A picture of 1862 shows cotton bales at the Bombay terminus of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, with a loaded bullock cart. Where was this cart waiting to carry the bales?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → The port
Option (1) The city mandi — Incorrect. The mandi is where cotton came from the villages, before it reached the railway. These bales were already on their way out of India.
Option (2) The port — Correct. The bales were ready for shipment to England, so the cart was to take them from the station to the port. It shows that older modes of transport were not fully displaced by the railways.
Option (3) The cotton mills of Bombay — Incorrect. These bales were waiting at the station for export to Britain by sea, so a trip to the city mills does not fit the picture.
Option (4) The sahukars' godowns in the city — Incorrect. Sahukars gave the ryots advances and loans for cotton. These bales had already left the Deccan and were bound for England.
NCERT (2026-27): “3.4 Then came the cotton boom … “shipment to England, Illustrated London News, 23 August 1862 Once the railways came up cotton supplies were not carried only on carts and boats. River traffic declined over time. But older modes of transport were not fully displaced. The loaded bullock cart in the foreground on the right is waiting to carry cotton bales from the railway station to the port.” |