60. Who wrote the book Poverty and Un-British Rule in India, which examined the colonial drain of Indian wealth?
[OSSC CGL Mains (8 July 2026)]
(A) Surendranath Banerjee
(B) Gopal Krishna Gokhale
(C) Dadabhai Naoroji
(D) Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Answer: (C) Dadabhai Naoroji
Explanation: Dadabhai Naoroji published this influential work in 1901. It explained how colonial salaries, pensions, debt payments and private remittances transferred Indian resources abroad without equivalent returns. The work became a major foundation of the nationalist economic criticism of British rule.
59. Why did the British Government adopt the artificially fixed rupee–sterling exchange rate prescribed by the Hilton–Young Commission (1926)?
[UPSC CSE Prelims (2026)]
(A) To aid remittances from India and maintain India’s creditworthiness
(B) To provide support to Indian importers
(C) To encourage cotton exports from India
(D) To prevent rupee depreciation against gold
Answer: (A) To aid remittances from India and maintain India’s creditworthiness
Explanation: India had substantial sterling obligations, including Home Charges payable in Britain. Exchange-rate policy affected the cost and reliability of overseas transfers. The commission’s proposals were therefore closely linked to colonial monetary management and the maintenance of imperial financial commitments.
58. Consider the statements about British policy in Awadh immediately after annexation in 1856:
(1) Taluqdars lost estates but retained arms and forts.
(2) The Summary Revenue Settlement assumed that taluqdars were outsiders.
(3) The British sought revenue directly from peasants by removing taluqdars.
Which statements are correct?
[UPSC CSE Prelims (2026)]
(A) 2 and 3 only
(B) 1 and 3 only
(C) 1, 2 and 3
(D) 2 only
Answer: (A) 2 and 3 only
Explanation: The 1856 summary settlement weakened taluqdari authority and attempted direct relationships with village-level revenue payers. The taluqdars were not simply allowed to retain their military strongholds. These land measures helped create powerful grievances before the rebellion of 1857.
57. Which statement best describes the drain of wealth under British rule in India?
[UP PGT History (9 May 2026)]
(A) Balanced trade and equal economic exchange
(B) An export-only phenomenon with little financial impact
(C) An absence of colonial taxation and intervention
(D) Transfer of revenue, resources and surplus to Britain without domestic reinvestment
Answer: (D) Transfer of revenue, resources and surplus to Britain without domestic reinvestment
Explanation: The drain referred to a largely uncompensated movement of Indian economic resources to Britain. Nationalist critics identified official remittances, pensions, interest and company profits as important channels. The loss of investible surplus aggravated poverty and constrained domestic industrial growth.
56. Which statement best captures the tension between British-period education policy and its intellectual outcomes?
[UP PGT Education (9 May 2026)]
(A) It trained colonial administrators but also encouraged sociopolitical progress
(B) It removed social inequality through universal curricula
(C) It ensured equal educational opportunities for everyone
(D) It principally revived indigenous institutions and knowledge
Answer: (A) It trained colonial administrators but also encouraged sociopolitical progress
Explanation: Colonial authorities promoted English education partly to recruit personnel for administration. Yet Western political ideas and a new educated public also stimulated journalism, reform associations and nationalism. Access was uneven, and the policy never achieved universal mass education under British rule.
55. In which year did the East India Company’s Court of Directors send Wood’s educational despatch to the Governor-General in India?
[SSC GD Constable (30 April 2026, Shift 3)]
(A) 1830
(B) 1854
(C) 1861
(D) 1875
Answer: (B) 1854
Explanation: Wood’s Despatch was issued in 1854 under Sir Charles Wood. It encouraged provincial education departments, teacher training, grants-in-aid and universities in presidency towns. Because of its comprehensive scope, it is often called the Magna Carta of English education in India.
54. Under the Permanent Settlement, what principal responsibility did the British assign to zamindars?
[SSC GD Constable (30 April 2026, Shift 2)]
(A) Cultivating all land themselves
(B) Collecting peasants’ rent and paying fixed revenue to the Company
(C) Trading British manufactured goods
(D) Managing overseas trade routes
Answer: (B) Collecting peasants’ rent and paying fixed revenue to the Company
Explanation: Cornwallis introduced the Permanent Settlement in 1793. Zamindars became hereditary revenue intermediaries who paid the Company a fixed annual sum while collecting rents from cultivators. Default could lead to estate sales, leaving peasants exposed to considerable landlord pressure.
53. Which land-revenue arrangement introduced in 1793 recognised zamindars as intermediaries while permanently fixing the government demand?
[OSSSC Forester/Forest Guard/Excise Constable (23 April 2026)]
(A) Ryotwari System
(B) Mahalwari System
(C) Permanent Settlement
(D) Taluqdari System
Answer: (C) Permanent Settlement
Explanation: The 1793 Permanent Settlement applied prominently in Bengal and Bihar and was extended to other territories. It fixed the state’s revenue demand on zamindars indefinitely, unlike Ryotwari settlements made directly with cultivators and Mahalwari arrangements based on village estates.
52. Match colonial economic ideas with thinkers:
(a) Drain of Wealth,
(b) critique of free-trade imperialism,
(c) critique of colonial railways,
(d) economic nationalism;
(i) Dadabhai Naoroji,
(ii) R. C. Dutt,
(iii) M. G. Ranade,
(iv) G. V. Joshi.
[UPHESC Assistant Professor, History (19 April 2026)]
(A) a–i, b–ii, c–iv, d–iii
(B) a–ii, b–i, c–iii, d–iv
(C) a–iii, b–ii, c–i, d–iv
(D) a–iv, b–iii, c–ii, d–i
Answer: (A) a–i, b–ii, c–iv, d–iii
Explanation: Naoroji articulated the drain theory; R. C. Dutt systematically criticised colonial economic policies; G. V. Joshi analysed railway economics; and Ranade advocated national economic development. Together their work shifted nationalist argument toward sustained examination of colonial economic structures.
51. Who advanced the Drain of Wealth Theory to explain India’s economic exploitation under British rule?
[OSSSC Forester/Forest Guard/Excise Constable (17 April 2026)]
(A) Gopal Krishna Gokhale
(B) Dadabhai Naoroji
(C) W. C. Bonnerjee
(D) R. C. Dutt
Answer: (B) Dadabhai Naoroji
Explanation: Dadabhai Naoroji exposed the overseas transfer of Indian wealth in speeches, papers and his 1901 book. He argued that resources earned in India were remitted abroad without adequate economic return, undermining capital accumulation and increasing poverty.