History Test - 15

The correct answer is Kolkata.

Key PointsTown planning in Calcutta -

• The history of town planning in Calcutta of course did not end with the building of Fort William and the Maidan.
• In 1798, Lord Wellesley became the Governor-General.
• After Wellesley's departure, the work of town planning was carried on by the Lottery Committee (1817) with the help of the government.
• The Lottery Committee was so named because funds for Calcutta town improvement were raised through public lotteries.
• Hence the correct answer is option 4.
• In other words, in the early decades of the nineteenth-century raising funds for the city was still thought to be the responsibility of public-minded citizens and not exclusively that of the government.
• The Lottery Committee commissioned a new map of the city so as to get a comprehensive picture of Calcutta.

The correct answer is Bombay.

Key Points

Colonial Cities

• Madras(Chennai), Calcutta (Kolkata) and Bombay (Mumbai), were all three originally a fishing and weaving villages.
• They became important centres of trade due to the economic activities of the English East India Company.
• Company agents settled in Madras in 1639 and in Calcutta in 1690.
• Bombay was given to the Company in 1661 by the English king, who had got it as part of his wife's dowry from the king of Portugal.
• Hence the correct answer is option 1.
• The Company established trading and administrative offices in each of these settlements.

The correct answer is Amar Katha.

Key PointsAmar Katha -

• Binodini Dasi (1863-1941) was a pioneering figure in Bengali theatre in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and worked closely with the dramatist and director Girish Chandra Ghosh (1844-1912).
• She was one of the prime movers behind the setting up of the Star Theatre (1883) in Calcutta which became a centre for famous productions.
• Between 1910 and 1913 she serialised her autobiography, Amar Katha.
• Hence the correct answer is option 4.
• A remarkable personality, she exemplified the problem women faced in recasting their roles in society.
• She was a professional in the city, working in multiple spheres as an actress, institution builder and author but the patriarchal society of the time scorned her assertive public presence.

The correct answer is ​Fort St. George.

Key Points 

Settlement and segregation in Madras

• Fort St George became the nucleus of the White Town where most of the Europeans lived. Hence the correct answer is option 2.
• Walls and bastions made this a distinct enclave.
• Colour and religion determined who was allowed to live within the Fort.
• In Madras, Fort St George, Calcutta Fort William and Bombay the Fort marked out the areas of British settlement.
• Indian merchants, artisans and other workers who had economic dealings with European merchants lived outside these forts in settlements of their own.

The correct answer is 1798.

Key Points

Governor-General -

• The history of town planning in Calcutta of course did not end with the building of Fort William and the Maidan.
• In 1798, Lord Wellesley became the Governor-General.
• Hence the correct answer is option 4.
• He built a massive palace, Government House, for himself in Calcutta, a building that was expected to convey the authority of the British.
• He became concerned about the condition of the Indian part of the city the crowding, the excessive vegetation, the dirty tanks, the smells and poor drainage

Important Points 

• Lord William Bentinck served as Governor-General of India from 1828 to 1835.
• Lord Cornwallis was appointed as the Governor-General of India in the year 1786.
• Lord Hastings served as the Governor-General of India from 1813 to 1823, along ten years term.

The correct answer is Gurkha War

Key Points

The first hill stations 

• As in the case of cantonments, hill stations were a distinctive feature of colonial urban development.
• The founding and settling of hill stations were initially connected with the needs of the British army.
• Simla (present-day Shimla) was founded during the course of the Gurkha War (1815-16).
• Hence the correct answer is option 2.
• The Anglo-Maratha War of 1818 led to British interest in Mount Abu.
• And Darjeeling was wrested from the rulers of Sikkim in 1835.
• Hill stations became strategic places for billeting troops, guarding frontiers and launching campaigns against enemy rulers.

The correct answer is indebtedness of the peasant.

Important Points

• Deccan Riots 1875
  • ​The uprising began at Supa village in the district of Poona. In 1875, farmers attacked a market place where many moneylenders lived.
  • They burnt account books and looted grain shops.
  • They also torched the houses of sahukars (people who were both traders and moneylenders).
  • The farmers’ main motive was to destroy the account books of the moneylenders and they resorted to violence only when these books were not handed over to them.
  • They also socially boycotted the moneylenders.
  • The movement also got support from the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha co-founded by M G Ranade.
  • It took several months for the police to restore order in the countryside.
  • The Bombay government initially dismissed the uprising as trivial. However, the Government of India pressurised Bombay to enquire into the matter.
  • Accordingly, the Deccan Riots Commission was set up which presented a report to the British Parliament in 1878.
  • In 1879, the Agriculturists Relief Act was passed which ensured that the farmers could not be arrested and imprisoned if they were unable to pay their debts. Hence, option 1 is correct.

The correct answer is All of the above.

Key Points 

Names of cities -

• Madras, Bombay and Calcutta were the English names of the villages where the British first established trading posts.
• Hence the correct answer is option 4.
• They are now known as Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata respectively.
• From the middle of the eighteenth century, a new phase of change began.
• Commercial centers such as Surat, Masulipatnam and Dhaka, which had developed in the seventeenth century, declined when trade shifted to other places.
• As the British gradually gained political control after the Battle of Plassey in 1757, and the English East India Company's trade expanded, colonial port cities such as Madras, Calcutta and Bombay rapidly emerged as new economic capitals.
• They also became centers of colonial administration and political power.

The correct answer is Neo-Gothic.

Key PointsArchitectural styles -

• For public buildings, three broad architectural styles were used.

• Two of these were direct imports from fashions prevalent in England.

Neo-classical style -

• The first was called neo-classical or the new classical.
• Its characteristics included the construction of geometrical structures fronted with lofty pillars.
• It was derived from a style that was originally typical of buildings in ancient Rome and was subsequently revived, re-adapted and made popular during the European Renaissance.
• It was considered particularly appropriate for the British Empire in India.

Neo-Gothic style -

• Another style that was extensively used was the neo-Gothic, characterised by high-pitched roofs, pointed arches and detailed decoration.
• Hence the correct answer is option 3.
• The Gothic style had its roots in buildings, especially churches, built-in northern Europe during the medieval period.
• The neo-Gothic or new Gothic style was revived in the mid-nineteenth century in England.

Indo-Saracenic style -

• Towards the beginning of the twentieth century, a new hybrid architectural style developed which combined the Indian with the European.
• This was called Indo-Saracenic.
• “Indo” was shorthand for Hindus and “Saracen” was a term Europeans used to designate Muslims.

Indian style-

• In the more “Indian” localities of Bombay traditional styles of decoration and building predominated.
• The lack of space in the city and crowding led to a type of building unique to Bombay, the chawl, the multi-storeyed single-room apartments with long open corridors built around a courtyard.
• Such buildings which housed many families sharing common spaces helped in the growth of neighbourhood identity and solidarity.

The correct answer is 1872.

Key Points

Colonial records and urban history -

• Colonial rule was based on the production of enormous amounts of data.
• The British kept detailed records of their trading activities in order to regulate their commercial affairs.
• To keep track of life in the growing cities, they carried out regular surveys, gathered statistical data, and published various official reports
• The growth of cities was monitored through regular headcounts.
• By the mid-nineteenth century several local censuses had been carried out in different regions.
• The first all-India census was attempted in 1872.
• Hence the correct answer is option 2.
• Thereafter, from 1881, decennial (conducted every ten years) censuses became a regular feature. 
• This collection of data is an invaluable source for studying urbanisation in India.