India's first railway line, opened in 1853, ran between which two places?

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.