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UPSC CSE Prelims 2011 · GS paper

Which amongst the following provided a common factor for tribal insurrection in India in the 19th…

A question from UPSC Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination 2011, General Studies, explained with its sources.

Prelims 2011 · archive

Medium

Which amongst the following provided a common factor for tribal insurrection in India in the 19th century?

Answer & explanation

Answer: (d) The complete disruption of the old agrarian order of the tribal communities

The answer is (d). Tribal revolts of the 19th century (Kols, Santhals, Mundas and others) broke out in different regions with different immediate triggers. What they all shared was the breakdown of the old tribal agrarian economy and way of life under colonial rule. New laws, new taxes, restrictions on customary practices and outside traders and moneylenders were the means of that breakdown. The missionary factor was not general.

  • ✗ (a) New taxes and changed laws did anger tribal groups, but this was one cause among several. It describes a mechanism of the disruption, not the overall condition behind every revolt.
  • ✗ (b) Missionaries were a target in some movements, such as Birsa Munda's, which wanted to drive out missionaries along with moneylenders, landlords and the government. They were not a factor in all tribal revolts.
  • ✗ (c) Exploitation by traders, moneylenders and other outsiders was widespread. It was one of the forces that produced the larger breakdown of the tribal economy, not the common factor itself.
  • ✓ (d) New laws, restrictions on customary practices, new taxes and exploitation by traders and moneylenders together broke up the earlier tribal agrarian order. That breakdown is what the 19th-century revolts had in common.

Remember · Tribal revolts (Kol 1831–32, Santhal 1855, Munda c.1895–1900) shared one root: colonial laws, taxes and outsider moneylenders disrupted the old tribal agrarian order. Missionaries mattered only in some movements.

Sources

  • NCERT Class 8, Our Pasts III, Ch 4 – Tribals, Dikus and the Vision of a Golden Age ↗ “Through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, tribal groups in different parts of the country rebelled against the changes in laws, the restrictions on their practices, the new taxes they had to pay, and the exploitation by traders and moneylenders. … What worried British officials most was the political aim of the Birsa movement, for it wanted to drive out missionaries, moneylenders, landlords, and the government”

Question: UPSC Civil Services (Preliminary) 2011, General Studies paper. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 25 Oct 2026 (how we verify). ·