Which one of the following statements does not apply to the system of Subsidiary Alliance introduced by Lord Wellesley?
- A.To maintain a large standing army at other's expense
- B.To keep India safe from Napoleonic danger
- C.To secure a fixed income for the Company
- D.To establish British paramountcy over the Indian States
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is C, To secure a fixed income for the Company. Earning a steady income was not the purpose of the Subsidiary Alliance. Lord Wellesley, Governor-General from 1798 to 1805, used the system to bring Indian states under British control without fighting a war for each. A ruler who accepted it had to keep a British force in his territory and pay for it in cash or by ceding land, accept a British Resident at his court, give up his own foreign relations and dismiss Europeans of other nations from his service. The Nizam of Hyderabad was the first to sign, in 1798, followed by Mysore after 1799, Awadh in 1801 and the Peshwa through the Treaty of Bassein in 1802. Option A is wrong because the system did let the Company keep a large army paid for by the Indian rulers. Option B is wrong because shutting out the French, then led by Napoleon, was one of its declared aims. Option D is wrong because making the Company the paramount power over the states was its central result. Exam tip: Subsidiary Alliance, Wellesley 1798, first signed by the Nizam of Hyderabad.
Practice Questions
View allThe plan of Sir Stafford Cripps envisaged that after the Second World War
- A.India should be granted complete independence.
- B.India should be partitioned into two before granting independence
- C.India should be made a republic with the condition that she will join the Commonwealth
- D.India should be given Dominion status
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The Cripps Mission of March 1942 offered India Dominion status after the Second World War, not full independence. Sir Stafford Cripps, a member of Churchill's War Cabinet, came as Japan advanced in South-East Asia.
Read the full explanation →What was the main reason for the split in the Indian National Congress at Surat in 1907?
- A.Introduction of communalism into Indian politics by Lord Minto
- B.Extremists' lack of faith in the capacity of the moderates to negotiate with the British Government
- C.Foundation of Muslim League
- D.Aurobindo Ghosh's inability to be elected as the President of the Indian National Congress
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The Surat split of December 1907 came from a basic difference in method.
Read the full explanation →Which among the following events happened earliest?
- A.Swami Dayanand established Arya Samaj.
- B.Dinabandhu Mitra wrote Neeldarpan.
- C.Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay wrote Anandmath.
- D.Satyendranath Tagore became the first Indian to succeed in the Indian Civil Services Examination.
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Neeldarpan, the Bengali play about the cruelty of European indigo planters towards the peasants of Bengal, was written by Dinabandhu Mitra in 1858–59 and published in 1860, earlier than the other three events.
Read the full explanation →In 1920, which of the following changed its name to "Swarajya Sabha"?
- A.All India Home Rule League
- B.Hindu Mahasabha
- C.South Indian Liberal Federation
- D.The Servants of India Society
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In 1920 Mahatma Gandhi became president of the All India Home Rule League, and under him it was renamed the Swarajya Sabha.
Read the full explanation →Maize (makka) was introduced into India via
- A.America and England
- B.Africa and Spain
- C.France and Russia
- D.Portugal and Italy
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Maize is a crop of the Americas, and it reached India in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries via Africa and Spain; by the seventeenth century it had become one of the major crops of western India.
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