Modern History Set 60 | MROY Class

Modern History Set 60 – Questions & Answers

Which prominent nationalist leader formulated the “Drain of Wealth” theory? – Dadabhai Naoroji
The book The Economic History of India was authored by whom? – Romesh Chandra (R.C.) Dutt
Under the Permanent Settlement, what percentage of revenue did zamindars deposit with the British? – 89% (10/11)
The Mahalwari system was initially devised in 1822 by which official? – Holt Mackenzie
The Ryotwari system was extensively implemented in the Madras Presidency by whom? – Thomas Munro
The Indigo Revolt (1859-60) in Nadia district was initiated by which two leaders? – Digambar Biswas and Bishnucharan Biswas
Who wrote the famous Bengali play Nil Darpan? – Dinabandhu Mitra
The Pabna Agrarian Leagues were localized in which region? – Yusufshahi Pargana in Bengal
The Deccan Riots of 1875 were directed against which group? – Marwari and Gujarati moneylenders
Which leader was instrumental in the formation of the UP Kisan Sabha in 1918? – Madan Mohan Malaviya
The Awadh Kisan Sabha (1920) was led by which charismatic sanyasi? – Baba Ramchandra
The Eka Movement of 1921-22 in Awadh was led by whom? – Madari Pasi
The Bardoli Satyagraha of 1928 was organized and led by whom? – Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
Who was elected as the first President of the All India Kisan Sabha in 1936? – Swami Sahajanand Saraswati
What was the primary demand of the Tebhaga Movement in Bengal? – A two-thirds share of the harvest for the sharecropper
The Telangana Peasant Armed Struggle was primarily against whom? – The Nizam of Hyderabad and the deshmukhs
The First Indian Factory Act in 1881 was passed during the viceroyalty of whom? – Lord Ripon
The First Factory Act of 1881 focused on regulating which group of workers? – Child laborers (under 12 years of age)
The Madras Labour Union (1918) was founded by whom? – B.P. Wadia
Who was elected as the first President of the AITUC in 1920? – Lala Lajpat Rai
The Royal Commission on Labour (1929) is commonly known by what name? – The Whitley Commission
The Trade Disputes Act of 1929 made what illegal? – Sympathetic strikes and strikes intended to coerce the government
Which was the most prominent cash crop cultivated for export to British textile mills? – Raw cotton
The first successful mechanized textile mill in India was established by whom? – Cowasjee Nanabhoy Davar
TISCO was established in 1907 in which city? – Jamshedpur (Sakchi)
In the colonial economy, what was the ‘Managing Agency System’? – A system where British firms managed Indian-owned companies to maintain European control
Who headed the first Famine Commission appointed by Lord Lytton in 1880? – Sir Richard Strachey
What did the MacDonnell Commission (1900) primarily recommend? – Appointing a Famine Commissioner and promoting local relief works
What did ‘Home Charges’ primarily refer to? – Annual payments to Britain for the Secretary of State, pensions, and debt interests
Which British Prime Minister is heavily criticized for policies aggravating the Bengal Famine of 1943? – Winston Churchill

MROY Class

Modern History Set 60

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📌 Economic Critique

Q.1) Which prominent nationalist leader formulated the “Drain of Wealth” theory, arguing that British rule systematically drained India’s wealth to Britain?

Ans > Dadabhai Naoroji

The Pioneer of Economic Nationalism: Dadabhai Naoroji, affectionately known as the ‘Grand Old Man of India’, was a towering figure in the early phase of the Indian national movement and the first Indian elected as a Member of Parliament in the British House of Commons. He systematically articulated the “Drain of Wealth” theory, fundamentally altering how Indians perceived British colonial rule by proving it was economically disastrous.
Poverty and Un-British Rule in India: In his seminal book, Poverty and Un-British Rule in India, he meticulously detailed how a massive portion of India’s national product was being siphoned off to Britain without any adequate economic, material, or financial return, effectively crippling internal capital formation.
Mechanisms of the Drain: He identified the primary mechanisms of this drain, which heavily included ‘Home Charges’ (the administrative costs of the India Office in London), pensions paid to British civil and military officials, interest on debts incurred by the Government of India, and guaranteed returns on British railway investments.
First Income Calculation: Naoroji was also the very first intellectual to attempt a calculation of India’s per capita income, estimating it at a mere ₹20 per annum, starkly highlighting the devastating mass poverty caused directly by colonial extraction.

📌 Economic Critique

Q.2) The book The Economic History of India, which critically analyzed the economic exploitation of India by the British, was authored in the early 20th century by whom?

Ans > Romesh Chandra (R.C.) Dutt

A Bureaucrat Turned Critic: Romesh Chandra (R.C.) Dutt was a highly distinguished civil servant (ICS), an eminent economic historian, and the President of the Indian National Congress in 1899. After retiring from the civil service, he dedicated his life to exposing the economic ruin of India.
The Monumental Two-Volume Work: He authored the monumental two-volume work, The Economic History of India, which remains one of the most comprehensive indictments of British economic policies, meticulously using the British government’s own official data to prove his points.
Critique of Land Revenue: Dutt fiercely criticized the extraordinarily high land revenue demands, especially under the Ryotwari and Mahalwari systems, arguing that the excessive taxation left the peasantry with absolutely no agricultural surplus to survive years of drought, directly causing mass famines.
Deindustrialization and Railways: Furthermore, Dutt thoroughly documented the systematic de-industrialization of India, explaining how cheap British textiles annihilated traditional Indian weavers. He also strongly criticized the colonial government’s obsessive focus on building railways (for raw material extraction) while severely neglecting life-saving irrigation infrastructure.

📌 Land Revenue

Q.3) The Permanent Settlement of Bengal, introduced in 1793, declared zamindars as the absolute owners of the land. Under this system, what percentage of the collected land revenue were the zamindars required to deposit with the British government?

Ans > 89% (10/11)

Transformation of Zamindars: Enacted by Governor-General Lord Cornwallis in 1793, this system fundamentally transformed the agrarian landscape of eastern India. Zamindars, previously just revenue collectors, were recognized as absolute proprietary owners of the land, provided they paid a fixed, permanent revenue to the East India Company.
The Massive Revenue Demand: The colonial revenue demand was set incredibly high; zamindars were strictly required to deposit 10/11th (approximately 89%) of the total rent they collected from the peasants with the state treasury, allowing them to retain only 1/11th as their personal remuneration.
The Draconian Sunset Clause: To enforce this strict payment schedule, the British introduced the notorious ‘Sunset Law’. If a zamindar failed to pay the entire exacted amount by sunset on a specified date, his ancestral estate was immediately confiscated and auctioned off to the highest bidder.
Rise of Absentee Landlordism: This ruthless system created a new class of urban, absentee landlords (often wealthy merchants from Calcutta) who bought estates purely for profit. They had no traditional paternalistic concern for the peasantry, leading to severe agrarian exploitation and the imposition of illegal cesses (abwabs).

