Indian History Quiz: British Expansion and the Governors-General

The correct answer is D, 1782. The Treaty of Salbai ended the First Anglo-Maratha War, fought during the term of Warren Hastings. By its terms Salsette remained with the Company, Raghunathrao's claim to the Peshwaship was dropped and Madhavrao II was recognised as Peshwa. It gave the British about twenty years of peace with the Marathas.

Option A is wrong because 1817 is the year the Third Anglo-Maratha War began under Lord Hastings, which ended Maratha power altogether. Option B is wrong because 1769 is the year of the Treaty of Madras, which closed the First Anglo-Mysore War against Haidar Ali. Option C is wrong because 1800 saw no such treaty; the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War had ended a year earlier in 1799 with the death of Tipu Sultan at Seringapatam. Only 1782 matches Salbai.

The correct answer is B, 1764. The Battle of Buxar was fought on 22 October 1764 in present-day Bihar, where the Company's army under Hector Munro defeated the combined forces of Mir Qasim of Bengal, Shuja-ud-Daulah of Awadh and the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II. Unlike Plassey it was a genuine military victory and it made the Company the real power in eastern India.

Option A is wrong because 1757 is the year of the Battle of Plassey against Siraj-ud-Daulah. Option C is wrong because 1765 is the year of the Treaty of Allahabad, which followed Buxar and gave the Company the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, but no battle was fought that year. Option D is wrong because 1772 is the year Warren Hastings became Governor of Bengal and ended the Dual Government, again not a battle year.

The correct answer is C, Warren Hastings. The Regulating Act of 1773 changed the designation of the Governor of Bengal to Governor-General of Bengal and gave him a Council of four members, and Warren Hastings, who was already Governor, became the first to hold the new title. The same Act provided for a Supreme Court at Calcutta, which was established in 1774.

Option A is wrong because Robert Clive was Governor of Bengal and the architect of the Dual Government, but the office of Governor-General did not exist in his time. Option B is wrong because Lord Cornwallis came later, in 1786, and is remembered for the Permanent Settlement. Option D is wrong because Lord William Bentinck was the first Governor-General of India, a title created by the Charter Act of 1833, which is the classic trap in this question.

The correct answer is B, Lord Cornwallis. The Permanent Settlement, also called the Zamindari system, was introduced in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa in 1793. It recognised the zamindars as owners of the land and fixed their revenue demand for all time, so that the state gained a certain income but lost any share in rising production. John Shore did the groundwork for it before Cornwallis gave it effect.

Option A is wrong because Warren Hastings had tried a five-yearly and then an annual farming of revenue, not a permanent one. Option C is wrong because Lord Wellesley is associated with the Subsidiary Alliance and the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, not with revenue settlement. Option D is wrong because Lord Dalhousie came half a century later and is remembered for the Doctrine of Lapse, railways and the telegraph.

The correct answer is C, the Nizam of Hyderabad. He signed the Subsidiary Alliance in 1798, the first year of Wellesley's term, agreeing to disband his French-trained troops and to maintain a British force at his own expense. Under the system a ruler also surrendered control of his foreign relations and accepted a British Resident at his court, which reduced him to a protected but dependent prince.

Option A is wrong because Awadh accepted the alliance only in 1801, three years later, and had to cede Rohilkhand and the lower Doab to pay for it. Option B is wrong because the Peshwa signed the Treaty of Bassein in 1802, after being driven out of Poona by the Holkars. Option D is wrong because Mysore came under the arrangement in 1799, after the defeat and death of Tipu Sultan in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War.

The correct answer is D, Awadh. Awadh was annexed by Lord Dalhousie in 1856, but the ground given was alleged misgovernment by Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, not the absence of a natural heir. It is therefore counted separately from the lapse annexations, and this distinction is the point of the question.

Option A is wrong because Satara was the first state taken under the Doctrine of Lapse, in 1848. Option B is wrong because Jhansi was annexed in 1853 after the death of Raja Gangadhar Rao, when the claim of the adopted son of Rani Lakshmibai was refused, a refusal that made her a leader of the Revolt of 1857. Option C is wrong because Nagpur was annexed in 1854 on the same principle after the death of Raghoji III of the Bhonsle family.

