Advent of Europeans & Company Rule — UPSC Prelims Modern History previous year questions

All three fruits were introduced by the Portuguese.
The Portuguese brought many crops from the Americas to India in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Papaya, pineapple and guava came this way. So did cashew, potato, chilli, tobacco and maize.
So the answer is all the three.
Remember: The Portuguese also brought the first printing press to India, at Goa in 1556.

Source: Bipan Chandra, History of Modern India; NCERT Class XII Themes in Indian History II (Portuguese in India)

Statement 1 is incorrect. The Gajapati dynasty ended around 1542. The Dutch company was formed only in 1602, so the Gajapatis could not have given it land.
Statement 2 is correct. Albuquerque took Goa from the Bijapur Sultanate in 1510.
Statement 3 is correct. The English got the Madras site in 1639 from Damarla Venkatapathy Nayak, a Vijayanagara chieftain.
So only statements 2 and 3 are correct.
Remember: Fort St George (1640) grew out of this Madras factory.

Source: UPSC CSE Prelims 2022 question(key: 2 and 3 only)

Statement 1 is correct. The English had a factory at Broach (Bharuch) in Gujarat in this period, along with Surat and Ahmedabad.
Statement 2 is incorrect. Chicacole (Srikakulam) did not have an English factory in this period.
Statement 3 is incorrect. Trichinopoly came into English dealings only in the 18th century, in the Carnatic wars.
Remember: early English factories were at Surat (1613), Masulipatnam and Broach.

Source: Spear, A History of India Vol. 2; NCERT Class XII, Themes in Indian History Part II

Pair 1 is incorrect. An aurang was a place of manufacture or a warehouse where goods were made, not a treasury office.
Pair 2 is correct. A banian was an Indian agent or broker who worked for the East India Company.
Pair 3 is correct. A mirasidar was a hereditary holder of village land in south India who paid the land revenue to the state.
So the correct answer is 2 and 3 only.

Source: Bipan Chandra, History of Modern India; NCERT Class XII, Themes in Indian History Part III

Cheap machine-made British goods flooded India after 1813, and Indian cloth faced high duties in Britain. Because of this, the handloom and handicraft industries declined sharply.
Machines came to India's textile industry only from the 1850s. Railways started in 1853, which is after the first half of the century. British goods entered India at low duties, not heavy ones.

Source: NCERT Class XII, Themes in Indian History Part III; Bipan Chandra, History of Modern India

In the mid-18th century the Company exported cotton and silk textiles from Bengal. It also exported saltpetre, used for gunpowder, and opium.
Raw cotton and oil-seeds became major exports only in the 19th century. Sugar, salt, zinc and lead were not staple exports. Tea exports began later, and gold and silver were imports to Bengal.

Source: Bipan Chandra, History of Modern India

Curzon partitioned Bengal on 16 October 1905. Strong protests followed under the Swadeshi movement.
At the Delhi Durbar in December 1911, King George V announced the annulment of the partition. Bengal was reunited, and the capital moved from Calcutta to Delhi.
The First World War began in 1914, so it did not end the partition. Civil Disobedience began in 1930. The 1947 partition was a different event.
Remember: Partition annulled in 1911.

Source: Bipan Chandra, India's Struggle for Independence

The Ilbert Bill was introduced in 1883 under Viceroy Lord Ripon. It was named after Courtenay Ilbert, the law member.
It allowed Indian judges and magistrates to try European British subjects. Until then, they could not.
Europeans in India protested strongly, and the bill was diluted.
The Arms Act of 1878 dealt with arms, and the Vernacular Press Act of 1878 with Indian language papers. The cotton duty was removed in 1879.
Remember: Ilbert Bill, 1883, Ripon.

Source: UPSC CSE Prelims 2013 question(key: c)

Home Charges were the payments India made in Britain. They were met from Indian revenues.
Statement 1 is correct. They included the cost of running the India Office in London.
Statement 2 is correct. They included salaries and pensions of British civil and military staff, and interest on debt and guaranteed railway capital.
Statement 3 is not part of the standard list of Home Charges. The costs of wars were charged under military expenditure.
Remember: Home Charges were paid in sterling in London.

Source: Bipan Chandra, India's Struggle for Independence; Spectrum, A Brief History of Modern India

The English got a firman from Jahangir in 1613 to set up a factory at Surat.
The Company had reached Surat in 1608 through Captain Hawkins, and Sir Thomas Roe later secured trading rights at the Mughal court.
Akbar was the emperor when the Company was formed in 1600, but no factory was set up then.
Shahjahan and Aurangzeb ruled after the first factory was already working.
Remember: Surat 1613 was the first English factory; Masulipatnam (1611) was the first in South India.

