Rise of British Power MCQ Quiz - Objective Question with Answer for Rise of British Power - Download Free PDF

The correct answer is Bombay (now Mumbai).

Key Points

• The East India Company started establishing post offices in India.
• The East India Company opened its first post office in 1727. 
• The first post office in India was established by the British East India Company in Bombay in 1764.
• Chronology- 
  • In 1766 - Robert Clive sets up a regular postal system.
  • In 1774- Warren Hastings organizes the Post Office. 
  • In 1774 - Calcutta GPO was established.
  • In 1786 - Madras GPO was established.
  • In 1794 - Bombay GPO was established.

Additional Information

• India Post is the trade name for the Department of Posts (DoP), a government-operated postal system in India under the Ministry of Communications.
• With 1, 55,531 Post Offices, the DoP has the most widely distributed postal network in the world.
• National Postal Week
  • ​ It is celebrated from 9th to 15th October every year.
• World Post Day is celebrated each year on 9th October.

The correct answer is Mahalwari system.

Important Points

•  The Permanent Settlement( Zamindari System), however, created problems.
• Company officials soon discovered that the zamindars were in fact not investing in the improvement of land.
• The revenue that had been fixed was so high that the zamindars found it difficult to pay. Anyone who failed to pay the revenue lost his zamindari. Numerous zamindaris were sold off at auctions organised by the Company. 
• By the early nineteenth century many of the Company officials were convinced that the system of revenue had to be changed again.

Key Points

•  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.

Additional Information

•  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/Munro System).
• 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. Their fields had to be carefully and separately surveyed before the revenue assessment was made. Munro thought that the British should act as paternal father figures protecting the ryots under their charge.

The correct answer is Dietrich Brandis.

Key Points

• Dietrich Brandis was the first General Inspector of Forests in India.
• The British invited him because they were worried that the use of forests by local people and the reckless felling of trees by traders would destroy the forests.
• He realised that a proper system had to be introduced to manage the forests and people had to be trained in the science of conservation.
• So he set up the Indian Forest Service in 1864 and helped formulate the Indian Forest Act of 1865.

 Thus, we can say that Dietrich Brandis set up the Indian Forest Service in 1864.

The correct answer is Prafulla Chaki.

Key Points

• Muzaffarpur Conspiracy Case in 1908 AD by the Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki to kill the Chief Presidency Magistrate DH Kingsford of Muzaffarpur.
• They threw bombs on a vehicle of DH Kingsford but he escaped the attack and unfortunately, two British women were killed.
• Later on, Khudiram Bose was arrested by the Indian British police officer Nandalal Banerjee, who was later shot dead by Narendranath Banerjee. Prafulla Chaki committed suicide when he was about to be arrested by the Police.
• Khudiram Bose was the youngest Indian who was hanged by the British.

Additional Information

• Bipin Chandra Pal is also known as the ‘Father of Revolutionary Thoughts in India’.
• VD Savarkar was the first to call the 1857 revolt the first war of independence in his book, The Indian War of Independence 1857.

• In 1793 Permanent Settlement for Bengal, Bihar and Orissa were introduced by Lord Cornwallis.
• The zamindars of Bengal were recognized as the owners of the land as long as they paid the revenue to the East India Company regularly. 
• The amount of revenue that the zamindars had to pay to the Company was firmly fixed and would not be raised under any circumstances i.e the Government of the East India Company got 89% leaving the rest to the zamindars. 
• The ryots or cultivators became tenants since they were considered the tillers of the soil.
• This settlement took away the administrative and judicial functions of the zamindars.
• The Permanent Settlement by declaring Zamindars as owners of land brought into existence a wealthy and privileged class of zamindars that owed its existence to British rule.

The correct answer is 1773.

Key Points

• The first governor-general in India (of Bengal) was Warren Hastings in 1773.
• He started his career as a writer (clerk) in the East India Company at Calcutta in 1750.
• Established revenue board in 1772.
• He Abolished the dual system of governance.
• He Founded the Asiatic Society of Bengal with William Jones in 1784 in Calcutta.
• Warren Hastings laid the foundation of civil service and Lord Cornwallis reformed, modernized, and rationalized it.

