What is the reason behind Assam being transformed into a lucrative source of revenue for the Colonial administration?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Demand of railway sleepers
Option (2) Demand of railway sleepers — Correct. The advent of the railways in Bengal was a turning point. The demand for railway sleepers transformed the forests in Assam from an unproductive wilderness into a lucrative source of revenue for the colonial administration.
Note: Box 1.1, ‘Forest Policy in the Colonial Period in North-East India’, of the chapter ‘Structural Change’, was there in the pre-rationalised NCERT, which NTA followed in 2023. This box has been deleted from the NCERT book (2025-26), though the chapter and its account of how colonialism entered the forests are still there.
NCERT: Social Change and Development in India — Chapter 1: Structural Change, Box 1.1 (Pre-rationalised)
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