Europeans & the East India Company

Answer: (c) All the three

All three fruits are New World plants that reached India through Portuguese contact: pineapple in the sixteenth century, papaya through Portuguese (and Spanish) sailors carrying seeds to India, and guava in the seventeenth century.

• ✓ I Papaya spread from Central America; an FAO history says Spanish and Portuguese sailors took its seeds to India in the century after 1500.
• ✓ II The National Horticulture Board records that pineapple cultivation was introduced to India by the Portuguese in 1548.
• ✓ III Guava is native to tropical America; an ICAR journal states it was introduced in India by the Portuguese during the seventeenth century.

Remember · Pineapple (1548), papaya and guava are all New World fruits that the Portuguese brought to India in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

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Answer: (a) Krishnadevaraya

Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara allowed the Portuguese to build a fort at Bhatkal, a west-coast port of his empire, when the Portuguese governor Albuquerque asked for it. He kept friendly relations with the Portuguese, and Goa had been the entrepot (trade hub) of the Deccan states for horse trade.

• ✓ (a) Krishnadevaraya kept friendly relations with the Portuguese. On Albuquerque's request he permitted the construction of a fort at Bhatkal, and Portuguese soldiers helped him against Ismail Adil Khan of Bijapur.
• ✗ (b) Narasimha Saluva belonged to the Saluva line that came before Krishnadevaraya's Tuluva dynasty, so he ruled before the Portuguese emerged as a power around 1510.
• ✗ (c) Muhammad Shah III was a Bahmani sultan of the fifteenth century. The Bahmani kingdom had started breaking up around 1490, well before the Portuguese took Goa in 1510.
• ✗ (d) Yusuf Adil Khan founded the Bijapur sultanate around 1490. It was Vijayanagara, not Bijapur, that gave the Portuguese permission at Bhatkal, and the Portuguese later fought on Krishnadevaraya's side against Bijapur.

Remember · Krishnadevaraya (Vijayanagara) permitted the Portuguese to build a fort at Bhatkal at Albuquerque's request.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2024, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) Bahadur Shah

Bahadur Shah, Sultan of Gujarat, is the ruler who let the Portuguese into Diu. Squeezed between the Mughal emperor Humayun and the Portuguese, he signed a treaty with the Portuguese governor Nuno da Cunha on 25 October 1535 and allowed them to build a fortress at Diu.

• ✓ (c) Bahadur Shah made the 1535 treaty with Nuno da Cunha, which gave the Portuguese permission to build a fort in Diu harbour. He later regretted it, but the Portuguese kept Diu and took full control in 1546.
• ✗ (b) Mahmud Begarha's long reign ended by the early 1510s, more than twenty years before the 1535 treaty. The Diu concession came in Bahadur Shah's reign.
• ✗ (a) The 1535 treaty was made by the reigning Sultan, Bahadur Shah, not by any ruler named Ahmad Shah.

Remember · Bahadur Shah of Gujarat, pressed by Humayun, gave the Portuguese a fort at Diu in 1535; Diu passed fully to them in 1546 and stayed Portuguese until 1961.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2023, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) archaeological excavations

These five were colonial-era archaeologists and antiquarians who surveyed, recorded and dug up India's ancient sites, so the link is archaeological excavation.

• ✓ (a) Alexander Rea dug the Iron Age burial site of Adichanallur and was the first Superintendent of the Archaeological Survey's Southern Circle (1902), where A. H. Longhurst later served. James Burgess founded the Indian Antiquary journal (1872) and worked on the survey of monuments. Walter Elliot collected sculptures at Amaravati in 1854.
• ✗ (b) None of them is known for setting up the press or newspapers in colonial India.
• ✗ (d) Railway building was the work of engineers and railway companies; these five are known for antiquarian and archaeological work.

Remember · Rea (Adichanallur), Longhurst (ASI Southern Circle), Burgess (Indian Antiquary, monument surveys), Sewell (South Indian antiquities) and Elliot (Amaravati sculptures) are colonial-era archaeology names.

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Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2023, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only

Statements 2 and 3 are correct: Albuquerque took Goa from the Bijapur (Adil Shahi) rulers in 1510, and the English got the Madras site in 1639 from a local Nayak acting under the Raja of Chandragiri, a successor of the Vijayanagara Rayas. The Dutch did not get their east-coast bases from Gajapati rulers.