📌 Land Revenue

Q.4) The Mahalwari system of land revenue, which made the village community (Mahal) jointly responsible for payment, was initially devised in 1822 by which British official?

Ans > Holt Mackenzie

Community-Based Assessment: The Mahalwari system was formulated by British official Holt Mackenzie in 1822 and later reformed by Lord William Bentinck. Recognizing that the village community was the fundamental social unit in northern India, the revenue settlement was made jointly with the entire ‘Mahal’ (village estate) rather than individual peasants.
Geographical Implementation: This system was primarily introduced and heavily implemented in the North-Western Provinces (parts of present-day Uttar Pradesh), large parts of Central India, and the fertile Punjab region.
Role of the Lambardar: Under this arrangement, the village headman (known as the lambardar) was made legally responsible for collecting the revenue from all individual cultivators within the village boundaries and depositing the total sum with the colonial treasury.
High Tax Burden and Debt: Unlike the Permanent Settlement, the state demand was not fixed forever; it was subject to periodic revisions. However, the revenue assessments were exorbitantly high, frequently demanding up to 50% to 66% of the net agricultural produce, which inevitably forced village communities into deep indebtedness to urban moneylenders.

📌 Land Revenue

Q.5) The Ryotwari system, where the revenue settlement was made directly with the cultivators (ryots), was extensively implemented in the Madras Presidency by whom?

Ans > Thomas Munro

Eliminating the Middlemen: The Ryotwari system was initially pioneered by Captain Alexander Read in 1792 but was extensively championed, expanded, and formalized by Thomas Munro during his tenure as the Governor of Madras. It completely bypassed intermediaries like zamindars.
Direct State-Peasant Relationship: The colonial government made the revenue settlement directly with the individual peasant cultivator, known as the ‘ryot’. The ryot was theoretically recognized as the legal owner, possessing the right to sublet, mortgage, or sell the land, conditional on regular tax payment.
Scientific but Oppressive Assessment: The land revenue was assessed based on a detailed, supposedly scientific survey of the land, considering soil quality and crop type. However, the colonial state practically functioned as an uncompromising, giant zamindar, exacting incredibly high tax rates.
The Cash Demand Trap: The revenue demand (often up to 50% of the dry crop) had to be paid strictly in cash, regardless of crop failure or severe droughts. This rigid cash demand forced the ryots to borrow heavily from local moneylenders, leading to widespread agrarian distress across southern and western India.

📌 Peasant Movements

Q.6) The Indigo Revolt (1859-60) in Bengal, arguably the most militant agrarian movement of the century, was initiated by which two leaders in the Nadia district?

Ans > Digambar Biswas and Bishnucharan Biswas

The Exploitative Dadani System: European indigo planters forced Bengali peasants to cultivate indigo instead of necessary food crops like rice using the ‘dadani’ system. Once a peasant accepted a small, forced cash advance, they were legally trapped into growing indigo at miserably low, fixed prices, ensuring perpetual intergenerational debt.
The Spark of Rebellion: The historic revolt, also known as ‘Nil Bidroha’, was ignited in the Nadia district by two incredibly courageous former employees of an indigo planter, Digambar Biswas and Bishnucharan Biswas, who deeply understood the planters’ exploitative accounting methods.
Mass Non-Cooperation: The Biswas brothers organized the ryots, encouraging them to categorically refuse the cash advances and entirely halt indigo cultivation. The movement was characterized by remarkable communal harmony, with Hindu and Muslim peasants fighting shoulder to shoulder against the planters.
Militant Resistance and Victory: When European planters used armed retainers (lathiyals) to violently coerce the farmers, the peasants fought back valiantly with rudimentary weapons. The sheer scale of resistance forced the British to appoint the Indigo Commission in 1860, which officially ruled that ryots could not be legally compelled to grow indigo.

📌 Literature & Movements

Q.7) The plight of the indigo cultivators and the atrocities of the planters were vividly portrayed in the famous Bengali play Nil Darpan (1860). Who wrote this play?

Ans > Dinabandhu Mitra

A Mirror to Brutality: Nil Darpan (The Indigo Mirror), authored by the eminent Bengali playwright Dinabandhu Mitra in 1860, masterfully and tragically depicted the horrifying ground realities of the indigo districts, exposing the physical torture and absolute economic ruin inflicted upon the peasantry.
Bridging the Urban-Rural Divide: The play was highly instrumental in bringing the remote agrarian struggle to the attention of the urban, English-educated middle-class intelligentsia in Calcutta, successfully rallying crucial public opinion and legal support in favor of the oppressed farmers.
The English Translation Controversy: The cultural impact of the play was profound. It was famously translated into English by the celebrated poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt, allowing the atrocities to be read by British officials and politicians back in London, severely embarrassing the colonial administration.
The Trial of Reverend Long: The publication of the English translation infuriated the powerful European planter lobby. Reverend James Long, a sympathetic British missionary who formally published the translation, was put on trial for libel, heavily fined, and sentenced to one month in prison, highlighting the deep prejudices of colonial courts.

📌 Peasant Movements

Q.8) The Pabna Agrarian Leagues, formed in the 1870s to resist the oppressive exactions of zamindars, were localized in which region?

Ans > Yusufshahi Pargana in Bengal

Resistance Against Zamindari Oppression: Emerging in the 1870s in the Yusufshahi Pargana of the Pabna district in eastern Bengal, this movement was a highly organized resistance against zamindars who routinely attempted to enhance rent far beyond legal limits and prevent tenants from acquiring occupancy rights.
Illegal Cesses (Abwabs): A major grievance of the peasantry was the forced extraction of numerous illegal and arbitrary cesses known as abwabs. Zamindars levied these taxes for frivolous reasons, ranging from funding their religious ceremonies to paying for their personal elephants or travel expenses.
Legalistic Approach to Rebellion: Under the leadership of figures like Ishan Chandra Roy, the peasants adopted a sophisticated legalistic approach. Instead of widespread armed violence, they formed Agrarian Leagues, collecting funds to collectively fight the zamindars in colonial law courts, demanding the rule of law over feudal tyranny.
Legislative Impact: The persistent, organized pressure from the Pabna Leagues and similar widespread agrarian movements across eastern Bengal eventually compelled the British colonial administration to pass the Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885, which significantly strengthened the legal rights of occupancy tenants.

