinabandhu Mitra
b) Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya
c) Sisir Ghosh and Motilal Ghosh jointly
d) Madhusudan Dutta
Answer: (a)
Question 16: The first definite step to provide Parliamentary control over East India Company was taken by?
a) The Regulating Act
b) The Pitt’s India Act
c) The Charter Act of 1793
d) The Charter Act of 1813
Answer: (a)
Question 17: Which one of the following is the first company that managed major port in India?
a) Cochin
b) Ennore
c) Tuticorin
d) Visakhapatnam
Answer: (c)
Question 18: The Governor-General who followed a spirited “Forward” policy towards Afghanistan was
a) Minto
b) Dufferin
c) Elgin
d) Lytton
Answer: (d)
Question 19: Which one of the following was not a result of British Colonial rule in India?
a) Ruin of Indian agriculture
b) Ruin of Indian industries
c) Ruin of Indian trade
d) Ruin of Indian feudalism
Answer: (d)
Question 20: The British industrial policy in India has been rightly called as the policy of
a) Stagnated Growth
b) De-industrialisation
c) Colonisation of Economy
d) Monopolised Europeanisation
Answer: (b)
Question 21: The only major industry in the hands of the Indian capitalists during the late 19th century was
a) Jute
b) mining
c) iron and steel
d) cotton textile
Answer: (d)
Question 22: Which of the following Governors of Bengal committed suicide in 1774?
a) Warren Hastings
b) Robert Clive
c) Cartier
d) None of these
Answer: (b)
Question 23: In course of time, the dadni merchants in India were found to be too independent and disinclined to comply with their contracts. In 1753, the dadni merchants were replaced by
a) Banians
b) Gomashtas
c) Dubashes
d) Paikars
Answer: (b)
Question 24: Who was the first to formulate the theory of three successive phases of British colonialism in India, namely, Merchantilism, Free Trade Merchantile Capitalism and Finance Imperialism?
a) Dadabhai Naoroji
b) R C Dutt
c) R P Dutt Marx
d) Karl Marx
Answer: (d)
Question 25: Which of the following is correctly matched?
a) Sir John Shore : Introduced the first Charter Act
b) Lord Wellesley : Started subsidiary alliance system
c) George Barlow : Vellore mutiny
d) All of the above.
Answer: (d)
Question 26: What was the main cause of the impoverishment of the peasantry in the 19th century?
a) British imperialism
b) Lack of technological progress
c) Heavy assessment of land revenue
d) Fundamental changes in the structure of rural society
Answer: (c)
27: Which of the following pairs is correctly matched?
a) Warren Hastings : The Battle of Plassey
b) Lord Cornwallis : The Permanent Settlement of Bengal
c) Lord Wellesley : The Prohibition of Sati
d) Lord Dalhousie : Local Self Government
Answer: (b)
Question 28: The main reason for the permanent indebtedness of the peasantry was
a) false accounting
b) forged signatures
c) making the debtor sign for larger amounts than he had borrowed
d) high rate of interest loans
Answer: (d)
Question 29: Which of the following is not correctly matched?
a) Lord Wellesley-Subsidiary alliance
b) Lord Lytton-Vernacular Press Act
c) Warren Hastings-Local Self Goverment
d) Lord William Bentick-English Education
Answer: (c)
Question 30: The growth of modern industries in India was greatly hampered on account of the lack of
a) Indian capital
b) technical education
c) Both ‘a’ and ‘b’
d) spirit of enterprise
Answer: (c)
Question 31: Under which one of the following systems of assessment, the British Government collected revenue directly from the farmers?
a) Zamindari
b) Ryotwari
c) Annawari
d) Desaiwari
Answer: (b)
Question 32: The biggest British capital investment in India was made in
a) the tea, coffee and indigo plantations
b) the railways, banking insurance and shipping
c) the cotton textile industry
d) the jute mills
Answer: (b)
Question 33: The only European country which did not prohibit or impose heavy duties on the import of Indian cotton goods was
a) Germany
b) France
c) Holland
d) Italy
Answer: (c)
Question 34: In which of the following years was the first railway line between Bombay and Thane laid?
a) 1853
b) 1854
c) 1856
d) 1858
Answer: (a)
Question 35: Which one of the following provisions was not made in the Charter Act of 1833?
