Previous Year Question
Economically, one of the results of the British rule in India in the 19th century was the
Correct Answer: C
Detailed Solution
Option (c) is correct—commercialization of Indian agriculture.
Commercialization of agriculture meant that crops were increasingly produced primarily for the market, colonial industries and exports, instead of the local or subsistence requirements of cultivators.
Under the British land-revenue systems, revenue generally had to be paid in cash. Therefore, cultivators were encouraged or compelled to grow cash crops that could be sold in the market.
Commercial crops such as cotton, indigo, jute, opium, tea and sugarcane expanded. Railways, ports and communication networks made it easier to transport these crops to export centres.
During the nineteenth century, colonial India increasingly became an exporter of agricultural products and raw materials and an importer of goods manufactured in Britain.
This commercialization was not equivalent to agricultural modernization or peasant prosperity. Indian cultivators largely bore the risks arising from fluctuations in export demand and prices, indebtedness and high land-revenue demands.
Option (a) is incorrect. Instead of increasing, exports of Indian handicrafts declined as Indian textile and handicraft industries suffered because of British machine-made goods and discriminatory trade policies.
Option (b) is incorrect. Some Indian-owned modern factories were established during the nineteenth century, but widespread growth in their number was not the principal economic result of British rule.
Option (d) is incorrect. Although some port and colonial cities expanded, rapid growth of the urban population was not a general feature of nineteenth-century India. The decline of handicrafts forced many artisans to return to rural areas and agriculture.