Under Colonial rule:
a) India experienced import surplus.
b) Essential commodities like food grains, clothes, kerosene etc. were widely available in India.

Which of the following option is correct in regard to the above statement?

both a and b are false

The correct answer is option 4: both a and b are false

The most important characteristic of India's foreign trade throughout the colonial period was the generation of a large export surplus (not import surplus). But this surplus came at a huge cost to the country's economy. Several essential commodities like food grains, clothes, kerosene etc. were scarcely available (not widely available) in the domestic market. Furthermore, this export surplus did not result in any flow of gold or silver into India. Rather, this was used to make payments for the expenses incurred by an office set up by the colonial government in Britain, expenses on war, again fought by the British government, and the import of invisible items, all of which led to the drain of Indian wealth.