UPSC Prelims 2024 · GS Paper I: With reference to revenue collection by Cornwallis, consider the following statements :1. Under the…

UPSC dropped this question, so no answer was counted. Learn the facts anyway. Statement 1 is wrong in its premise: the Ryotwari system was the work of Thomas Munro and Alexander Read in Madras (and later Bombay), not Cornwallis, and it did not give peasants a fixed remission for bad harvests. Statement 2 is right: under Cornwallis's Permanent Settlement (1793) in Bengal, a zamindar who missed the payment date, under the "sunset law", lost his estate at auction. On the facts, option (b) would fit.

Notice the third system: the Mahalwari settlement, made with whole village communities, by Holt Mackenzie in the North-Western Provinces. The harsh sunset law ruined many old zamindar families within a few decades.

UPSC dropped this question from evaluation; there is no official answer.

The rate helped remittances and India's creditworthiness (a). The Hilton-Young Commission (1926) fixed the rupee at 1s 6d, against the 1s 4d Indian business wanted. A dearer rupee made the Home Charges and other remittances to Britain cheaper to pay in rupees and kept India's credit good in London. Option (c) is wrong: Indian exporters, cotton included, lost out, since a dear rupee makes exports costly. Option (b) is wrong: helping Indian importers was not the aim. Option (d) is wrong: the issue was the sterling rate, not gold.

Notice the nationalist anger: Purshotamdas Thakurdas wrote a dissent, and the "ratio controversy" fed economic nationalism. The commission also proposed a central bank, leading to the RBI (1935).

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Option (c) is the correct description (c). Bardoli (1928, Surat district) was Vallabhbhai Patel's no-revenue campaign against a 22% land revenue hike. The Eka (unity) movement of 1921–22 rose against rents charged above the recorded amount. Option (a) is wrong: Congress started Eka, but under Madari Pasi it moved outside Congress control. Option (b) is wrong: Eka was led by peasants against taluqdars, and Bardoli was by landholding peasants. Option (d) is wrong: Eka was in Hardoi, Bahraich and Sitapur, and Bardoli is in Gujarat, not Saurashtra.

Notice that Bardoli's women gave Patel the title "Sardar". The Maxwell-Broomfield inquiry cut the hike to 6.03%, a clear win for the peasants.

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Factors 1, 2 and 4 contributed (b). Bose beat Gandhi's choice, Pattabhi Sitaramayya, at Tripuri (1939). Factor 1 is right: Gandhi then held back, Bose could not form a Working Committee, and he resigned. Factor 2 is right: the Congress Left was split and did not back him. Factor 4 is right: CSP leaders like Jayaprakash Narayan and M.N. Roy's supporters put Congress unity first. Factor 3 is not in UPSC's key. So in May 1939 Bose founded the Forward Bloc inside Congress.

Notice what came next: Rajendra Prasad became Congress president. Bose escaped India in 1941, went to Germany and Japan, and led the Indian National Army (Azad Hind Fauj) from 1943.

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Statements 2 and 3 are correct (a). Statement 2 is right: the Summary Settlement of 1856 treated taluqdars as middlemen, outsiders with no real claim to the land. Statement 3 is right: the British settled revenue directly with the village holders, removing taluqdars. Statement 1 is wrong: taluqdars were disarmed and their forts pulled down, not allowed to keep them. So options (b), (c) and (d) fail.

Notice the result: many angry taluqdars then led the 1857 revolt in Awadh, where Begum Hazrat Mahal led the fight at Lucknow. Awadh was annexed by Dalhousie in 1856 on the ground of "misgovernment", not the Doctrine of Lapse. After 1857, the British reversed course and restored taluqdars.

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