📌 Agrarian Revolts

Q.9) The Deccan Riots of 1875 were primarily an agrarian revolt by the peasants of Maharashtra directed against which group of people?

Ans > Marwari and Gujarati moneylenders

The Economic Crash: The Deccan Riots were a spontaneous outburst of agrarian anger in the Poona and Ahmednagar districts. The root cause was the economic ruin of the peasantry caused by highly oppressive Ryotwari land taxes, combined with a sudden, devastating crash in global cotton prices following the end of the American Civil War.
The Debt Trap: Faced with incredibly high, inflexible cash revenue demands from the state, Marathi peasants borrowed heavily from outsider moneylenders (predominantly Marwaris and Gujaratis). These sahukars manipulated accounts, charged extortionate interest rates, and aggressively confiscated ancestral lands through civil courts.
Targeting the Sahukars: The peasants’ fury was heavily directed at these exploitative indigenous moneylenders rather than the British state. The riots primarily involved the systematic social boycott of the moneylenders, followed by physical attacks on their houses and shops to retrieve stolen wealth.
Burning the Bonds: Crucially, the rioting peasants specifically targeted and publicly burned the oppressive debt bonds, promissory notes, mortgage deeds, and court decrees that legitimized their exploitation. The unrest forced the government to pass the Deccan Agriculturists’ Relief Act in 1879 to offer minor legal protections.

📌 Kisan Sabhas

Q.10) In 1918, the United Provinces (UP) Kisan Sabha was organized to mobilize peasants. Which of the following leaders was instrumental in its formation?

Ans > Madan Mohan Malaviya

Context of Agrarian Distress: The late 1910s in the United Provinces (Awadh region) were characterized by extreme agrarian distress. Taluqdars (large landlords) exacted exorbitant rents, heavily imposed arbitrary illegal levies (nazrana), and subjected tenants to constant threats of arbitrary eviction (bedakhli) to extract higher premiums.
Founding the Sabha: Against this backdrop of intense exploitation, grassroots activists Gauri Shankar Mishra and Indra Narayan Dwivedi officially established the UP Kisan Sabha in February 1918. The organization gained massive immediate credibility due to the powerful backing of nationalist leader Madan Mohan Malaviya.
Mass Mobilization and Expansion: Operating alongside the political fervor of the Home Rule League, the UP Kisan Sabha proved highly successful in mass mobilization. Within a single year, it had established over 450 active branches across various rural districts of the United Provinces.
Integrating Peasants into Nationalism: The Sabha played a vital role in politically awakening the peasantry, bringing their deep-seated agrarian economic issues onto the platform of mainstream nationalist politics. This vital organizing laid the structural groundwork for the massive peasant participation in the Non-Cooperation Movement of the 1920s.

📌 Kisan Sabhas

Q.11) The Awadh Kisan Sabha, formed in 1920 to protest against exorbitant rents and illegal cesses (bedakhli), was led by which charismatic sanyasi?

Ans > Baba Ramchandra

The Wandering Leader: Baba Ramchandra was a uniquely charismatic grassroots leader who fundamentally transformed the peasant movement in Awadh. Originally a Brahmin from Maharashtra, he spent several years as an indentured laborer in Fiji before returning to India to wander the villages dressed as a sanyasi.
Cultural Mobilization: He brilliantly utilized cultural and religious symbols, specifically the recitation of verses from Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas, to rally illiterate peasants against tyrannical taluqdars. He compared the peasant’s struggle to Lord Rama’s righteous war, providing a powerful framework for resistance.
Breaking from the Moderates: Finding the policies of the UP Kisan Sabha too moderate and dominated by urban politicians, Baba Ramchandra, working alongside Jawaharlal Nehru, established the more militant Awadh Kisan Sabha in October 1920 at Pratapgarh.
Militant Tactics and Boycotts: Under his leadership, the Sabha aggressively urged peasants to refuse to cultivate lands from which earlier tenants had been unjustly evicted (bedakhli). They also orchestrated widespread social boycotts of landlords, denying them essential rural services like haircuts and laundry (nai-dhobi bandh), paralyzing the feudal structure.

📌 Agrarian Revolts

Q.12) The Eka Movement (Unity Movement) of 1921-22 in the northern districts of Awadh, which protested against high rent extraction, was led by a grassroots leader named what?

Ans > Madari Pasi

Origins of the Movement: The Eka (Unity) Movement emerged in late 1921 in the northern and western districts of Awadh, including Hardoi, Bahraich, and Sitapur. It was a powerful protest against landlords extracting rent often 50% higher than recorded rates and imposing forced, unpaid labor (begar).
Lower-Caste Leadership: Unlike earlier peasant movements led heavily by urban intelligentsia or upper-caste leaders, the Eka Movement was distinctly characterized by its strong, uncompromising lower-caste grassroots leadership, most notably represented by the militant organizer Madari Pasi.
The Ritual of Unity: The movement adopted a highly ritualistic and deeply unifying approach. Peasants would gather by a river, place a lump of earth on the ground, and swear solemn religious oaths to remain united (Eka) against the severe oppression of the taluqdars and colonial police.
Core Pledges and Suppression: Members publicly pledged to pay only legally recorded rent, refuse forced labor, resist violent evictions, and resolve disputes in internal village panchayats rather than colonial courts. The movement took on a highly militant character before being ruthlessly crushed by massive military force in early 1922.

📌 Satyagraha

Q.13) The Bardoli Satyagraha of 1928, a successful no-tax campaign against a 22% increase in land revenue, was organized and led by whom?

