Consider the following statements and identify the correct ones:
(A) Almost 60% of population lived in villages on the eve of Independence.
(B) India was self sufficient in food grains, during Pre-British India.
(C) Britishers encouraged capital goods industry in India.
(D) India was major exporter of finished goods on the eve of Independence.
(E) TISCO was established in the year 1907.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → (B) and (E) only
(A) Almost 60% of population lived in villages on the eve of Independence. — False. About 85 per cent of the population lived mostly in villages.
(B) India was self sufficient in food grains, during Pre-British India. — True. A French traveller described seventeenth century Bengal as producing wheat, vegetables and grains amply for its own consumption, and it also exported rice.
(C) Britishers encouraged capital goods industry in India. — False. There was hardly any capital goods industry. These are industries that make machine tools. British policy aimed to make India an exporter of raw materials for Britain’s industries.
(D) India was major exporter of finished goods on the eve of Independence. — False. India exported primary products such as raw silk and cotton. It was an importer of finished consumer goods.
(E) TISCO was established in the year 1907. — True. The Tata Iron and Steel Company was incorporated in 1907.
NCERT (2026-27): “…India’s economy under the British colonial rule remained fundamentally agrarian — about 85 per cent of the country’s population lived mostly in villages and derived livelihood directly or indirectly from agriculture.… Box 1.2: Agriculture During Pre-British India The French traveller, Bernier, described seventeenth century Bengal in the following way: ‘The knowledge I have acquired of Bengal in two visits inclines me to believe that it is richer than Egypt. It exports, in abundance, cottons and silks, rice, sugar and butter. It produces amply — for its own consumption — wheat, vegetables, grains, fowls, ducks and geese.…’ …During the second half of the nineteenth century, modern industry began to take root in India but its progress remained very slow. Initially, this development was confined to the setting up of cotton and jute textile mills. The cotton textile mills, mainly dominated by Indians, were located in the western parts of the country, namely, Maharashtra and Gujarat, while the jute mills dominated by the foreigners were mainly concentrated in Bengal. Subsequently, the iron and steel industries began coming up in the beginning of the twentieth century. The Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO) was incorporated in 1907. A few other industries in the fields of sugar, cement, paper etc. came up after the Second World War. However, there was hardly any capital goods industry to help promote further industrialisation in India.… …India has been an important trading nation since ancient times. But the restrictive policies of commodity production, trade and tariff pursued by the colonial government adversely affected the structure, composition and volume of India’s foreign trade. Consequently, India became an exporter of primary products such as raw silk, cotton, wool, sugar, indigo, jute etc. and an importer of finished consumer goods like cotton, silk and woollen clothes and capital goods like light machinery produced in the factories of Britain.…” |