Source: Spectrum, A Brief History of Modern India, Advent of Europeans

Emperor Jahangir issued a farman in 1613 allowing the English to set up a factory at Surat.
Bangalore was never an early English trading post.
Madras was founded in 1639-40, when Francis Day got land from a local ruler.
Masulipatnam had an English factory from 1611, which is earlier than 1613 and was granted by the Golconda ruler, not the Mughal emperor.
Remember: Surat 1613 is the first permanent English factory in India.

Source: Spectrum, A Brief History of Modern India, Advent of Europeans

Statement 1 is incorrect. In the Third Battle of Panipat (1761) Abdali defeated the Marathas. Ibrahim Lodi died in the First Battle of Panipat (1526).
Statement 2 is incorrect. Tipu Sultan died in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War in 1799.
Statement 3 is correct. Mir Jafar secretly agreed with Clive to betray Siraj-ud-Daula at Plassey in 1757.
Remember: The Third Anglo-Mysore War ended with the Treaty of Seringapatam (1792).

Source: Spectrum, A Brief History of Modern India

Pair a is incorrect. Mir Jafar and Clive were linked to Plassey (1757). Buxar (1764) was fought by Mir Qasim, Shuja-ud-Daula and Shah Alam II against the Company.
Pair b is correct. At Wandiwash (1760) the British under Eyre Coote defeated the French under Lally.
Pair c is incorrect. Chilianwala (1849) was fought against the Sikhs, not the Marathas.
Pair d is incorrect. Khurda (1804) was an Orissa uprising, not a Nizam war.
Remember: Wandiwash ended French hopes in India.

Source: Spectrum, A Brief History of Modern India

Statement 1 is correct. Victory at Buxar in 1764 broke the combined Indian forces and confirmed British power.
Statement 2 is correct. By the 1765 treaty the Company got the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.
This gave it control of revenue and so of the province.
Remember: Plassey began Company power, but Buxar made it secure.

Source: Bipan Chandra, History of Modern India

A. Treaty of Allahabad is of 1765, so A matches 4.
B. Treaty of Mangalore is of 1784, so B matches 2.
C. Treaty of Salbai is of 1782, so C matches 1.
D. Treaty of Madras is of 1769, so D matches 3.
The correct code is 4 2 1 3.
Remember: Salbai ended the First Anglo-Maratha War; Mangalore ended the Second Mysore War.

Source: Spectrum, A Brief History of Modern India

A. First Carnatic War was ended by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748), so 4.
B. Third Carnatic War was ended by the Treaty of Paris (1763), so 1.
C. Second Carnatic War ended without a clear result and a treaty of 1755, so 3.
D. First Mysore War (1767-69) ended in the Treaty of Madras on Haider Ali's terms, so the British lost: 2.
The code is 4 1 3 2.
Remember: Treaty of Madras (1769) bound each side to help the other against attack.

Source: Spectrum, A Brief History of Modern India

Pair a is incorrect. In the First Mysore War Haider Ali forced the British to the Treaty of Madras (1769).
Pair b is incorrect. The Second War (1780-84) ended without a clear winner, with the Treaty of Mangalore.
Pair c is incorrect. Tipu lost the Third War and gave up about half his territory by the Treaty of Seringapatam (1792).
Pair d is correct. Tipu died fighting at Seringapatam in May 1799.
Remember: Wellesley was Governor-General in the Fourth War.

Source: Spectrum, A Brief History of Modern India

Pair 1 is correct. Cornwallis introduced the Permanent Settlement in 1793.
Pair 2 is correct. Wellesley started the Subsidiary Alliance system.
Pair 3 is wrong. The Anglo-Nepal War of 1814-16 was fought under Lord Hastings, not Sir John Shore.
Pair 4 is correct. Hastings fought the Third Anglo-Maratha War in 1817-19.
Remember: the Treaty of Sugauli ended the Anglo-Nepal War.

Source: Spectrum, A Brief History of Modern India

Lord Wellesley fought the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War in 1799, in which Tipu Sultan died.
Awadh was annexed in 1856 under Dalhousie, not Ellenborough.
Sindh was annexed in 1843 under Ellenborough, not Dalhousie.
The Third Anglo-Maratha War was fought under Hastings, not Sir John Shore.
Remember: Seringapatam fell on 4 May 1799.

Source: Spectrum, A Brief History of Modern India

Statement 1 is correct as per the exam key. The Portuguese set up a settlement at Pondicherry around 1521.
Statement 2 is incorrect. The Dutch and the Danes also held Pondicherry before the French took it permanently in 1674.
Statement 3 is incorrect. The English captured Pondicherry several times, for example in 1761 and 1778.
So only statement 1 is correct.
Remember: Francois Martin founded French Pondicherry in 1674.

Source: Spectrum, A Brief History of Modern India