10. Which statements about the Permanent Settlement are correct? A. It concerned land revenue. B. Holt Mackenzie began it in 1822. C. The Company collected directly from farmers. D. It began in Bengal and Bihar.
[Rajasthan Police Constable (13 May 2022, Shift 1)]
(A) A and D
(B) A and C
(C) B and C
(D) B and D
Answer: (A) A and D
Explanation: The Permanent Settlement was a land-revenue arrangement introduced by Cornwallis in 1793, especially in Bengal and Bihar. Zamindars collected tenants’ rents and paid the Company. Holt Mackenzie’s 1822 scheme was Mahalwari, not the Permanent Settlement.
9. Which section of the Factories Act, 1948 provided for crèches where more than thirty women workers were ordinarily employed?
[Delhi Police Head Constable (19 October 2022, Shift 2)]
(A) Section 38
(B) Section 48
(C) Section 37
(D) Section 52
Answer: (B) Section 48
Explanation: Section 48 provided for suitable crèche rooms for children below six years in factories employing more than thirty women workers. It formed part of worker-welfare provisions. The Factories Act itself was passed after independence, despite this syllabus combining colonial and later industrial legislation.
8. Who propounded the famous Drain Theory?
[WBCS Executive Prelims (2022)]
(A) Dadabhai Naoroji
(B) Surendranath Banerjea
(C) Gopal Krishna Gokhale
(D) Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Answer: (A) Dadabhai Naoroji
Explanation: Dadabhai Naoroji developed the drain theory during the nineteenth century and explained it extensively in Poverty and Un-British Rule in India. The argument identified colonial payments to Britain without sufficient return as a serious cause of Indian impoverishment.
7. Who wrote Poverty and Un-British Rule in India?
[WBCS Prelims (22 August 2021)]
(A) Ramesh Chandra Dutt
(B) Dadabhai Naoroji
(C) A. O. Hume
(D) Amartya Sen
Answer: (B) Dadabhai Naoroji
Explanation: Dadabhai Naoroji’s 1901 work compiled evidence on colonial poverty and the drain of wealth. R. C. Dutt independently analysed colonial economic history, while A. O. Hume was associated with the Indian National Congress. Their roles should not be confused.
6. Which section of the Factories Act, 1948 defines the term “factory”?
[PSSSB Excise Inspector (3 October 2021)]
(A) Section 2(h)
(B) Section 2(k)
(C) Section 2(m)
(D) Section 2(n)
Answer: (C) Section 2(m)
Explanation: Section 2(m) defines a factory by reference to a manufacturing process and specified worker thresholds. Traditionally the test was ten workers where power was used, or twenty without power. Section 2(k) separately defines manufacturing process and 2(n) defines occupier.
5. Which historian described the Permanent Settlement as a “sad blunder”?
[RPSC Assistant Professor, History (24 September 2021)]
(A) T. R. Holmes
(B) Ishwari Prasad
(C) R. C. Majumdar
(D) Setton Carr
Answer: (A) T. R. Holmes
Explanation: T. R. Holmes sharply criticised the Permanent Settlement. Fixing Company dues did not secure cultivators against rising rents, while zamindars obtained stronger rights. Historians have long debated whether its fiscal predictability compensated for its adverse agrarian effects.
4. Which statement best explains the effect of the Industrial Revolution on India during the first half of the nineteenth century?
[UPSC CSE Prelims (2020)]
(A) Indian handicrafts were ruined
(B) Machinery was introduced in Indian textile mills on a massive scale
(C) Railway lines were laid throughout India
(D) Heavy import duties were imposed on British manufactures
Answer: (A) Indian handicrafts were ruined
Explanation: British mechanised production increasingly displaced Indian handcrafted manufactures, especially textiles, as colonial trade policies favoured factory-made imports. Industrialisation in Britain did not immediately translate into extensive railway or factory development in India during the early nineteenth century.
3. Arrange the following educational developments in chronological order: A. Hunter Commission, B. Saddler Commission, C. Wood’s Despatch, D. Sargent Plan.
[UPPSC Civil Services Prelims (2018)]
(A) A, B, D, C
(B) C, B, A, D
(C) A, B, C, D
(D) C, A, B, D
Answer: (D) C, A, B, D
Explanation: Wood’s Despatch appeared in 1854, the Hunter Education Commission in 1882, the Sadler Commission in 1917–19, and the Sargent Plan in 1944. They illustrate successive colonial attempts to organise primary, secondary and university education.
2. Consider the statements on Ryotwari: (1) Government collected land revenue directly from individual cultivators. (2) Cultivators were not legally recognised as landowners. Which statement is correct?
[UPSC NDA-II General Ability Test (2013)]
(A) 1 only
(B) 2 only
(C) Both 1 and 2
(D) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer: (A) 1 only
Explanation: Ryotwari created a direct settlement between the state and individual ryots, who were recognised as proprietors subject to paying land revenue. It therefore differed from the zamindari intermediary model. The second statement incorrectly denies their legally recognised position.
1. Which statement correctly defines the Drain Theory propounded by Dadabhai Naoroji?
[UPSC Civil Services Prelims (1993)]
(A) The resources of India were being used in the interest of Britain
(B) Part of India’s national wealth or annual product was exported to Britain without material return
(C) British industrialists were offered investment opportunities under imperial protection
(D) British goods imported into India made the country poorer
Answer: (B) Part of India’s national wealth or annual product was exported to Britain without material return
Explanation: Naoroji’s central claim was that a portion of India’s annual product went to Britain without equivalent economic compensation. He included official remittances and private transfers, not merely merchandise imports. This formulation became a cornerstone of economic nationalist thought.
