According to Mukherjee, the British substitutes of land ownership and English education failed to create a genuine middle class. What did the graduates become?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Job hunters
Option (1) Social reformers — Incorrect. Mukherjee does not describe the graduates as reformers. His point is that English education stayed cut off from Indian cultural traditions, so it could not produce a genuine middle class.
Option (2) Job hunters — Correct. In Mukherjee's view, the British substitutes could not create a genuine middle class. Land ownership turned the zamindars into parasites in land, and English education turned the graduates into job hunters.
Option (3) Industrial entrepreneurs — Incorrect. Industrial entrepreneurs would have formed the kind of productive middle class that Mukherjee finds missing in colonial India. The graduates went looking for jobs and started no industries.
Option (4) Political agitators — Incorrect. Political agitation is not the outcome Mukherjee names. He presents the graduates as people seeking jobs, which shows the failure of English education.
NCERT (2026-27): “The Colonial Experience … |