Ans > Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

The Unjust Tax Hike: Situated in the Surat district of Gujarat, the Bardoli Satyagraha was triggered when the Bombay Presidency government arbitrarily recommended an unjustified and massive 22% increase in land revenue for the taluqa, ignoring a severe drop in cotton prices and overall economic distress.
Patel’s Organizational Brilliance: The peasants invited Vallabhbhai Patel to lead their resistance. Patel organized the entire taluqa into a highly disciplined, non-violent political machine. He established a network of ashrams, published a daily bulletin, and successfully mobilized women, students, and various castes into a unified front.
Oaths of Resistance: The peasants solemnly took oaths in the name of God to refuse the payment of the unjust tax. They bravely faced massive state repression, including the violent confiscation of their ancestral lands, vital agricultural cattle, and household goods by the colonial police.
Victory and the Title of Sardar: The movement’s absolute solidarity and strict non-violence forced the British government to appoint the Maxwell-Broomfield Commission. The commission found the hike unjustified and heavily reduced the increase to a mere 6.03%. This legendary triumph earned Patel the historic title of ‘Sardar’ (Leader).

📌 Kisan Sabhas

Q.14) The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) was established in 1936 to coordinate peasant movements on a national scale. Who was elected as its first President?

Ans > Swami Sahajanand Saraswati

National Consolidation: The formation of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) in 1936 marked the crucial structural consolidation of various disparate, regional peasant movements into a unified, powerful national agrarian front, established during the Lucknow session of the Indian National Congress.
The Leadership Duo: The formidable and highly influential peasant leader from Bihar, Swami Sahajanand Saraswati, was elected as its first President. The renowned agrarian organizer and intellectual from Andhra, N.G. Ranga, served as its General Secretary, providing dynamic national leadership.
The Radical Kisan Manifesto: The AIKS drafted a comprehensive ‘Kisan Manifesto’ that fundamentally challenged the colonial agrarian structure. It aggressively demanded the complete abolition of the exploitative zamindari system, massive reduction of land revenue, institutional relief from rural debt, and security of tenure for all tenants.
Influencing the Congress: The AIKS rapidly expanded its membership into the millions. Its massive political weight forced the Indian National Congress to adopt much more radical agrarian reforms into its own political agenda, ensuring the voice of the rural poor was central to the freedom struggle.

📌 Agrarian Revolts

Q.15) The Tebhaga Movement (1946) in Bengal was a militant campaign by sharecroppers (bargadars) demanding what specific change in the revenue structure?

Ans > A two-thirds share of the harvest for the sharecropper, leaving one-third for the landlord

The Oppressive Adhi System: The Tebhaga Movement erupted in Bengal as a highly militant agrarian struggle led primarily by the Communist Party of India (CPI). It was driven by sharecroppers (bargadars) who traditionally bore all cultivation costs but were forced to give half (adhi) of their harvest to powerful landlords (jotedars).
The Floud Commission Spark: The movement was heavily catalyzed by the official recommendations of the government-appointed Floud Commission, which legally stated that sharecroppers should rightfully retain two-thirds of the harvest. Armed with this justification, the sharecroppers launched massive direct action.
Militant Direct Action: Their central rallying cry was “Tebhaga chai” (We want two-thirds). Sharecroppers violently refused to transport the harvested paddy to the landlord’s compound (khamar). Instead, they aggressively asserted their right to store and thresh the grain in their own courtyards.
State Repression: The movement seriously threatened the deeply entrenched feudal structure of rural Bengal. It faced incredibly brutal police repression and violent pushback from the private militias of the jotedars, resulting in the martyrdom of dozens of peasant activists before eventually subsiding.

📌 Peasant Movements

Q.16) The Telangana Peasant Armed Struggle (1946-51) was a massive communist-led uprising directed primarily against the oppressive rule of whom?

Ans > The Nizam of Hyderabad and the deshmukhs (landlords)

Extreme Feudal Oppression: The peasantry in the princely state of Hyderabad suffered under extreme feudal tyranny. The administration of the Nizam, heavily supported by deeply entrenched and brutal landlords known as deshmukhs and jagirdars, extracted massive taxes and enforced systemic forced labor (vetti).
Communist Mobilization: The Communist Party of India (CPI), led by figures like Ravi Narayan Reddy, successfully mobilized the deeply oppressed Telugu-speaking peasantry. They organized massive resistance against the illegal exactions and violent evictions orchestrated by the landlords’ private armies.
Full-Scale Guerrilla War: The movement rapidly evolved from protests into a full-scale armed guerrilla insurgency. Peasant squads (dalams) forcefully seized vast tracts of land from fleeing landlords, established parallel village communes (Grama Rajyams), and successfully redistributed over a million acres of land to the landless.
The Final Suppression: The armed struggle simultaneously fought the Nizam’s brutal Razakar militia. Even after the Indian Army annexed Hyderabad in 1948 (Operation Polo) and deposed the Nizam, the communist insurgents continued fighting the Indian state until the struggle was officially called off in 1951.

📌 Labor Reforms

Q.17) To regulate working conditions in modern factories, the British government passed the First Indian Factory Act in 1881. It was passed during the viceroyalty of whom?

Ans > Lord Ripon

The Need for Regulation: The rapid growth of the modern textile industry in Bombay and jute mills in Calcutta led to horrific, unregulated working conditions. Workers, including thousands of children, labored for 14-16 hours a day in dangerous, unventilated environments without any legal protections.
Lord Ripon’s Liberal Agenda: Lord Ripon, known for his progressive and liberal political credentials, pushed the First Factory Act to address these severe abuses, marking the very first attempt by the colonial state to intervene in industrial labor relations.
Pressure from Lancashire: Ironically, a significant amount of political pressure to pass this protective act came not from humanitarians, but from rival British textile manufacturers in Lancashire, who desperately wanted to reduce the competitive advantage of cheap, unregulated Indian labor.
Highly Limited Application: The Act’s scope was incredibly narrow. It only applied to factories employing more than 100 workers and using mechanical power. It totally ignored seasonal factories (like cotton gins and presses) where the working conditions were arguably the most dangerous and abusive.

📌 Labor Reforms

Q.18) The First Factory Act of 1881 primarily focused on regulating the labor conditions of which specific group of workers?

Ans > Child laborers (under 12 years of age)

Focus on Child Protection: The primary, explicit objective of the 1881 Act was to provide basic legal protection to young children exploited in early industrial mills. It strictly prohibited the employment of children below the age of 7 in any designated factory.
Working Hour Limits: For children aged between 7 and 12 years, the legislation legally restricted their maximum working hours to 9 hours per day. It also mandated that child workers must be provided with four holidays per month.
Ignoring Adult Labor: The act was heavily criticized by early Indian labor leaders because it was highly limited in scope; it absolutely did not regulate the working hours of adult male or female workers, leaving them vulnerable to endless 15-hour shifts.
Lack of Enforcement: Furthermore, the colonial administration failed to establish a robust enforcement mechanism. Without a dedicated, well-funded cadre of independent factory inspectors, factory owners routinely flouted the weak regulations regarding child age limits and working hours.