• ✗ 1. The Dutch arrived in the early 17th century. Their fort at Pulicat, for example, was built with the permission of a Nayak chief under the Raja of Chandragiri, not a Gajapati ruler of Orissa.
• ✓ 2. Goa was held by the Adil Shahis of Bijapur; in 1510 the Portuguese, under Afonso de Albuquerque, defeated the Bijapur rulers there and made Old Goa their permanent base.
• ✓ 3. In 1639 the Company obtained from Damarla Venkatappa Nayaka, the local chief acting for the Raja of Chandragiri (a descendant of the Vijayanagara Rayas), a strip of coast as a factory site; Fort St George grew from it.

Remember · Goa: Portuguese from Bijapur, 1510. Madras: English from Damarla Venkatapathy Nayak (Chandragiri, Vijayanagara successors), 1639. Dutch east-coast base: Pulicat.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2022, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) 1 only

In its first decades the English East India Company traded mainly in western India: its first factory was at Surat (1608) and by 1619 it had factories at Agra, Ahmedabad and Broach (Bharuch). In the south its early factories were at Masulipatam (1611) and Aramgaon (1626). Neither Chicacole nor Trichinopoly appears among them.

• ✓ 1. Broach (Bharuch), a port-town on the Narmada near Surat known for its cotton cloth, had an English factory: Sir Thomas Roe's embassy (1615–19) left the Company's first settlements confined to Surat, Agra, Ahmadabad and Broach, with the chief factor at Surat.
• ✗ 2. Chicacole (Srikakulam) is not among the Company's early factories: in the south its first factories were at Masulipatam (1611) and Aramgaon (1626), with Madras following in 1639.
• ✗ 3. Trichinopoly (Tiruchirappalli) is not among the Company's early factories; it was an inland rock-fort town, the scene of fighting between Muslim, Maratha, British and French troops from the 17th to the 19th century.

Remember · Early English factories: Surat (1608), Masulipatam (1611), Agra, Ahmedabad and Broach (by 1619), Aramgaon (1626), Madras (1639). Chicacole and Trichinopoly are not on the list.

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Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2021, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) 1 and 3 only

Statements 1 and 3 are correct; statement 2 fails on one point. Francis Xavier died in 1552 on Sancian island off the coast of China, not in Goa; only his remains rest in Goa, in the Basilica of Bom Jesus.

• ✓ 1. In Paris he joined Ignatius of Loyola and Peter Faber; with four others they professed vows at Montmartre on 15 August 1534, the nucleus of the Society of Jesus, which the Jesuits' own site counts as its seven founding companions.
• ✗ 2. He fell ill and died on 3 December 1552 on Sancian (Shangchuan) island off the coast of China, waiting to enter the mainland. His tomb is in the Church of Bom Jesus in Old Goa, which is why the statement is tempting.
• ✓ 3. His feast is on 3 December, and Goa marks it every year with novenas and the feast at the Basilica of Bom Jesus, Old Goa.

Remember · Francis Xavier: a founding Jesuit (1534), died 3 December 1552 off China; his relics lie in the Basilica of Bom Jesus, Old Goa (UNESCO site); feast on 3 December.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2021, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only

An aurang was a place where goods, especially cloth, were made and stored — the Company's weaving depot — not a treasury official. A banian was an Indian broker or agent serving European merchants and the Company, and a mirasidar was the hereditary landholder whom the British recognised as the revenue payer in the Madras region.

• ✗ 1. Aurang (Persian) meant a place where goods were manufactured or stored; in the Company's trading days it was used for its cloth-procurement depots.
• ✓ 2. In Calcutta, 'banian' was the term for Indian brokers attached to European business houses, who handled trade and money matters for the Company and its servants.
• ✓ 3. A mirasidar held hereditary (miras) rights in land; under British settlements in Tanjore and elsewhere in the south, each was given a patta and made responsible for the revenue.

Remember · Aurang = warehouse/manufacturing depot; banian = Indian broker-agent of Europeans; gomastha = Company's paid agent over weavers; mirasidar = hereditary landholder, revenue payer (South India).

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2020, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) 1 and 2 only

The 1813 charter opened the India trade to private British merchants while the Company kept its China (tea) trade monopoly, and it declared the Crown's sovereignty over the Company's territories. It did not hand India's revenues to Parliament: the Company went on governing and collecting revenue until the Crown took over in 1858.

• ✓ 1. In 1813 the Company's exclusive right to trade with India was removed and private traders were admitted, but its exclusive right to the China trade (chiefly tea) was retained until 1833.
• ✓ 2. The 1813 charter contained a clause asserting the Crown's undoubted sovereignty over all the Company's territories in India.
• ✗ 3. The Company kept its political and administrative role, including revenue administration; direct Crown control of Indian government came only in 1858.