a) The trading activities of the East India Company were to be abolished
b) The designation of the supreme authority was to be changed as the Governor-General of India in Council
c) All law making powers to be conferred on Governor-General in Council
d) India was to be appointed as a Law An Member in Governor-General’s Council
Answer: (d)
Question 36: The Ilbert Bill controversy was related to the
a) imposition of certain restrictions to carry arms by the Indians
b) imposition of restriction on newspapers and magazines published in Indian languages
c) removal of disqualifications imposed on the Indian magistrates with regard to the trial of the Europeans
d) removal of a duty on imported cotton cloth
Answer: (c)
Question 37: Which one among the following is correct about the Doctrine of Lapse?
a) It did not allow the Indian rulers to adopt any heir
b) It did not allow an adopted heir to rule a state after the death of the ruler
c) It made the annexation of Indian state compulsory after the death of a ruler
d) It made the annexation of Indian state compulsory if the adoption of heir had not been approved by the British authorities
Answer: (d)
Question 38: The first serious blow which the British inflicted on India’s prosperous handloom industry was that
a) duty was imposed on the looms
b) weavers were forced to sell their goods at dictated price
c) due to export of raw cotton there was acute scarcity of cotton
d) cash crops like indigo and opium encroached on the cotton growing area
Answer: (b)
Question 39: The tendency for increased litigation was visible after the introduction of the land settlement system of Lord Cornwallis in 1793. The reason for this is normally traced to which of the following provisions?
a) Making Zamindar’s position stronger vis-à-vis the ryot
b) Making East India Company an overlord of Zamindars
c) Making judicial system more efficient
d) None of the above
Answer: (d)
Question 40: The interest of the British Government of India in Afghanistan in the 19th century came about in order to
a) make use of the natural resources of Afghanistan
b) ensure that the Russian empire did not have an influence over Afghanistan
c) increase the reach of the British empire
d) establish a monopoly over the markets of Afghanistan
Answer: (b)
Question 41: The Bengal famine of 1770 has been called “the English manufactured famine” because
a) The peasantry deserted the villages due to the high rate of revenue
b) The Peasants were forced to cultivate indigo and opium instead of rice
c) The Peasants had no money to buy food grains
d) The English merchants and servants of the company bought all the rice and refused to sell it, except at fabulous prices
Answer: (d)
Question 42: In the later half of 18th century, East India Company encouraged the manufacture of raw silk in Bengal, but discouraged manufacture of silk fabrics because
a) Indian silk fabrics had lost the market in Europe
b) It wanted to compete with China
c) Export of raw silk was more profitable
d) Raw silk was needed for the home industries
Answer: (d)
Question 43: Which of the following gave a big blow to the indigo industry as a result of which it gradually declined?
a) Withdrawal of British capital
b) Insurrections and peasant uprisings against oppression
c) Invention of a synthetic dye
d) A slump in the world market on account of general recession following the First World War
Answer: (c)
Question 44: Lord Dalhousie planned for the construction of a network of railways in India in order to
a) Easily procure and export raw materials from the interiors of India for export
b) Provide a profitable channel of investment for British capital
c) Both ‘a’ and ‘b’
d) provide cheap and easy means of transport in India
Answer: (c)
Question 45: Which of the following was not one of the taxes which the British Government imposed on India or increased from time to time in order to augment its resources?
a) Income tax
b) Profession tax
c) Licence tax and salt duty
d) Land and famine
Answer: (b)
Question 46: Through which one of the following were commercial activities of the East India Company finally put to an end?
a) The Charter Act of 1793
b) The Charter Act of 1813
c) The Charter Act of 1833
d) The Charter Act of 1853
Answer: (c)
Question 47: Who among the following was the first European to initiate the policy of taking part in the quarrels of Indian princess with a view to acquire territories?
a) Clive
b) Dupleix
c) Albuquerque
d) Warren Hastings
Answer: (b)
Question 48: After the assumption of Diwani, the British East India Company started realising tribute from India to England in the form of
a) cotton, textiles, silver and indigo
b) raw silk, cotton, textiles, and indigo
c) silver, cotton, textiles, and tea
d) cotton, textiles, silk and tea
Answer: (d)
Question 49: In 1856, Awadh would not have been annexed with the British empire if the Nawab of Awadh had
a) allied with the British
b) not refused to introduce reforms as suggested by the British
c) fought against the British
d) a natural heir
Answer: (b)
Question 50: The root of poverty of the people of India during the British rule was that
a) all economic resources of India were at the mercy of the British
b) Indian economy had been bound to the colonial interests
c) agriculture remained almost the sole occupation of the masses
d) foreign capital flowed into all branches of India’s economic life
Answer: (c)