📌 Trade Unions

Q.19) The first modern trade union in India, the Madras Labour Union, was founded in 1918 by which prominent labor leader?

Ans > B.P. Wadia

Pioneering Modern Unionism: B.P. Wadia, a close associate of Annie Besant and a prominent figure in the Home Rule movement, successfully organized the deeply exploited textile workers of the Buckingham and Carnatic Mills in Madras, forming India’s first systematic, modern trade union.
Beyond Spontaneous Strikes: Unlike earlier spontaneous, unorganized labor protests, the Madras Labour Union had a formal structure, collected regular monthly subscriptions from its members, and systematically articulated demands for wage increases and reduced working hours.
The Legal Backlash: The powerful British mill owners (Binny & Co.) fiercely retaliated. They famously sued B.P. Wadia in the Madras High Court for civil damages, claiming he had illegally instigated a strike that caused massive financial losses to the company.
Catalyst for Labor Law: The High Court issued an injunction against Wadia, proving that under existing common law, organizing a trade union strike was considered an illegal conspiracy. This massive legal setback sparked widespread protests and eventually necessitated the passage of the Trade Unions Act of 1926 to grant unions legal immunity.

📌 Trade Unions

Q.20) The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) was founded in 1920 in Bombay to provide a national platform for the labor movement. Who was elected as its first President?

Ans > Lala Lajpat Rai

The Need for a National Federation: The AITUC was officially established in October 1920 to consolidate the fragmented, localized labor unions across the country. A primary immediate catalyst was the need to legitimately elect representatives for the newly formed International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva.
Nationalist Leadership at the Helm: Highlighting the deep initial nexus between the mainstream nationalist movement and organized labor, Lala Lajpat Rai, a towering, militant figure in the Indian National Congress, was elected as the AITUC’s first President. Dewan Chaman Lall served as its first General Secretary.
Integration with the Freedom Struggle: Under Lajpat Rai’s leadership, the AITUC actively supported the ongoing Non-Cooperation Movement, seamlessly linking the specific economic grievances of the industrial working class with the broader, overarching political demand for Swaraj (self-rule) from the British empire.
Legacy of Prominent Leaders: Following Lala Lajpat Rai, the AITUC was presided over by an array of heavy-weight national leaders throughout the 1920s and 30s, including C.R. Das, Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Subhas Chandra Bose, solidifying labor’s role in the national narrative.

📌 Labor Commissions

Q.21) In 1929, the British Government appointed a Royal Commission on Labour to inquire into the working conditions in Indian industries. This commission is commonly known by what name?

Ans > The Whitley Commission

A Comprehensive Industrial Review: Chaired by John Henry Whitley, the Royal Commission on Labour was tasked with comprehensively and independently surveying the abysmal health, housing, and working conditions of industrial labor and plantations across British India following a period of massive labor unrest.
Exposing Extreme Exploitation: The Commission conducted exhaustive field visits and interviews. Its highly detailed report, published in 1931, exposed severe exploitation, highlighting the extreme indebtedness of workers to money lenders, the prevalence of miserable, disease-ridden slums, and hazardous factory environments.
Focus on Plantations: The commission paid special attention to the horrific conditions in the Assam tea gardens, documenting the near-slavery conditions of indentured laborers and the brutal penal contract system enforced by European planters.
Blueprint for Legislation: The Whitley Commission’s recommendations served as the foundational blueprint for several vital labor welfare legislations enacted in the 1930s. Most notably, its findings directly led to the passage of the Payment of Wages Act of 1936, which sought to regulate arbitrary wage deductions.

📌 Labor Laws

Q.22) The Trade Disputes Act of 1929 imposed severe restrictions on the working-class movement by making what illegal?

Ans > Sympathetic strikes and strikes intended to coerce the government

Reaction to Rising Militancy: In the late 1920s, India witnessed massive, highly organized strikes, particularly the massive 1928 Bombay textile strike, heavily influenced by the growing power of communist leaders within unions like the Girni Kamgar Union.
Crippling Union Solidarity: In direct response, the colonial state passed the draconian Trade Disputes Act to legally cripple the ability of unions to launch massive, coordinated industrial action. It explicitly made “sympathetic strikes” (where workers in one industry strike in solidarity with another) completely illegal.
Banning Political Strikes: The act also strictly outlawed strikes that were deemed to be designed to coerce the government either directly or by inflicting severe hardship upon the community, effectively attempting to divorce the labor movement from the political freedom struggle.
Restricting Public Utilities: Furthermore, it severely restricted strikes in designated “public utility services” (like railways, postal services, and water supply) by mandating a strict 14-day advance notice, effectively outlawing wildcat strikes and giving management ample time to break the strike.

📌 Colonial Economy

Q.23) Under British rule, the rapid commercialization of agriculture forced Indian peasants to shift from cultivating food crops to cash crops. Which of the following was the most prominent cash crop cultivated for export to British textile mills?

Ans > Raw cotton

Feeding the Industrial Revolution: To feed the booming, incredibly lucrative industrial textile mills of Lancashire and Manchester, the British administration aggressively incentivized and sometimes coerced the widespread cultivation of raw cotton, fundamentally altering India’s agricultural landscape.
The Role of Railways: The colonial government rapidly expanded the railway network deep into the Indian hinterland, specifically the black-soil Deccan region, not to transport passengers, but to efficiently extract heavy raw cotton from remote villages directly to the port of Bombay for export.
The American Civil War Boom: During the American Civil War (1861-1865), British mills lost access to American cotton. This caused a massive, temporary boom in Indian cotton prices, pulling thousands of farmers into cash crop cultivation, heavily funded by local moneylenders.
Vulnerability to Famine: The massive shift away from staple, drought-resistant food crops (like jowar and bajra) to cash crops drastically reduced local food security. When global cotton prices inevitably crashed, peasants had neither cash to pay debt nor food to eat, massively exacerbating the devastating famines of the late 19th century.

📌 Industrialization

Q.24) The first successful mechanized textile mill in India, the Bombay Spinning and Weaving Company, was established in 1854 by which Parsi entrepreneur?

