British Rule In India — Part 1 MCQs with Explanations

Warren Hastings (6 December 1732 – 22 August 1818), an English statesman, was the first Governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal), the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and thereby the first de facto Governor-General of India from 1773 to 1785. The first governor-general in India (of Bengal) was Warren Hastings, the first official governor-general of British India was Lord William Bentinck, and the first governor-general of the Dominion of India was Lord Mountbatten.

Warren Hastings is the first British Governor General of Bengal. He took the charge as a Governor General on 20th October,1773.

Lord Canning was the first Viceroy of India. The title of Viceroy was created in 1858 after the mutiny of 1857. Before 1858, East India Company was ruling large parts of India and the head of administration of the East India Company was called Governor General.

After the year 1853, a substantial amount of British capital had been invested in the railways.

The British Governor General and Viceroy who served for the longest period in India was Lord Dalhousie . He held the position from 1848 to 1856 , which amounts to a total of 8 years . During his tenure, Lord Dalhousie implemented various significant policies and reforms, including the Doctrine of Lapse and the construction of railways. Option A: Lord Irwin served as Viceroy from 1926 to 1931. Option C: Lord Curzon served as Viceroy from 1899 to 1905. Option D: Lord Linlithgow served as Viceroy from 1936 to 1943, which is a period of 7 years. Therefore, the correct option is Option B: Lord Dalhousie , who served for the longest period of 8 years as Governor-General of India.

The East India Company was incorporated by royal charter on December 31, 1600. It was an English company formed for the exploitation of trade with East and Southeast Asia and India during the reign of Mughal Emperor Akbar (1556-1605).

The British India Society (1839): Founded in London with the efforts of William Adam, one of the friends of Raja Ram Mohan Roy. He along with George Thompson, William Ednis, and Major General Briggs organised meetings and enlightened people about the miserable conditions in India.

The All-India Muslim League failed to form the government in any province. The Congress ministries resigned in October and November 1939, in protest against Viceroy Lord Linlithgow's action of declaring India to be a belligerent in the Second World War without consulting the Indian people.

In 1767 Mysore was a powerful state under Hyder Ali. In 1769, the first Anglo-Mysore war was fought in which Haider Ali defeated the British and Treaty of Madras was signed between them. Haider Ali occupied almost the whole of Carnatic.

Regulating Act, (1773), legislation passed by the British Parliament for the regulation of the British East India Company's Indian territories, mainly in Bengal. The act was amended and the government of India was recast by Prime Minister William Pitt's India Act of 1784.

The Vernacular Press Act, which was enacted in 1878 during the viceroyalty of Lord Lytton, aimed to suppress the Indian vernacular press. However, it was repealed by Lord Ripon in 1882. Lord Ripon's administration was marked by several liberal reforms, and the repeal of the Vernacular Press Act was one of them.

The Charter Act of 1813 was an important legislation that brought significant changes to the governance and operations of the British East India Company. Key provisions of this act included: 1. Trade Monopoly: The act ended the East India Company's monopoly on trade with China. This opened up trade opportunities with China to other British traders and merchants, thereby reducing the Company's exclusive control over this lucrative trade. 2. Renewal of Charter: While the act did not revoke the East India Company's charter, it renewed it for another 20 years, thereby continuing its authority to administer British India. Option A: The Charter Act of 1793 focused more on the internal administration of British India and did not specifically address the monopoly of trade with China. Option C: The Charter Act of 1833 introduced reforms in governance and administration but did not specifically end the trade monopoly with China. Option D: The Charter Act of 1853 made further reforms but did not specifically address the monopoly of trade with China. Therefore, the correct answer is Charter Act of 1813 , which ended the East India Company's monopoly of trade with China and opened it to broader British commerce.

Goa is not among the regions where the Britishers had first set up trading posts.

Dadabhai Naoroji's work focused on the drain of wealth from India to England during colonial rule of British in India. One of the reasons that the Drain theory is attributed to Naoroji is his decision to estimate the net national profit of India, and by extension, the effect that colonisation has on the country.

All of these four leaders fought against British in 1857 Revolt -Kunwar Singh- Bihar, Tanitia Tope- Gwalior, Nana Saheb- Kanpur, Maulavi Ahmaduallah- Faizabad.

According to the terms of the treaty of Srirangapattanam, Malabar was ceded to the British.

Treaty of Amritsar, (April 25, 1809), pact concluded between Charles T. Metcalfe, representing the British East India Company, and Ranjit Singh, head of the Sikh kingdom of Punjab. The British wanted a defensive treaty against the French and control of Punjab to the Sutlej River.

When the East India Company came into existence, England was ruled by the Stuarts.

Lord Curzon, the viceroy of India decided to partition Bengal for administrative purposes, creating a new province of East Bengal and Assam, with a population of 31 million people and with its capital at Dhaka.

The Indian Rebellion of 1857 is also called the Indian Mutiny, the Sepoy Mutiny, North India's First War of Independence or North India's first struggle for independence. It began on 10 May 1857 at Meerut, as a mutiny of sepoys of the British East India Company's army.

From 1615 to 1618, he was ambassador to the court at Agra, India, of the Great Mughal Ruler, Jahangir. The principal object of the mission was to obtain protection for the East India Company`s factory at Surat. At the Mughal court, Roe allegedly became a favorite of Jahangir and may have been his drinking partner.

