Economically, one of the results of the British rule in India in the 19th century was the

Answer: (c) commercialization of Indian agriculture

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)

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). · Report an error