Administration MCQ Quiz - Objective Question with Answer for Administration - Download Free PDF

The correct answer is 1834 A.D.

Key Points

• The area of present-day Uttar Pradesh was gradually acquired by the East India Company (a British trading company) over a period of about 75 years, from the last quarter of the 18th century to the mid-19th century.
• Territories wrested from a number of powers in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent—the nawabs, the Sindhias of Gwalior (now in Madhya Pradesh), and the Gurkhas of Nepal—were first placed within the British province known as the Bengal Presidency, but in 1834 they were separated to form the North-Western Provinces (initially called the Agra Presidency).

The correct answer is 1850Key Points

• The Lex Loci Act of 1850 was passed by the British government of India, allowing converts to Christianity to inherit their ancestral property.
• This law was passed to make it easier for Indians to convert to Christianity. 
• The Lex Loci Act of 1850 allowed Hindus who converted to Christianity to inherit their ancestral property.
• Before this law was passed, it was not permitted for converts to inherit ancestral property.
• Some people felt that the law went against Hindu religious law of property.
• In 1830, Christian missionaries were allowed to own land and property, and to operate freely in the East India Company's territories.

Additional Information

• The new Act allowed Hindus who converted from the Hindu religion to another religion equal rights under the new law, especially in the case of inheritance.
• The Caste Disabilities Removal Act, of 1850 was passed to make the conversion to Christianity easier.
• This law allowed an Indian who had converted to Christianity to inherit the property of his ancestors.
• Many Indians began to feel that the British were destroying their religion, their social customs, and their traditional way of life.
• There were of course other Indians who wanted to change existing social practices.

The correct answer is - Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A.

Key Points

• Charter Act of 1813
  • The Charter Act of 1813 was a significant legislation passed by the British Parliament.
  • It marked the end of the British East India Company’s monopoly on trade with India, except for the trade in tea and trade with China.
  • This act allowed other British merchants to trade with India under a licensing system.
• Opening of India's Economy
  • The act did not open India's economy to other European nations directly.
  • It primarily allowed British merchants to participate in Indian trade.
  • The broader opening to other European nations occurred later, as the British Empire consolidated its control over India.

Additional Information

• Context of the Act
  • The British East India Company had enjoyed a monopoly on Indian trade since its establishment in the early 17th century.
  • By the early 19th century, there was increasing pressure from other British merchants to end this monopoly.
  • The Charter Act of 1813 was a response to these pressures and part of broader economic liberalization trends.
• Impact on Indian Economy
  • The act facilitated the entry of private British merchants into Indian markets.
  • This led to increased competition and the diversification of trade activities in India.
  • However, it did not immediately lead to significant foreign European competition within Indian markets.

The correct answer is Pitt's India Act of 1784.

Key Points

• The Pitt's India Act of 1784 was introduced to address the shortcomings of the Regulating Act of 1773.
• This act established the Board of Control in England to control and supervise the administration of British India.
• The Board of Control consisted of six members, including two members of the British cabinet and was headed by the British Secretary of State.
• This act also created a dual system of governance, with the East India Company retaining its commercial functions, while the British government assumed control over political affairs.

Additional Information

• Charter Act of 1813
  • This act ended the trade monopoly of the East India Company in India, except for trade in tea and trade with China.
  • It allowed Christian missionaries to come to India and spread their religion.
  • The act also provided for the promotion of education in India and allocated funds for the same.
• Regulating Act of 1773
  • This was the first step taken by the British government to control and regulate the affairs of the East India Company in India.
  • It established a system of dual governance, where the British government and the East India Company both had a say in the administration of India.
  • The act established a Governor-General of Bengal with an executive council of four members to assist him.
• Charter Act of 1793
  • This act extended the charter of the East India Company for another 20 years.
  • It allowed the company to retain its monopoly over trade in India.
  • The act also increased the salaries of the company's officials to reduce corruption.
• Pitt's India Act of 1784
  • This act was introduced by the British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger.
  • It established the Board of Control to oversee the affairs of the East India Company in India.
  • The act created a dual system of governance, with the company retaining its commercial functions and the British government assuming control over political affairs.
  • The Board of Control consisted of six members, including two members of the British cabinet, and was headed by the British Secretary of State.

The correct answer is Robert Clive.

Key Points

• Robert Clive was a British officer and privateer who established the military and political supremacy of the East India Company in Bengal.
• He is credited with helping to establish British control over India, which lasted until Indian independence in 1947.
• James Rennel, a geographer and historian, was asked by Robert Clive to prepare a map of Hindustan.
• Rennel's map was one of the earliest detailed maps of India, and it played a significant role in the British administration and strategic planning in the region.

