Why was the impact of urbanization not the same in India as in Britain?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → It was primarily governed by Colonial interests.
Option (1) It was not planned properly. — Incorrect. Planning decides how well a city is laid out. The gap between India and Britain lay deeper, in the purpose the cities and industries were built for, and in India that purpose was set by the colonial power.
Option (2) Cities as a concept in India was underdeveloped. — Incorrect. The difference does not come from a weak idea of the city; it comes from whose interests the new colonial cities and industries were built to serve.
Option (3) It was primarily governed by Colonial interests. — Correct. In Britain industry and cities grew to serve the British economy itself. In India, early industrialisation and urbanisation were governed by colonial interests: port cities and plantations were built to send raw materials to Britain and bring its goods in. That is why the result in India was not the same as in Britain.
Option (4) We began industrialization late. — Incorrect. Starting late would only delay the same path. India took a different path because colonial interests shaped what its early industries and cities were for, not because it started later.
NCERT (2025-26): “The Tea Plantations … We have already seen how industrialisation and urbanisation did not happen in India quite the way it did in Britain. More importantly, this is not because we began industrialisation late, but because our early industrialisation and urbanisation in the modern period were governed by colonial interests. We cannot go into details about different industries here. We simply take the case of the tea industry in Tea garden India as an example.…” |