Ans > Cowasjee Nanabhoy Davar

The Birth of Modern Indian Industry: Breaking the overwhelming British monopolies on manufactured goods, Cowasjee Nanabhoy Davar successfully established India’s very first modern, steam-powered cotton mill in Bombay, marking the birth of indigenous machine-based capitalist enterprise.
Overcoming Imperial Hurdles: Establishing the mill was a monumental task. The British administration was highly reluctant to allow the export of heavy textile machinery to India, fearing it would create direct competition for their own highly profitable mills in Lancashire.
The Role of Parsi Capital: Davar’s success was largely funded by wealthy Parsi merchants. These merchants had accumulated massive amounts of indigenous capital through their extensive involvement in the highly lucrative export trade of raw cotton and opium to China.
Catalyzing a Boom: The immediate financial success of the Bombay Spinning and Weaving Company proved that modern industrialization was viable in India. It sparked a massive wave of indigenous industrial entrepreneurship, leading to the rapid establishment of dozens of cotton mills along the western coast.

📌 Heavy Industry

Q.25) A major milestone in India’s indigenous industrial development occurred in 1907 with the establishment of the Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO) in which city?

Ans > Jamshedpur (Sakchi)

The Grand Vision: The massive steel project was the grand, long-held vision of the pioneering industrialist Jamsetji Tata, who understood that true economic independence required a robust domestic heavy industry. Though he died before its completion, the project was successfully incorporated by his son, Dorabji Tata.
Strategic Location: The plant was strategically established in the remote tribal village of Sakchi (later renamed Jamshedpur in Jamsetji’s honor) in modern-day Jharkhand. It was perfectly situated near vast, untapped reserves of high-grade iron ore, coalfields, and a reliable water supply from the Subarnarekha river.
Triumph of Swadeshi Capital: Astoundingly, when British financial markets in London aggressively refused to fund the project out of skepticism, the massive capital required was raised entirely from over 8,000 ordinary Indian investors during the patriotic fervor of the Swadeshi movement.
Strategic Imperial Importance: TISCO began producing pig iron in 1911 and steel in 1912. Ironically, the plant proved absolutely vital to the survival of the British Empire during World War I, supplying massive quantities of steel rails and military materials for the Allied campaigns in the Middle East.

📌 Colonial Economy

Q.26) In the colonial Indian economy, the ‘Managing Agency System’ refers to what?

Ans > A system where British firms provided capital and managed Indian-owned joint-stock companies, maintaining European control.

The Mechanics of Control: Managing agencies were powerful, highly organized European-dominated mercantile firms (like Andrew Yule, Martin Burn, and Bird & Co.) that effectively controlled the boards of directors of dozens of theoretically independent joint-stock companies across various vital sectors.
Monopolizing Key Industries: They provided crucial management expertise, guaranteed financial credit, and secured international marketing channels. In return, they took massive commissions based on overall production or sales (not net profits), allowing them to dominate the highly lucrative jute, tea, and coal industries.
Stifling Indian Entrepreneurship: This deeply entrenched, monopolistic system allowed a small, tight-knit group of British capitalists to exert near-total control over India’s industrial sector. They actively collaborated to suppress the growth of an independent, powerful Indian capitalist class that could challenge their dominance.
Interlocking Directorates: The system resulted in incredibly complex ‘interlocking directorates’, where a few British agency houses controlled banking, insurance, shipping, and manufacturing simultaneously, ensuring that all profits generated in the industrial sector ultimately flowed back to British financial interests.

📌 Famines

Q.27) Following the devastating famines of 1876-78, Lord Lytton appointed the first Famine Commission in 1880 to formulate a general famine code. Who headed this commission?

Ans > Sir Richard Strachey

Context of Mass Starvation: The horrific famines of 1876-78, which devastated the Madras and Bombay Presidencies and killed millions, forced the colonial administration to realize that ad-hoc, localized relief measures were completely inadequate for a recurring continental crisis.
Establishing State Responsibility: Lord Lytton appointed the first Famine Commission headed by Sir Richard Strachey. The Commission’s most vital contribution was officially declaring that it was the fundamental duty of the state to provide famine relief and save lives, marking a shift from pure laissez-faire neglect.
Focus on Massive Public Works: The Strachey Commission recommended providing relief primarily through the organization of massive, centralized public works projects (like breaking stones or building roads) to provide destitute peasants with wages to buy food, rather than giving free charity.
The Provisional Famine Code: Its extensive recommendations directly resulted in the drafting of the Provisional Famine Code of 1883. This code provided strict, bureaucratic guidelines for anticipating crop failures, organizing relief camps, and suspending land revenue, though it was often executed poorly and punitively.

📌 Famines

Q.28) The MacDonnell Commission was appointed by Lord Curzon in 1900 to review famine relief policies. Its primary recommendation emphasized what?

Ans > Appointing a Famine Commissioner and promoting local relief works and irrigation

Reviewing Past Failures: Following the disastrous famines of 1899-1900, Lord Curzon appointed the MacDonnell Commission to critically review the failures of the existing Famine Code. The commission found that the Strachey Commission’s reliance on massive, centralized public works was highly inefficient and caused high mortality in camps.
Decentralized Village Relief: Sir Antony MacDonnell heavily emphasized a shift toward smaller, decentralized village-level relief works. He argued that keeping peasants near their homes and communities prevented the rapid spread of diseases like cholera that ravaged the large central relief camps.
The Moral Strategy: The commission stressed a “moral strategy” of relief, which emphasized ‘prevention over cure’. It highly recommended the prompt distribution of agricultural advances (taccavi loans) to farmers so they could buy seeds and cattle immediately after a drought broke.
Long-Term Infrastructure: Furthermore, the MacDonnell Commission strongly criticized the over-investment in railways and strongly recommended the rapid, massive expansion of irrigation networks and the establishment of agricultural cooperative banks to provide cheap credit to vulnerable cultivators.

📌 Economic Critique

Q.29) The term ‘Home Charges’, frequently criticized by early Indian nationalists, primarily referred to what?