Additional Information

• James Rennel
  • James Rennel (1742-1830) was an English geographer, historian, and pioneer of oceanography.
  • He is often referred to as the Father of Indian Geography for his extensive surveys and maps of the Indian subcontinent.
  • His work provided critical geographical information that was used for military and administrative purposes by the British Empire.
  • Rennel's most notable work, "A Bengal Atlas," was published in 1779 and included detailed maps of Bengal and parts of Northern India.
• Robert Clive
  • Robert Clive (1725-1774) was a British military officer and a key figure in establishing British control in India.
  • He played a crucial role in the Battle of Plassey (1757), which marked the beginning of British rule in India.
  • Clive served as the Governor of Bengal and implemented significant administrative reforms to strengthen British power.
  • Despite his achievements, Clive's career was marred by controversies, including allegations of corruption and his role in the exploitation of Indian resources.
• East India Company
  • The East India Company was an English company formed for the exploitation of trade with East and Southeast Asia and India, incorporated by royal charter in 1600.
  • The company eventually came to rule large areas of India, exercising military power and assuming administrative functions.
  • It played a key role in the British colonization of India and its economy was heavily reliant on the trade of cotton, silk, indigo, salt, tea, and opium.
  • The company's rule in India ended after the Indian Rebellion of 1857, leading to the establishment of direct British rule, known as the British Raj.

The correct answer is the Rowlatt Act Enactment.

 Key PointsAbout the Rowlatt Act:

• The Rowlatt Act was passed in 1919 and became law in March 1919, the protests became more aggressive and vocal, especially in the Punjab region, where all communication systems such as Railway and the Telegraph services were disrupted.
• The "Rowlatt Act" came up against the Indians and it simply means that without any trials or proceedings they would be arrest and face deportation of any person on mere Suspicion of Sedition and Revolt in the region.
• Two of the most visible faces of this protest were Dr Saifuddin Kitchlew and Dr Satya Pal were taken into custody by the Police and secretly transported away from the area.
• For against these two arrests and dominance of the Rowlatt Act, Mahatma Gandhi started a Strike against this arrest.
• However, as the movement started by Gandhi came to be known, the "Rowlatt Satyagraha" left the British totally unmoved as they did not see the peaceful 'hartal' as a threat.

Key Points

About the Jallianwala Bagh:

• The Jallianwala Bagh on 13th April 1919.
• It was a massacre mass killing of people in Amritsar, Punjab.
• In this mass killing British Commanding officer, General Michael ó Dyer ordered shoot out on the Innocent people who gathered at Jallianwala Bagh in protest of the Rowlatt act.

Image of the Rowlatt Act:

Important Points

• Lord Chelmsford was the Viceroy of India during the Rowlatt Act.

The correct answer is Education.

Key Points:

• Charles Wood was the President of the Board of Control(Introduced through Pitt’s India Act, 1784) of English East India Company.
• He had also been the Secretary of the state of India.
• In 1854 he sent a despatch to Lord Dalhousie(the Governor-General of India at that time).
• Wood’s despatch suggested that primary schools must Adopt vernacular languages.
• Through the despatch, he also suggested that high schools use anglo-vernacular medium and that English should be the medium for college-level education.
• Hence, Wood’s Despatch is considered as ‘Magna-Carta’ of English Education in India.

Option 3 is the correct answer.

Important Points

• Indigo planting started in Bengal as early as 1777.
• It was first planted by one British Louis Bonard.
• When the British Power expanded, the Indigo planting was emphasized because of the high demand for the Blue Dye in Europe.
• The peasants were compelled to plant Indigo rather than the food Crops.
• The peasants were provided loans called 'dadon' for indigo planting which was at a very high-interest rate.
• Indigo farmers received very low returns for their crops.
• The land under Indigo degraded the land for cultivation of any further crop.
• The contract conditions under which Indigo planters kept the cultivators were harsh.
• The loan made the people indebted and resulted in a rebellion.

The correct answer is Charles Cornwallis.

Key Points

• Lord Cornwallis 
  • Lord Cornwallis was the Governor-General of Bengal when the Permanent Settlement was introduced there in 1793.
  • The permanent settlement is also known as the Permanent Settlement of Bengal.
  • It was an agreement between the British East India Company and the Landlords of Bengal to fix the land revenue.
  • Land revenue was the major source of income for the British in India.
  • Permanent Settlement was one such land revenue system.
  • It was first introduced in Bengal and Bihar and later it was introduced in Madras and Varanasi.
  • This system was also known as the Zamindari system.
  • He is known as the 'Father of Civil Services in India'.
  • He created the post of District Judge.
  • he was the first person to codify laws in 1793.

