UGC NET History Practice Question

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

Direct assessment with individual cultivators, revised periodically every 20 to 30 years ✓

Permanent fixed revenue rate locked in perpetuity

Collective village group tax payment

Sharecropping partition on threshing floor

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.

Who authored the seminal essay titled The External Drain which analyzed Indian capital loss to European investments?

M.G. Ranade ✓

G.K. Gokhale

D.E. Wacha

K.T. Telang

M.G. Ranade's essay on the "External Drain" analyzed how European-controlled investment structures channeled Indian capital and returns outward — part of the broader Bombay school of early Indian economic nationalist writing alongside Naoroji, Dutt, Gokhale, and Wacha.

The Rupee-Sterling Exchange Rate controversy during the 1920s saw Indian nationalist leaders demand a lower exchange rate of 1s. 4d. primarily because:

An overvalued rupee (1s. 6d.) hit Indian exporters and favored British industrial imports into India ✓

It favored foreign investment in railways

It increased tax collection in gold

It reduced British civil servant pensions

Nationalist economists argued the officially set, overvalued exchange rate (1s. 6d.) made Indian exports less competitive while making British imports artificially cheap — the demand for a lower, more realistic rate (1s. 4d.) reflected genuine economic self-interest, not just abstract nationalist principle.

The primary cause of the Great Indian Agricultural Depression during the 1930s was:

Collapse of international agricultural commodity prices in global markets ✓

Universal failure of monsoon rains across Asia

Sudden abolition of cash revenue collection

Complete banning of commercial cash crops

The 1930s agricultural depression in India was driven primarily by the collapse of global agricultural commodity prices during the worldwide Great Depression — Indian peasants, having been pushed toward export-oriented cash crops, were especially exposed to this global price collapse.

Which colonial land revenue settlement covered approximately 51% of British Indian territory, predominantly in Bombay and Madras Presidencies?

Ryotwari Settlement ✓

Permanent Settlement

Mahalwari Settlement

Malguzari Settlement

Ryotwari was the most geographically extensive revenue system, covering roughly 51% of British Indian territory, chiefly in Bombay and Madras — a useful figure for comparing the relative scale of the three main revenue systems (Permanent ~19%, Mahalwari ~30%, Ryotwari ~51%).

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This question is part of our free Unit-Wise mock test series, drawn from the same real question bank used across every UGC NET History mock test on this site. For structured, chapter-by-chapter notes covering everything these questions test, see our UGC NET History Notes, or try the History Glossary Flashcard Quiz for daily term-by-term practice.