Remember · Charter Act 1813: India trade opened to all British merchants (China/tea monopoly kept till 1833), Crown sovereignty asserted, missionaries allowed. Company rule itself ended only in 1858.

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Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) Tobacco, cocoa and rubber

The 'New World' is the Americas; the 'Old World' is Asia, Africa and Europe. Tobacco, cacao (cocoa) and Para rubber are all American plants that Europeans carried across the Atlantic after 1492. Every other option contains at least one Old World crop.

• ✓ (a) Tobacco was used by Native Americans before Europeans adopted it; cacao is native to the Amazon and Orinoco basins; the rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) is native to the Amazon basin and was later planted in Asia.
• ✗ (b) Cotton was domesticated independently in South Asia as well — traces are found at Harappan sites — so it is not solely a New World gift.
• ✗ (c) Coffee comes from Ethiopia and sugarcane from South and Southeast Asia, both Old World crops.
• ✗ (d) Wheat was domesticated in West Asia, and coffee in Africa; only rubber here is American.

Remember · Columbian Exchange, Americas → Old World: tobacco, cocoa, rubber, maize, potato, tomato, chilli, groundnut, pineapple, papaya. Old World → Americas: wheat, sugarcane, coffee.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Themes in World History, Ch 6 (practise this chapter) · Class 10 India and the Contemporary World – II, Ch 3 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part I, Ch 1 (practise this chapter) · Class 11 Themes in World History, Ch 1 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) Cotton, silk, saltpetre and opium

In the mid-18th century the Company's main exports from Bengal were cotton and silk cloth, saltpetre (used for gunpowder) and opium. Bengal was the Company's source of fine textiles, and after 1765 its revenue was used to buy these goods rather than importing bullion from Britain.

• ✓ (d) The Company bought fine cotton and silk cloth in Bengal, held a monopoly of Indian saltpetre from the middle of the 18th century, and by the late 18th century was expanding opium cultivation.
• ✗ (a) The Company bought finished cotton and silk cloth from Bengal, not raw cotton or oil-seeds; only opium in this list fits.
• ✗ (c) Gold and silver went the other way: before 1765 the Company brought them from Britain to pay for Indian goods.
• ✗ (b) Sugar, salt, zinc and lead were not the Company's staple Bengal exports of this period.

Remember · Bengal exports of the Company in the 1750s: cotton and silk textiles, saltpetre, opium. Before Diwani (1765) it paid for them with bullion from Britain.

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). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) To secure a fixed income for the Company

Why not the tempting option · UPSC's key is (c). The subsidy an ally paid was a reimbursement for the British force kept in its territory, and rulers who could not pay lost territory instead (Awadh gave up half its land in 1801), so a fixed income for the Company was not an object of the system; its purposes were a large army at Indian expense, exclusion of the French and British paramountcy. In the exam, judge a policy by its stated aims, not by its incidental receipts.

The Subsidiary Alliance was a military and political device. It planted a British force in an ally's territory at the ally's cost, offered the ruler protection against external threats, and tied the states to British control. Securing a fixed income for the Company was never its aim: the subsidy was the price of the troops, and when a ruler could not pay it, territory was taken instead. So (c) is the statement that does not apply.

• ✓ (c) The money an ally paid was the cost of maintaining the British contingent stationed with it, not a revenue for the Company. NCERT notes that if the ruler failed to pay, part of his territory was taken away as a penalty; the object was control, not a steady income.
• ✗ (a) This did apply: the ally had to provide the resources for maintaining the British armed contingent stationed in its territory, which gave the Company a large army at Indian expense.
• ✗ (b) This did apply: NCERT says the British Resident was installed to protect rulers against internal or external threats, and Britannica names Napoleon's Egyptian expedition of 1798-99, which created a new French threat to India, among the immediate causes of the Company's drive towards paramountcy in Wellesley's time.
• ✗ (d) This did apply: an ally could not negotiate with other rulers or go to war without British permission and had to accept a Resident, and NCERT says the system effectively transferred real power to the British, which placed British power above the Indian states.

Remember · Wellesley's Subsidiary Alliance: British troops in the ally's state, paid for by the ally (territory taken if unpaid); foreign relations only through the British, no wars without the Company's consent; protection against external threats. Its aims were military and political, not revenue.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part III, Ch 2 (practise this chapter) · Class 8 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 1), Ch 4 (practise this chapter) · Class 8 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 1), Ch 4 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2018, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error