A student is using Buchanan's reports to study village life in early nineteenth-century Bengal. Why should she not treat them as a neutral record?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → He was a Company employee, and his costly journeys met the Company's need for information.
Option (1) He relied mainly on what local zamindars told him about the villages and their people. — Incorrect. He observed landscapes and resources himself with a team of surveyors and draughtsmen.
Option (2) He wrote his reports many years later from memory, after he had returned to England. — Incorrect. He recorded what he saw on the spot as he travelled, noting rocks, soils and local practices in his journal.
Option (3) He was a Company employee, and his costly journeys met the Company's need for information. — Correct. Buchanan was an employee of the East India Company, which paid for his travels and gave him specific instructions on what to record. His reports serve the Company's needs.
Option (4) He was a missionary who judged the villagers mainly by their religious practices. — Incorrect. He was a Company surveyor who looked at rocks, soils and resources for commercial use.
NCERT (2026-27): “2.3 The accounts of Buchanan |