• The first governor-general in India (of Bengal) was Warren Hastings.
• The first official governor-general of British India was Lord William Bentinck.
• The first governor-general of the Dominion of India was Lord Mountbatten.
• The first and last governor-general of free India was Chakravarti Rajagopalachari.

The correct answer is 1757.

Key Points

•  The first battle of Plassey took place on 23 June 1757 at a place called 'Plassi' on the banks of the river Ganges in the district of Murshidabad.
• In this war, there was the army of the British East India Company on one side, and on the other side was the army of Siraj-ud-Daula, the Nawab of Bengal.
• The Battle of Plassey was the first occasion for the British to fully control power in India.
• Robert Clive was leading the British army in the Battle of Plassey.
• While on the other hand, Siraj-ud-Daulah's army was led by his three generals, Mir Jafar, Yar Latif Khan, and Raidurlabh.

Additional Information

• There were a series of wars between the Marathas and the British:
  • First Anglo- Maratha war ended in the year 1782.
  • Second Anglo- Maratha War (1803-1805)
  • Third Anglo- Maratha War (1817-1819)

The correct answer is 1505.

Key Points

• Sri Lanka was discovered by the Portuguese in 1505.
• The first contact between Sri Lanka and the Portuguese was established by Don Lourenço de Almeida in 1505.
• At that time Sri Lanka was known by the name of Ceylon.
• The Portuguese reached Sri Lanka accidentally.
• After 12 years Portuguese established their trade settlements.

Additional Information

•   There are three main conquests of the Portuguese over Sri Lanka
  • Sinhalese and Portuguese War (1527 to 1658)
  • Annexation of Kotte and war with Kandy (1597)
  • Conquest of Jaffna (1619)

The Correct Answer is Kolkata.

 Key Points

• The regulating act of 1773 established a supreme court at Fort William, Calcutta.
• This Supreme Court consisted of one Chief Justice and three other regular judges or Puisne Judges.
• Sir Elijah Imphey was the first Chief Justice of this Supreme Court.

 Important Points

The regulating act of 1773 

• It was the first step taken by the British Government to control and regulate the affairs of the East India Company in India.
• It recognized, for the first time, the political and administrative functions of the Company.
• It designated the Governor of Bengal as the ‘Governor-General of Bengal’ and created an Executive Council of four members to assist him.
• The first such Governor-General was Lord Warren Hastings.

The correct answer is Surat.

Key Points

• The first British presidency was established in Surat in India.
• John Midnall was the first British explorer who had an overland journey to India.
• After the Indian Rebellion of 1857, British administration governance started on 28th June 1858.
• Thereafter, the first Indian factory was established in 1612 at Surat by the Britishers.
• Surat became the hub of business due to major textile industries, shipbuilding and exporting of cloth and gold.
• British had also set up the East India Company in Masulipatnam. They traded cotton, indigo dye, silk, salt, saltpetre, opium and tea.
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The correct answer is 1846.

• The Battle of Aliwal was fought in 1846.

Key Points

• The Battle of Aliwal was fought between the Sikh Khalsa army and the British forces.
• It was fought on 28 January 1846.
• Result- British Won

​Additional Information .

• The First Anglo Sikh:
  • After this battle, the Khalsa was defeated at the Battle of Sobraon on 10 February 1846.
  • This led to the Treaty of Lahore
    • It was signed in March 1846.
    • It led to an end to the First Anglo-Sikh War.

The correct answer is 1853.

• The first passenger railway line was opened between Bombay and Thane in 1853.​

Important Points

• The first passenger train ran between Bori Bunder(Bombay) and Thane on 16th April 1853.
• It was a distance of 34km.
• It was operated by three locomotives Sahib, Sultan, and Sindh.
• It had thirteen carriages.

The correct answer is 1853.

Key Points

• Jhansi was an independent princely state ruled by the Maratha Newalkar dynasty under the suzerainty of British India from 1804 to 1853 when the Britishers took over the state under the terms of the Doctrine of Lapse.
• Before that, Jhansi was under the Peshwas from 1728 to 1804.
• Jhansi fell to the Marathas in 1732 and was acquired by the British in 1853.
• A massacre of British officers and civilians occurred at Jhansi during the Indian Mutiny (1857-58).
• In 1886, Jhansi came under British rule in exchange for the British execution of Gwalior.

