Which of the following factors was not responsible for unification of India under Colonial rule?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Socio-Cultural
Option (1) Socio-Cultural — Not a factor of the unification (Correct). Colonial rule unified all of India for the first time, and the unification it brought about was economic, political and administrative. It did not come from a shared society or culture; India remained a land of many languages, religions and customs, and colonial interventions even crystallised religious and caste based communities.
Option (2) Economic — Responsible (Incorrect). Colonial rule brought in the forces of capitalist economic change, and the economic unification of India was one of the three kinds of unification achieved under colonial rule.
Option (3) Political — Responsible (Incorrect). Colonial rule unified all of India for the first time. This political unification is the second of the three kinds of unification achieved under colonial rule.
Option (4) Administrative — Responsible (Incorrect). The unification of India under colonial rule was also administrative, the third of the three kinds achieved under colonial rule, and it came at great expense.
Note: The paragraph on the economic, political and administrative unification of India under colonial rule, in the section ‘1.1 Introducing an Introduction’ of the chapter ‘Introducing Indian Society’, was there in the pre-rationalised NCERT. It had already been deleted in the 2023-24 NCERT, which NTA followed in 2024, and is not in the NCERT book (2025-26), though the chapter is still there.
NCERT (Pre-rationalised): “1.1 Introducing an Introduction … … Broadly speaking, it was in the colonial period that a specifically Indian consciousness took shape. Colonial rule unified all of India for the first time, and brought in the forces of modernisation and capitalist economic change. By and large, the changes brought about were irreversible – society could never return to the way things were before. The economic, political and administrative unification of India under colonial rule was achieved at great expense. Colonial exploitation and domination scarred Indian society in many ways. But paradoxically, colonialism also gave birth to its own enemy – nationalism. Historically, an Indian nationalism took shape under British colonialism. The shared experience of colonial domination helped unify and energise different sections of the community. The emerging middle classes began, with the aid of western style education, to challenge colonialism on its own ground. Ironically, colonialism and western education also gave the impetus for the rediscovery of tradition. This led to the developments on the cultural and social front which solidified emergent forms of community at the national and regional levels. Colonialism created new classes and communities which came to play significant roles in subsequent history. The urban middle classes were the main carriers of nationalism and they led the campaign for freedom.…” |