Match List-I (Person) with List-II (Description).List-IList-II(A) Abu…

Match List-I (Person) with List-II (Description).

List-I	List-II
(A) Abu'l Fazl	(I) Warned European kings against following the Mughal model
(B) Montesquieu	(II) Argued that surplus was appropriated by the state before colonialism
(C) Karl Marx	(III) Official chronicler of Akbar's reign in the sixteenth century
(D) Bernier	(IV) Developed the idea of oriental despotism from a traveller's account

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 2

The correct answer is Option (2) → A-III, B-IV, C-II, D-I

List-I	List-II	Reason
(A) Abu'l Fazl	(III) Official chronicler of Akbar's reign in the sixteenth century	Abu'l Fazl wrote the official history of Akbar's reign and called land revenue remunerations of sovereignty.
(B) Montesquieu	(IV) Developed the idea of oriental despotism from a traveller's account	Montesquieu, a French philosopher, used Bernier's account to build the idea of oriental despotism.
(C) Karl Marx	(II) Argued that surplus was appropriated by the state before colonialism	Marx developed the Asiatic mode of production, in which the state took the surplus from village communities.
(D) Bernier	(I) Warned European kings against following the Mughal model	Bernier warned that kings following the Mughal model would become kings of deserts and solitudes.

NCERT (2026-27): “6.1 The question of landownership …
Curiously, none of the Mughal official documents suggest that the state was the sole owner of land. For instance, Abu’l Fazl, the sixteenth-century official chronicler of Akbar’s reign, describes the land revenue as “remunerations of sovereignty”, a claim made by the ruler on his subjects for the protection he provided rather than as rent on land that he owned. It is possible that European travellers regarded such claims as rent because land revenue demands were often very high. However, this was actually not a rent or even a land tax, but a tax on the crop (for more details, see Chapter 8).”

“Bernier’s descriptions influenced Western theorists from the eighteenth century onwards. The French philosopher Montesquieu, for instance, used this account to develop the idea of oriental despotism, according to which rulers in Asia (the Orient or the East) enjoyed absolute authority over their subjects, who were kept in conditions of subjugation and poverty, arguing that all land belonged to the king and that private property was non-existent. According to this view, everybody, except the emperor and his nobles, barely managed to survive.”

“This idea was further developed as the concept of the Asiatic mode of production by Karl Marx in the nineteenth century. He argued that in India (and other Asian countries), before colonialism, surplus was appropriated by the state. …”

“Bernier warned that if European kings followed the Mughal model: Their kingdoms would be very far from being wellcultivated and peopled, so well built, so rich, so polite and flourishing as we see them. Our kings are otherwise rich and powerful; and we must avow that they are much better and more royally served. They would soon be kings of deserts and solitudes, of beggars and barbarians, such as those are whom I have been representing (the Mughals) … We should find the great Cities and the great Burroughs (boroughs) rendered uninhabitable because of ill air, and to fall to ruine (ruin) without any bodies (anybody) taking care of repairing them; the hillocks abandon’d, and the fields overspread with bushes, or fill’d with pestilential marishes (marshes), as hath been already intimated.”

Match List-I (Person) with List-II (Description).

List-I	List-II
(A) Abu'l Fazl	(I) Warned European kings against following the Mughal model
(B) Montesquieu	(II) Argued that surplus was appropriated by the state before colonialism
(C) Karl Marx	(III) Official chronicler of Akbar's reign in the sixteenth century
(D) Bernier	(IV) Developed the idea of oriental despotism from a traveller's account

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 2

The correct answer is Option (2) → A-III, B-IV, C-II, D-I

List-I	List-II	Reason
(A) Abu'l Fazl	(III) Official chronicler of Akbar's reign in the sixteenth century	Abu'l Fazl wrote the official history of Akbar's reign and called land revenue remunerations of sovereignty.
(B) Montesquieu	(IV) Developed the idea of oriental despotism from a traveller's account	Montesquieu, a French philosopher, used Bernier's account to build the idea of oriental despotism.
(C) Karl Marx	(II) Argued that surplus was appropriated by the state before colonialism	Marx developed the Asiatic mode of production, in which the state took the surplus from village communities.
(D) Bernier	(I) Warned European kings against following the Mughal model	Bernier warned that kings following the Mughal model would become kings of deserts and solitudes.