Ans > The annual payments remitted to Britain for the Secretary of State’s establishment, pensions, and debt interests

The Mechanics of the Drain: ‘Home Charges’ constituted the primary, officially sanctioned mechanism of the Drain of Wealth from India. These were mandatory annual payments made from Indian tax revenues directly to the British exchequer in London, consuming roughly 20-25% of India’s total annual revenue.
Administrative and Military Costs: A massive portion of these charges went to pay the administrative costs of maintaining the Secretary of State’s expansive India Office in London. It also covered the exorbitant pensions and furlough pay of retired British civil and military officers who had served in India.
Guaranteed Profits and Imperial Debts: Home charges also included the guaranteed 5% interest paid to British investors who funded Indian railways, regardless of whether the railways actually made a profit. Furthermore, India was forced to pay the interest on massive debts incurred by Britain while fighting imperial wars in places like Afghanistan and China.
The Nationalist Indictment: Early nationalists fiercely argued these charges were fundamentally illegitimate. They proved that poor Indian taxpayers were literally financing the apparatus of their own subjection and enriching the British economy without receiving any tangible domestic developmental benefits in return.

📌 Famines

Q.30) The catastrophic Bengal Famine of 1943, which resulted in the deaths of millions, was severely aggravated by the wartime policies of the British government. Which British Prime Minister is heavily criticized for ignoring pleas for food relief during this crisis?

Ans > Winston Churchill

A Man-Made Disaster: The Bengal Famine of 1943, which killed an estimated 3 million people through starvation and related diseases, was not primarily caused by a lack of food, but was a deeply man-made disaster heavily exacerbated by British wartime policies and runaway inflation during World War II.
The Brutal Denial Policy: Fearing a Japanese invasion through Burma, the British military implemented a ruthless ‘Denial Policy’ in coastal Bengal. They systematically destroyed tens of thousands of local boats (halting all transport and fishing) and aggressively seized massive rural rice stocks to deny them to a potential advancing enemy, devastating the local economy.
Imperial Apathy: Despite repeated, increasingly desperate pleas from both Viceroy Linlithgow and his successor Lord Wavell for urgent emergency wheat shipments to starving Calcutta, Winston Churchill’s War Cabinet callously and repeatedly denied the requests.
Prioritizing the Empire over Indians: Churchill heavily prioritized the war effort, arguing that shipping was needed elsewhere. He actively diverted vital food ships sailing past India to build massive post-war stockpiles in Europe, demonstrating a horrific imperial apathy that prioritized British strategic reserves over millions of Indian lives.

📌 Quick Summary — Modern History Set 60

Economic Critique: Dadabhai Naoroji formulated the “Drain of Wealth” theory; R.C. Dutt wrote The Economic History of India.
Home Charges: Annual unrequited payments remitted to Britain constituting the primary mechanism of the economic drain.
Land Revenue: Zamindars kept 1/11th under Permanent Settlement (1793); Holt Mackenzie devised Mahalwari (1822); Thomas Munro implemented Ryotwari.
Agrarian Resistance: The Biswas brothers led the Indigo Revolt; Dinabandhu Mitra exposed planter atrocities in Nil Darpan.
Anti-Zamindar / Sahukar: Pabna Leagues (1870s) fought zamindars legally; Deccan Riots (1875) violently targeted Marwari/Gujarati moneylenders.
Kisan Sabhas: Malaviya backed the UP Kisan Sabha (1918); Baba Ramchandra led the militant Awadh Kisan Sabha (1920).
Lower-Caste Mobilization: Madari Pasi led the grassroots Eka Movement (1921-22) against high rent extraction.
Bardoli Satyagraha: Sardar Patel successfully defeated a 22% land tax hike in Gujarat (1928).
National Coordination: Swami Sahajanand Saraswati became the first President of the All India Kisan Sabha in 1936.
Late Peasant Revolts: Tebhaga Movement demanded 2/3rds crop share; Telangana Armed Struggle violently opposed the Nizam and deshmukhs.
Labor Reforms: Lord Ripon’s First Factory Act (1881) restricted child labor (under 12); Whitley Commission (1929) surveyed dismal labor conditions.
Trade Unionism: B.P. Wadia founded the Madras Labour Union (1918); Lala Lajpat Rai headed the first AITUC session (1920).
Suppression: The Trade Disputes Act (1929) severely restricted sympathetic and political strikes.
Industrialization: C.N. Davar started the first mechanized cotton mill (1854); TISCO was built with Swadeshi capital in Jamshedpur (1907).
Corporate Control: The Managing Agency System ensured British capital dominated Indian joint-stock companies.
Famine Codes: Strachey Commission (1880) established state relief duty; MacDonnell Commission (1900) urged local works and irrigation.
Bengal Famine 1943: War policies and Winston Churchill’s refusal to send relief ships resulted in ~3 million deaths.

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Modern History Set 60

Q.1) Which prominent nationalist leader formulated the “Drain of Wealth” theory, arguing that British rule systematically drained India’s wealth to Britain?

Q.2) The book The Economic History of India, which critically analyzed the economic exploitation of India by the British, was authored in the early 20th century by whom?

Q.3) The Permanent Settlement of Bengal, introduced in 1793, declared zamindars as the absolute owners of the land. Under this system, what percentage of the collected land revenue were the zamindars required to deposit with the British government?

Q.4) The Mahalwari system of land revenue, which made the village community (Mahal) jointly responsible for payment, was initially devised in 1822 by which British official?

Q.5) The Ryotwari system, where the revenue settlement was made directly with the cultivators (ryots), was extensively implemented in the Madras Presidency by whom?

Q.6) The Indigo Revolt (1859-60) in Bengal, arguably the most militant agrarian movement of the century, was initiated by which two leaders in the Nadia district?

Q.7) The plight of the indigo cultivators and the atrocities of the planters were vividly portrayed in the famous Bengali play Nil Darpan (1860). Who wrote this play?

Q.8) The Pabna Agrarian Leagues, formed in the 1870s to resist the oppressive exactions of zamindars, were localized in which region?

Q.9) The Deccan Riots of 1875 were primarily an agrarian revolt by the peasants of Maharashtra directed against which group of people?

Q.10) In 1918, the United Provinces (UP) Kisan Sabha was organized to mobilize peasants. Which of the following leaders was instrumental in its formation?

Q.11) The Awadh Kisan Sabha, formed in 1920 to protest against exorbitant rents and illegal cesses (bedakhli), was led by which charismatic sanyasi?

Q.12) The Eka Movement (Unity Movement) of 1921-22 in the northern districts of Awadh, which protested against high rent extraction, was led by a grassroots leader named what?

Q.13) The Bardoli Satyagraha of 1928, a successful no-tax campaign against a 22% increase in land revenue, was organized and led by whom?

Q.14) The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) was established in 1936 to coordinate peasant movements on a national scale. Who was elected as its first President?

Q.15) The Tebhaga Movement (1946) in Bengal was a militant campaign by sharecroppers (bargadars) demanding what specific change in the revenue structure?

