Given below are two statements: one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other is labelled as Reason (R).
Assertion (A): During colonial rule, India’s large export surplus did not result in any flow of gold or silver into India.
Reason (R): For all practical purposes, Britain maintained a monopoly control over India’s exports and imports.
In the light of the above statements, choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Both (A) and (R) are true but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).
Assertion (A): During colonial rule, India’s large export surplus did not result in any flow of gold or silver into India. — True. The export surplus brought no gold or silver into India.
Reason (R): For all practical purposes, Britain maintained a monopoly control over India’s exports and imports. — True. Britain had monopoly control over India’s trade, and more than half of it was with Britain.
Why R does not explain A?
R tells us who controlled India’s trade. It does not tell us where the surplus went. The real reason is that the surplus was used to pay for an office of the colonial government in Britain, for wars fought by the British government and for invisible imports. This outflow is called the drain of Indian wealth.
NCERT (2026-27): “1.5 Foreign Trade … For all practical purposes, Britain maintained a monopoly control over India’s exports and imports. As a result, more than half of India’s foreign trade was restricted to Britain while the rest was allowed with a few other countries like China, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and Persia (Iran). …” “The most important characteristic of India’s foreign trade throughout the colonial period was the generation of a large export surplus. But this surplus came at a huge cost to the country’s economy. Several essential commodities —food grains, clothes, kerosene etc. — were scarcely 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.” |