Question 1

The Famine Code in India was formulated based on the recommendations of which commission set up in 1878?

Accepted Answer

Strachey Commission — The Strachey Commission's 1878-80 recommendations directly shaped the Indian Famine Code, systematizing (though not always adequately funding or implementing) official famine relief procedures across British India.

Question 2

The devastating Great Bengal Famine of 1943 resulted in the loss of millions of lives primarily due to:

Accepted Answer

Wartime grain requisitions, Japanese occupation of Burma interrupting rice imports, and colonial misdistribution policies — The 1943 Bengal Famine resulted from a combination of wartime disruption (loss of Burmese rice imports after Japanese occupation), military grain requisitioning, and serious failures of colonial distribution and relief policy — NOT primarily a natural drought, a crucial distinction historians (notably Amartya Sen's later analysis) emphasize.

Question 3

The Managing Agency System in colonial Indian industrial development represented:

Accepted Answer

British merchant houses controlling and managing multiple Indian industrial companies and corporate enterprises — The Managing Agency System let a small number of (largely British) merchant houses control and manage numerous separate industrial companies simultaneously — a distinctive and dominant feature of colonial Indian corporate/industrial organization, concentrating real economic control in relatively few hands.

Question 4

Under the Charter Act of 1833, the East India Company's monopoly over trade was:

Accepted Answer

Completely abolished, including its monopoly on trade with China and trade in tea — The Charter Act of 1833 completely stripped the East India Company of its remaining commercial trading monopolies (including China trade and tea), converting it purely into an administrative/governing body rather than a trading concern — a major structural shift in the Company's role in India.

Question 5

What was the main revenue assessment approach adopted by the British under the Ryotwari system?

Accepted Answer

Direct assessment with individual cultivators, revised periodically every 20 to 30 years — Ryotwari settled revenue directly with individual cultivators, with rates periodically revised (typically every 20-30 years) rather than fixed permanently — a structural contrast to Bengal's Permanent Settlement, allowing the state to capture rising land values over time, unlike the Zamindari arrangement.

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