Read the passage and answer the question:

From the Fifth report

Referring to the condition of zamindars and the auction of lands, the Fifth Report stated:

The revenue was not realised with punctuality, and lands to a considerable extent were periodically exposed to sale by auction. In the native year 1203, corresponding with 1796-97, the land advertised for sale comprehended a jumma or assessment of sicca rupees 28,70,061, the extent of land actually sold bore a jumma or assessment of 14,18,756, and the amount of purchase money sicca rupees 17,90,416. In 1204. Corresponding with 1797-98, the land advertised was for sicca rupees 22,66,191, the quantity sold was for sicca rupees 22,74,076 and the purchase money sicca rupees 21,47,580. Among the defaulters were some of the oldest families of the country, Such were the rajahs of Nuddea, Rajeshaye, Bishenpore (all districts of Bengal),... and others, the dismemberment of whose estates at the end of each succeeding year, threatened them with poverty and ruin, and in some instances presented difficulties to the revenue officers, in their efforts to preserve undiminished the amount of public assessment.

Which statement is correct about 'Fifth Report' ?

The fifth report contains the invaluable information about zamindars.

The correct answer is Option (4) → The fifth report contains the invaluable information about zamindars.

Option 1- Fifth report gives information about the zamindars of Awadh and Orissa. (INCORRECT)
Option 2- The fifth report was the result of British socio-religious reforms in India. (INCORRECT)
Option 3- The fifth report became the basis of intense debate in Indian parliament. (INCORRECT)
Option 4- The fifth report contains the invaluable information about zamindars.

(Out of the given options, the most appropriate answer in the given PYQ is option 4)

Many of the changes that occured in the Brtish India were documented in detail in a report that was submitted to the British Parliament in 1813. It was the fifth of a series of reports on the administration and activities of the East India Company in India.

Often referred to as the Fifth Report, it ran into 1002 pages, of which over 800 pages were appendices that reproduced petitions of zamindars and ryots, reports of collectors from different districts, statistical tables on revenue returns, and notes on the revenue and judicial administration of Bengal and Madras (present-day Tamil Nadu) written by officials. From the time the Company established its rule in Bengal in the mid-1760s, its activities were closely watched and debated in England. There were many groups in Britain who were opposed to the monopoly that the East India Company had over trade with India and China. These groups wanted a revocation of the Royal Charter that gave the Company this monopoly. An increasing number of private traders wanted a share in the India trade, and the industrialists of Britain were keen to open up the Indian market for British manufactures. Many political groups argued that the conquest of Bengal was benefiting only the East India Company but not the British nation as a whole.

Information about Company misrule and maladministration was hotly debated in Britain and incidents of the greed and corruption of Company officials were widely publicised in the press. The British Parliament passed a series of Acts in the late eighteenth century to regulate and control Company rule in India. It forced the Company to produce regular reports on the administration of India and appointed committees to enquire into the affairs of the Company. The Fifth Report was one such report produced by a Select Committee. It became the basis of intense parliamentary debates on the nature of the East India Company’s rule in India. For over a century and a half, the Fifth Report has shaped our conception of what happened in rural Bengal in the late eighteenth century. The evidence contained in the Fifth Report is invaluable. But official reports like this have to be read carefully. We need to know who wrote the reports and why they were written. In fact, recent researches show that the arguments and evidence offered by the Fifth Report cannot be accepted uncritically. Researchers have carefully examined the archives of various Bengal zamindars and the local records of the districts to write about the history of colonial rule in rural Bengal. They indicate that, intent on criticising the maladministration of the company, the Fifth Report exaggerated the collapse of traditional zamindari power, as also overestimated the scale on which zamindars were losing their land. As we have seen, even when zamindaris were auctioned, zamindars were not always displaced, given the ingenious methods they used to retain their zamindaris.