आर्थिक तौर पर, 19वीं शताब्दी में भारत पर अंग्रेज़ी शासन का एक परिणाम था
Read this question in English
Economically, one of the results of the British rule in India in the 19th century was the
(a) increase in the export of Indian handicrafts · (b) growth in the number of Indian owned factories · (c) commercialization of Indian agriculture · (d) rapid increase in the urban population
उत्तर और व्याख्या · explanation in English
Answer: (c) भारतीय कृषि का वाणिज्यीकरण
British rule commercialised Indian agriculture: farmers were pushed towards cash crops for the market and for export instead of growing mainly for their own needs. The railways helped this trend, while India's handicraft industries declined.
- ✓ (c) Railways, introduced in 1850, fostered commercialisation of Indian agriculture, and cash crops gave higher yields in some areas. It weakened the self-sufficiency of village economies.
- ✗ (a) The country's world-famous handicraft industries declined under colonial rule. Cheap machine-made goods, such as those from Manchester, replaced native manufactures.
- ✗ (b) India could not build a sound industrial base under colonial rule. No modern industrial base was allowed to take the place of the declining handicrafts.
Remember · 19th-century colonial economy: commercialised agriculture, decline of handicrafts (de-industrialisation), and railways serving colonial interests.
📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Indian Economic Development, Ch 1 (practise this chapter) · Class 11 Indian Economic Development, Ch 1 (practise this chapter)
Sources
- NCERT Class 11 · Indian Economic Development, Chapter 1 “it fostered commercialisation of Indian agriculture which adversely affected the self-sufficiency of the village economies in India.”
- NCERT Class 11 · Indian Economic Development, Chapter 1 “Even as the country's world famous handicraft industries declined, no corresponding modern industrial base was allowed to come up”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2018, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·