Q.16) The Telangana Peasant Armed Struggle (1946-51) was a massive communist-led uprising directed primarily against the oppressive rule of whom?

Q.17) To regulate working conditions in modern factories, the British government passed the First Indian Factory Act in 1881. It was passed during the viceroyalty of whom?

Q.18) The First Factory Act of 1881 primarily focused on regulating the labor conditions of which specific group of workers?

Q.19) The first modern trade union in India, the Madras Labour Union, was founded in 1918 by which prominent labor leader?

Q.20) The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) was founded in 1920 in Bombay to provide a national platform for the labor movement. Who was elected as its first President?

Q.21) In 1929, the British Government appointed a Royal Commission on Labour to inquire into the working conditions in Indian industries. This commission is commonly known by what name?

Q.22) The Trade Disputes Act of 1929 imposed severe restrictions on the working-class movement by making what illegal?

Q.23) Under British rule, the rapid commercialization of agriculture forced Indian peasants to shift from cultivating food crops to cash crops. Which of the following was the most prominent cash crop cultivated for export to British textile mills?

Q.24) The first successful mechanized textile mill in India, the Bombay Spinning and Weaving Company, was established in 1854 by which Parsi entrepreneur?

Q.25) A major milestone in India’s indigenous industrial development occurred in 1907 with the establishment of the Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO) in which city?

Q.26) In the colonial Indian economy, the ‘Managing Agency System’ refers to what?

Q.27) Following the devastating famines of 1876-78, Lord Lytton appointed the first Famine Commission in 1880 to formulate a general famine code. Who headed this commission?

Q.28) The MacDonnell Commission was appointed by Lord Curzon in 1900 to review famine relief policies. Its primary recommendation emphasized what?

Q.29) The term ‘Home Charges’, frequently criticized by early Indian nationalists, primarily referred to what?

Q.30) The catastrophic Bengal Famine of 1943, which resulted in the deaths of millions, was severely aggravated by the wartime policies of the British government. Which British Prime Minister is heavily criticized for ignoring pleas for food relief during this crisis?

📌 Quick Summary — Modern History Set 60

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Q.1) Which prominent nationalist leader formulated the “Drain of Wealth” theory, arguing that British rule systematically drained India’s wealth to Britain?

Q.2) The book The Economic History of India, which critically analyzed the economic exploitation of India by the British, was authored in the early 20th century by whom?

Q.3) The Permanent Settlement of Bengal, introduced in 1793, declared zamindars as the absolute owners of the land. Under this system, what percentage of the collected land revenue were the zamindars required to deposit with the British government?

Q.4) The Mahalwari system of land revenue, which made the village community (Mahal) jointly responsible for payment, was initially devised in 1822 by which British official?

Q.5) The Ryotwari system, where the revenue settlement was made directly with the cultivators (ryots), was extensively implemented in the Madras Presidency by whom?

Q.6) The Indigo Revolt (1859-60) in Bengal, arguably the most militant agrarian movement of the century, was initiated by which two leaders in the Nadia district?

Q.7) The plight of the indigo cultivators and the atrocities of the planters were vividly portrayed in the famous Bengali play Nil Darpan (1860). Who wrote this play?

Q.8) The Pabna Agrarian Leagues, formed in the 1870s to resist the oppressive exactions of zamindars, were localized in which region?

Q.9) The Deccan Riots of 1875 were primarily an agrarian revolt by the peasants of Maharashtra directed against which group of people?

Q.10) In 1918, the United Provinces (UP) Kisan Sabha was organized to mobilize peasants. Which of the following leaders was instrumental in its formation?

Q.11) The Awadh Kisan Sabha, formed in 1920 to protest against exorbitant rents and illegal cesses (bedakhli), was led by which charismatic sanyasi?

Q.12) The Eka Movement (Unity Movement) of 1921-22 in the northern districts of Awadh, which protested against high rent extraction, was led by a grassroots leader named what?

Q.13) The Bardoli Satyagraha of 1928, a successful no-tax campaign against a 22% increase in land revenue, was organized and led by whom?

Q.14) The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) was established in 1936 to coordinate peasant movements on a national scale. Who was elected as its first President?

Q.15) The Tebhaga Movement (1946) in Bengal was a militant campaign by sharecroppers (bargadars) demanding what specific change in the revenue structure?

Q.16) The Telangana Peasant Armed Struggle (1946-51) was a massive communist-led uprising directed primarily against the oppressive rule of whom?

Q.17) To regulate working conditions in modern factories, the British government passed the First Indian Factory Act in 1881. It was passed during the viceroyalty of whom?

Q.18) The First Factory Act of 1881 primarily focused on regulating the labor conditions of which specific group of workers?

Q.19) The first modern trade union in India, the Madras Labour Union, was founded in 1918 by which prominent labor leader?

Q.20) The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) was founded in 1920 in Bombay to provide a national platform for the labor movement. Who was elected as its first President?

Q.21) In 1929, the British Government appointed a Royal Commission on Labour to inquire into the working conditions in Indian industries. This commission is commonly known by what name?

Q.22) The Trade Disputes Act of 1929 imposed severe restrictions on the working-class movement by making what illegal?

Q.23) Under British rule, the rapid commercialization of agriculture forced Indian peasants to shift from cultivating food crops to cash crops. Which of the following was the most prominent cash crop cultivated for export to British textile mills?

Q.24) The first successful mechanized textile mill in India, the Bombay Spinning and Weaving Company, was established in 1854 by which Parsi entrepreneur?

Q.25) A major milestone in India’s indigenous industrial development occurred in 1907 with the establishment of the Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO) in which city?

Q.26) In the colonial Indian economy, the ‘Managing Agency System’ refers to what?

Q.27) Following the devastating famines of 1876-78, Lord Lytton appointed the first Famine Commission in 1880 to formulate a general famine code. Who headed this commission?

Q.28) The MacDonnell Commission was appointed by Lord Curzon in 1900 to review famine relief policies. Its primary recommendation emphasized what?

Q.29) The term ‘Home Charges’, frequently criticized by early Indian nationalists, primarily referred to what?

Q.30) The catastrophic Bengal Famine of 1943, which resulted in the deaths of millions, was severely aggravated by the wartime policies of the British government. Which British Prime Minister is heavily criticized for ignoring pleas for food relief during this crisis?

📌 Quick Summary — Modern History Set 60

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

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