Additional Information

• The doctrine of Lapse was an annexation policy adopted by the British In India.
• It was devised by Lord Dalhousie, the governor-general of India from 1848 to 1856.
• The doctrine declared that if any Indian ruler died without a male heir, his kingdom would lapse.
• It meant that his kingdom would become part of the Company's territory.
• Kingdoms were annexed one after the other by simply applying the policy.

• States Annexed by Doctrine of Lapse:
  • Satara- 1848
  • Jaitpur- 1849
  • Sambalpur- 1849
  • Baghat- 1850
  • Udaipur- 1852
  • Jhansi- 1853
  • Nagpur- 1854

The correct answer is 1858.

Key Points

• The ‘Crown Rule’ or the ‘Direct Rule’ by the British on the Indian subcontinent remained from 1858 to 1947.
• The area under British control was called British India and the area under indigenous rulers was known as Princely states.
• After the Indian rebellion of 1857, the control of the British India Company was transferred to the Crown of Queen Victoria.
• In 1858, lower Burma was part of British India while upper Burma became a part of it in 1886.
• Imperial Entities of India – British India (1612 – 1947)
  • East India Company (1612 – 1757)
  • Company Rule in India (1757 – 1858)
  • British Raj (1858 – 1947)
  • Princely States (1721 – 1949)
  • Partition of India (1947)

Key Points

History of British Raj (Crown Rule)

• 1858: Direct Rule of the British Crown came into force
• 1860 – 1890: Rise of INC
• 1905 – 1911: Bengal Partition and Rise of Muslim League
• 1914 – 1918: 1^st World War and Lucknow Pact
• 1915 – 1918: Return of Gandhiji to India from South Africa
• 1916 – 1919: Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms
• 1917 – 1919: Rowlatt Act
• 1919 – 1939: Jalliawala Bagh Massacre, Non-Cooperation movement and Government of India Act
• 1939 – 1945: 2^nd World War
• 1946 – 1947: Independence and Partition into India and Pakistan

The correct answer is Government of India Act, 1919.

• Government of India Act, 1919 was based on Montagu-Chelmsford Report.

Key Points

Government of India Act, 1919

• Government of India Act, 1919 is popularly known as Montagu-Chelmsford Report.
• The Act embodied the reforms recommended in the report of the Secretary of State for India, Edwin Montagu, and the Viceroy, Lord Chelmsford. 
• The Government of India Act 1919 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
• It was passed to expand the participation of Indians in the government of India.
• The Act received royal assent on 23 December 1919. 
• The act came into force in 1921.
• The Act covered ten years, from 1919 to 1929.
• It was set to be reviewed by the Simon Commission in 10 years.
• This Act represented the end of benevolent despotism (the act of authorities enhancing themselves) and began the genesis of responsible government in India.

Additional Information

Government of India Act, 1892

• The Indian Council Act of 1892 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that empowered legislative councils in British India by increasing their size which laid the foundation of the Parliamentary system in India.
• The Act received royal assent on 20^th June 1892.

Government of India Act, 1909

• Government of India Act, 1909 is popularly known as Minto - Morley Reforms.
• The Act embodied the reforms recommended in the report of the Secretary of State for India, Morley, and the Viceroy, Lord Minto.
• Government of India Act, 1909 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
• It was instituted to placate the Moderates (Congress) and introduces separate electorates on the basis of religion.
• Lord Minto came to be known as the Father of Communal Electorate in India.

Government of India Act, 1935

• The Government of India Act 1935 derived material from four key sources.
• Report of the Simon Commission, discussions at the Third Round Table Conference, the White Paper of 1933, and the reports of the Joint select committees.
• In August 1935, the Government of India passed the longest act Government of India Act 1935 under the British Act of Parliament.
• This act also included the Government of Burma Act 1935.
• The Act received royal assent in August 1935.
• The features of the act.
  • Abolition of provincial dyarchy and introduction of dyarchy at the center.
  • Abolition of Indian Council and introduction of an advisory body in its place.
  • Provision for an All India Federation with British India territories and princely states.
  • Elaborate safeguards and protective instruments for minorities.
  • Supremacy of British Parliament.
  • Increase in size of legislatures, an extension of the franchise, division of subjects into three lists, and retention of the communal electorate.
  • Separation of Burma from India.

Important Points

• The chief architect of Government of India Act, 1935 - Sir Samuel Hoare