The correct answer is B, Lord William Bentinck. Regulation XVII of 4 December 1829 declared sati illegal in the Bengal Presidency and punishable by the criminal courts, and it was extended to Madras and Bombay in 1830. Bentinck acted with the support of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, whose campaign had built public opinion against the practice.

Option A is wrong because Lord Cornwallis left India in 1793 and dealt with revenue and judicial reform rather than social legislation. Option C is wrong because Lord Canning came much later, held office during the Revolt of 1857 and became the first Viceroy in 1858. Option D is wrong because Lord Hastings, Governor-General from 1813 to 1823, is remembered for the Treaty of Sugauli and the Third Anglo-Maratha War, not for the ban on sati.

The correct answer is C, Bombay and Thane. The first passenger railway line in India, about thirty-four kilometres long, was opened on 16 April 1853 during the term of Lord Dalhousie, who had set out the plan for an Indian railway network in his Railway Minute of 1853. Dalhousie is therefore called the father of Indian railways.

Option A is wrong because the Howrah to Hooghly line opened the following year, in 1854, and was eastern India's first, not the country's. Option B is wrong because the Madras to Arcot line came in 1856 and was the first in the south. Option D is wrong because Calcutta to Agra was the route of the first telegraph line, also started by Dalhousie, and this pairing of the railway with the telegraph is the usual trap.

The correct answer is B, Lord Canning. The Government of India Act of 1858 ended the rule of the East India Company and transferred power to the British Crown, so the Governor-General was additionally styled Viceroy, the personal representative of the Crown. Canning was in office at that moment, having already faced the Revolt of 1857, and so became both the last Governor-General of the Company and the first Viceroy.

Option A is wrong because Lord Dalhousie left India in 1856, two years before the office of Viceroy existed. Option C is wrong because Lord Lytton came in 1876 and is remembered for the Vernacular Press Act and the Delhi Durbar of 1877. Option D is wrong because Lord Ripon came in 1880 and is remembered for repealing the Vernacular Press Act and for the Local Self-Government Resolution of 1882.

The correct answer is A, it created the office of Governor-General of India. The Charter Act of 1833 made the Governor-General of Bengal the Governor-General of India with authority over the Bombay and Madras Presidencies, took away their power to make laws, and added a law member to the Council, a post first held by Lord Macaulay. It also ended the Company's commercial activities and made it a purely administrative body.

Option B is wrong because the Supreme Court at Calcutta was provided by the Regulating Act of 1773 and set up in 1774. Option C is wrong because the office of Secretary of State for India was created, not abolished, and that too in 1858. Option D is wrong because the Permanent Settlement was a revenue measure of Lord Cornwallis in 1793 and had nothing to do with this Act.

The correct answer is B, Lord Dalhousie. Charles Wood, the President of the Board of Control, sent the Despatch in 1854 while Dalhousie was Governor-General. It recommended a department of education in every province, universities at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, a network of schools from the village to the college, grants in aid to private schools and the use of the vernacular languages at the lower levels.

Option A is wrong because Lord William Bentinck is linked to Macaulay's Minute of 1835, which made English the medium of higher education, not to the Despatch. Option C is wrong because Lord Auckland is remembered for the First Anglo-Afghan War and left India in 1842. Option D is wrong because Lord Curzon came in 1899 and is associated with the Indian Universities Act of 1904 and the partition of Bengal in 1905.

The correct answer is A, the Treaty of Allahabad. Signed in 1765 after the Battle of Buxar, it was concluded by Robert Clive with the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II and with Shuja-ud-Daulah of Awadh. Shah Alam II granted the Company the Diwani, the right to collect and administer the revenue of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, in return for an annual payment, and this grant is treated as the legal beginning of British rule in India.

Option B is wrong because the Treaty of Bassein of 1802 brought the Peshwa Baji Rao II under the Subsidiary Alliance. Option C is wrong because the Treaty of Sugauli of 1816 ended the Anglo-Nepalese War and gave the British Kumaon, Garhwal and part of the Terai. Option D is wrong because the Treaty of Madras of 1769 ended the First Anglo-Mysore War with Haidar Ali on terms of mutual restoration.