Match List-I (Bernier's terms) with List-II.
| List-I | List-II |
|---|---|
| (A) Improving landlords | (I) India presented as the inverse of Europe |
| (B) Crown ownership of land | (II) India made to appear inferior to the Western world |
| (C) Binary opposition | (III) The emperor owned all the land and distributed it among his nobles |
| (D) Hierarchical ordering of differences | (IV) A landed class, as in Western Europe, ready to invest in sustaining and expanding production |
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → A-IV, B-III, C-I, D-II
| List-I | List-II | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| (A) Improving landlords | (IV) A landed class, as in Western Europe, ready to invest in sustaining and expanding production | Bernier said crown ownership stopped the rise of a class of landlords who would invest in the land, as such landlords did in Western Europe. |
| (B) Crown ownership of land | (III) The emperor owned all the land and distributed it among his nobles | Bernier believed the Mughal emperor owned all the land and handed it out to his nobles; this is what he meant by crown ownership. |
| (C) Binary opposition | (I) India presented as the inverse of Europe | In a binary opposition, India is shown as the reverse of Europe in each feature Bernier compared. |
| (D) Hierarchical ordering of differences | (II) India made to appear inferior to the Western world | Bernier ranked the differences he saw, so that India came out lower than the Western world. |
NCERT (2026-27): “6. Bernier and the “Degenerate” East … “According to Bernier, one of the fundamental differences between Mughal India and Europe was the lack of private property in land in the former. He was a firm believer in the virtues of private property, and saw crown ownership of land as being harmful for both the state and its people. He thought that in the Mughal Empire the emperor owned all the land and distributed it among his nobles, and that this had disastrous consequences for the economy and society. This perception was not unique to Bernier, but is found in most travellers’ accounts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.” “Owing to crown ownership of land, argued Bernier, landholders could not pass on their land to their children. So they were averse to any long-term investment in the sustenance and expansion of production. The absence of private property in land had, therefore, prevented the emergence of the class of “improving” landlords (as in Western Europe) with” |