Additional Information 

• Warren Hastings
  • First Governor-General of Bengal.
  • He abolished the dual system of administration.
  • Regulating Act of 1773 and Pitt’s India Act of 1784.
  • Rohilla war in 1774.
  • He established Supreme Court in Calcutta.
  • He founded the Asiatic Society of Bengal.
  • First Anglo-Maratha War (1775-1782) ended with the Treaty of Salbai.
  • The second Anglo-Mysore war (1780-1784) ended with the Treaty of Mangalore.
• Sir John Macpherson
  • Sir John Macpherson was a British administrator in India.
  • He was the acting Governor-General of Bengal from 1785 to 1786.
• Sir John Shore
  • He introduced the first Charter act of 1793.

The correct answer is Small fixed market.

 Hint

Ganj originally meaning 'treausre' in middle persian and modern persian, now a common meaning ' treasured place ' or neighbourhood in Hindi, Bengali, and Urdu, used in names of Bazaar, mandi, store, market place, and towns in India, Bangladesh, and Nepal. 

The correct answer is 1858.

Key Points

• The ‘Crown Rule’ or the ‘Direct Rule’ by the British on the Indian subcontinent remained from 1858 to 1947.
• The area under British control was called British India and the area under indigenous rulers was known as Princely states.
• After the Indian rebellion of 1857, the control of the British India Company was transferred to the Crown of Queen Victoria.
• In 1858, lower Burma was part of British India while upper Burma became a part of it in 1886.
• Imperial Entities of India – British India (1612 – 1947)
  • East India Company (1612 – 1757)
  • Company Rule in India (1757 – 1858)
  • British Raj (1858 – 1947)
  • Princely States (1721 – 1949)
  • Partition of India (1947)

Key Points

History of British Raj (Crown Rule)

• 1858: Direct Rule of the British Crown came into force
• 1860 – 1890: Rise of INC
• 1905 – 1911: Bengal Partition and Rise of Muslim League
• 1914 – 1918: 1^st World War and Lucknow Pact
• 1915 – 1918: Return of Gandhiji to India from South Africa
• 1916 – 1919: Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms
• 1917 – 1919: Rowlatt Act
• 1919 – 1939: Jalliawala Bagh Massacre, Non-Cooperation movement and Government of India Act
• 1939 – 1945: 2^nd World War
• 1946 – 1947: Independence and Partition into India and Pakistan

The correct answer is Bombay.

Key Points

• Ryotwari system was started in Bombay and Madras.
  • Thomas Munro introduced the Ryotwari System in Bombay and Madras in 1820.
  • A direct settlement was made between the government and the cultivators under the Ryotwari System.

Additional Information

• The ryotwari system was a land revenue system in British India that was introduced by Sir Thomas Munro allowed the government to deal directly with the cultivator ('ryot') for revenue collection and gave the peasant freedom to cede or acquire new land for cultivation.
  • Ryotwari System somewhere in mid and changes in the position.
  • This system was in operation for nearly 5 years and had many features of the revenue system of the Mughals.
  • It was instituted in some parts of British India, one of the three main systems used to collect revenues from the cultivators of agricultural land.
  • These taxes included undifferentiated land revenue and rents, collected simultaneously.
  • Where the land revenue was imposed directly on the ryots (the individual cultivators who actually worked the land) the system of assessment was known as ryotwari. 
  • The Ryotwari system is associated with the name of Thomas Munro, who was appointed Governor of Madras in May 1820.

The correct answer is 1834 A.D.

Key Points

• The area of present-day Uttar Pradesh was gradually acquired by the East India Company (a British trading company) over a period of about 75 years, from the last quarter of the 18th century to the mid-19th century.
• Territories wrested from a number of powers in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent—the nawabs, the Sindhias of Gwalior (now in Madhya Pradesh), and the Gurkhas of Nepal—were first placed within the British province known as the Bengal Presidency, but in 1834 they were separated to form the North-Western Provinces (initially called the Agra Presidency).

The correct answer is 1905.

Key Points

• Partition of Bengal 
  • Lord Curzon announced the partition of Bengal on 20th July 1905.
  • The partition came into effect on 16th October 1905.
  • At that time of partition, Bengal was the biggest province of British India that included Bihar and parts of Orissa.
  • The British argued that the division was for administrative convenience.
  • The partition of the Bengal is an example of the British policy of divide and rule.
  • The main reason for the partition of Bengal was to destroy the political influence of the educated middle class among whom the Bengali intelligentsia was the most prominent.
  • The swadeshi movement was started to protest against the partition of Bengal. 
  • Bengal partition was finally canceled by Lord Hardinge in 1911.

The correct answer is Lord Dalhousie.

Key Points

• Lord Dalhousie served as the Governor-General of India from 1848 to 1856.
  • He is also said to have convinced the British to introduce the railways in India through his famous Railway minutes of 1853.
  • Thus, he is regarded as the father of Indian railways.
• Established in the year 1952, Northern Railways is the largest zone in terms of kilometers covered (approximately 6807) in India.
  • ​The headquarters of the Northern Railways zone is at Baroda House, Delhi, and New Delhi Railway Station.
• Indian Railways is among the world's largest rail networks.