An illustration of three panels in the Illustrated London News of 20…

An illustration of three panels in the Illustrated London News of 20 April 1861, printed when Britain was looking to India for cotton, depicts which of the following?

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 1

The correct answer is Option (1) → Different modes of transporting cotton before the railway era

Option (1) Different modes of transporting cotton before the railway era — Correct. The three panels show how cotton was carried before the railways: on bullocks, on roads full of boulders and on boats. The artist points to how slow and hard this transport was.

Option (2) Cotton bales at a railway terminus ready for shipment to England — Incorrect. No railway appears in these panels. They belong to the pre-railway era, when cotton moved by bullock, road and boat.

Option (3) Cotton being weighed and graded for quality in Bombay warehouses — Incorrect. Britain did study the quality of Indian cotton at this time. These panels, however, show cotton being carried by road and river.

Option (4) Ryots handing over their cotton harvest to the sahukars of the village — Incorrect. Moneylenders taking the peasants' harvest is part of the ryots' complaints against sahukars. The panels show only how cotton was transported.

NCERT (2026-27): “3.4 Then came the cotton boom …
Transporting cotton before the railway era, Illustrated London News, 20 April 1861 When cotton supplies from America were cut off during the Civil War, Britain hoped that India would supply all the cotton that British industries needed. It began assessing the supply, examining the quality of cotton and studying the methods of production and marketing. This interest was reflected in the pages of the Illustrated London News.”

“Fig. 9.17 depict different modes of transporting cotton. Notice the bullocks collapsing under the weight of the cotton, the boulders on the road, and the huge pile of bales on the boat. …”

An illustration of three panels in the Illustrated London News of 20 April 1861, printed when Britain was looking to India for cotton, depicts which of the following?

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 1

The correct answer is Option (1) → Different modes of transporting cotton before the railway era

“Fig. 9.17 depict different modes of transporting cotton. Notice the bullocks collapsing under the weight of the cotton, the boulders on the road, and the huge pile of bales on the boat. …”