Birsa Munda was a great tribal leader belonging to the Munda Adivasi, the movement operate against British in Chhota Nagpur (Jharkhand) region.

The single biggest item of British capital investment in India was Railways.

The Charter Act of 1833 is a landmark legislation in the history of British rule in India. It marked the final step in centralizing the administration of British territories in India. Before 1833, the Governor of Bengal was known as the Governor-General of Bengal , with limited authority over other presidencies like Bombay and Madras. The Charter Act of 1833 changed this by designating the Governor-General of Bengal as the Governor-General of India . This provided him with complete control and authority over all British India, centralizing legislative and executive powers. Lord William Bentinck became the first Governor-General of India under this Act. Pitt’s India Act, 1784: Established a Board of Control to regulate the East India Company’s affairs but did not create the post of Governor-General of India. Charter Act, 1813: Ended the monopoly of the East India Company in trade (except trade in tea and with China), but did not change the Governor-General’s designation. Regulating Act, 1773: Created the post of Governor-General of Bengal but not Governor-General of India. Warren Hastings was the first Governor-General of Bengal. Therefore, it was the Charter Act of 1833 that made the Governor of Bengal the Governor-General of India.

The government of India Act (1858) also known as the act for Good Government of India transferred the power to the British crown from East India company.

The Act for the first time introduced local representation in the Indian government. Rule of company in India ended and the rule of Crown started. The three presidencies (Madras, Bombay and Bengal) were three separate presidencies brought into a common system.

The "Treaty of Rajpurghat" was signed on December 25, 1805, between Holkar and the British . This treaty marked an important event during the Second Anglo-Maratha War , which was a series of conflicts between the British East India Company and the Maratha Empire. The treaty was signed between Yashwantrao Holkar , the Maratha ruler, and the British forces led by Lord Lake . The treaty resulted in the cessation of hostilities between the two sides and established terms for peace. As a result of the treaty, Holkar agreed to cede territory and pay a substantial indemnity to the British. Therefore, the correct option is Option B: British , as the "Treaty of Rajpurghat" was signed between Holkar and the British during the Second Anglo-Maratha War.

British subjects in 1873 had been exempted from trial by Indian magistrates, and in cases involving death or transportation they could only be tried by a high court. But by 1883 the viceroy, Lord Ripon, proposed to make British subjects amenable to sessions courts, over which Indians were now senior enough in the civil service to preside. This proposal as embodied in the Ilbert Bill provoked furious protests, especially among the Calcutta (Kolkata) European business community and the Bengal indigo planters, and there was covert sympathy from many officials.

The Peshwaship was a prominent administrative position under the Maratha Empire, serving as the de facto head of government. Baji Rao-II was the last Peshwa of the Maratha Empire, whose rule saw increasing tensions and conflicts with the British East India Company. In 1818, after the defeat of Baji Rao-II in the Third Anglo-Maratha War, the British formally abolished the position of Peshwa, ending the Maratha Confederacy. This event marked a significant step in the British consolidation of power in India, leading to greater control over Indian territories.

By virtue of the Doctrine of Lapse, Lord Dalhousie annexed Sambalpur in 1849, as Narayan Singh had no male successor to succeed him. During the uprising of 1857 the sepoys set Surendra Sai and his brother Udyant Sai free. The resistance to British continued in Sambalpur under the leadership of Surendra Sai.

The Naval Ratings mutiny took place in 1946. Basically, it started as the sailors were dissatisfied with the food they were given. This snowballed into a mutiny against British rule. The mutiny started in Bombay Dock.

In Kerala, temples are managed by Devaswom Board,which comes under the government of Kerala.

After the Punjab disturbances, O'Dyer was relieved of his office by the government of Britain.

The capital of British India was transferred from Calcutta (now Kolkata) to Delhi in the year 1911 . The announcement to shift the capital was made during the Delhi Durbar (a grand imperial gathering) held in December 1911 to commemorate the coronation of King George V . The shift of the capital was a part of the larger plan to move the administrative center closer to the northern parts of India. The new capital in Delhi was known as New Delhi and was designed by the architect Edwin Lutyens . It became the center of British colonial administration in India. Therefore, the correct option is Option A: 1911 , when the capital of British India was transferred from Calcutta to Delhi.

To declare the assumption of the Government of India by the crown a Durbar was held at Allahabad on November 1, 1858, by the Viceroy Lord Canning. Queen`s proclamation was read by Lord Canning. As per the proclamation, the administration of India came into the direct hands of British Government.

Agriculture was mainly invested by British during colonial period, the raw material related to agriculture was compulsory for industry during colonial period.

The British attitude towards granting India independence changed partly owing to the Change in the government of the UK, Impact of World War II, Growing tide of Indian Nationalism.

In 1650, Gabriel Boughton an employee of the Company obtained a license for trade in Bengal. An English factory was set up in 1651 at Hugli.

Its true that Gandhi did have a compromising attitude towards the British during WWII and even stated that "We do not seek independence out of Britain's ruin". Though Gandhi was the most influential figure in the political scenario at the time, it's important to remember that simply because he wanted to maintain a compromising attittude towards the British, many of the other political leaders of the time did not wish to do so.

The East India Company had taken Bombay from Charles II. On 21 May 1662, the marriage treaty of Charles II of England and Catherine of Braganza, daughter of King John IV of Portugal, placed Bombay in possession of the British Empire, as part of dowry of Catherine to Charles.