Which of the following chains correctly describes how India’s national income was estimated during the colonial period?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → The colonial government never made a sincere attempt to estimate national income → some individuals such as Dadabhai Naoroji and V.K.R.V. Rao made estimates → their results were conflicting and inconsistent
The colonial government never made any sincere attempt to estimate India’s national income. Only individuals made estimates, among them Naoroji, Digby, Shirras, Rao and Desai, and their results were conflicting and inconsistent.
Option (1) The colonial government never made a sincere attempt to estimate national income → some individuals such as Dadabhai Naoroji and V.K.R.V. Rao made estimates → their results were conflicting and inconsistent — Correct. All three links are right.
Option (2) The colonial government never made a sincere attempt to estimate national income → some individuals such as Dadabhai Naoroji and V.K.R.V. Rao made estimates → their results agreed closely with one another — Incorrect. The last link is wrong. The estimates were conflicting, not in agreement.
Option (3) The colonial government made official estimates of national income → some individuals such as Dadabhai Naoroji and V.K.R.V. Rao checked them → their results were conflicting and inconsistent — Incorrect. The first link is wrong. The government made no sincere attempt, so there were no official estimates to check.
Option (4) The colonial government never made a sincere attempt to estimate national income → some individuals such as R.C. Dutt and B.H. Baden-Powell made estimates → their results were conflicting and inconsistent — Incorrect. The middle link is wrong. The notable estimators were Naoroji, Digby, Shirras, Rao and Desai.
NCERT (2026-27): “1.2 Low Level of Economic Development Under the Colonial Rule The economic policies pursued by the colonial government in India were concerned more with the protection and promotion of the economic interests of their home country than with the development of the Indian economy. Such policies brought about a fundamental change in the structure of the Indian economy — transforming the country into supplier of raw materials and consumer of finished industrial products from Britain. Obviously, the colonial government never made any sincere attempt to estimate India’s national and per capita income. Some individual attempts which were made to measure such incomes yielded conflicting and inconsistent results. Among the notable estimators — Dadabhai Naoroji, William Digby, Findlay Shirras, V.K.R.V. Rao and R.C. Desai — it was Rao, whose estimates during the colonial period was considered very significant. …” |