Quiz: The British Rule in India

All 32 questions. A perfect score earns the gold medal; 80% earns silver.

1. 1. When is the second article, “The Future Results of British Rule in India”, dated?

   London, 22 July 1853 Paris, 1848 London, 10 June 1853 London, 1857
2. 2. What does Marx call the pivots of the structure of traditional Indian society?

   The hand-loom and spinning-wheel The temple and the prince’s palace The army and the tax-collector The caste and the guild
3. 3. What “double mission” does Marx say England has to fulfil in India?

   One temporary, the other permanent One religious, the other commercial One military, the other moral One destructive, the other regenerating
4. 4. How does Marx describe England’s role in India at the end of the first article?

   Moved by the vilest interests, yet history’s unconscious tool in causing a social revolution Moved by the noblest motives, a benevolent civiliser bringing Christianity, law and order to India A temporary occupier, whose rule will pass away without leaving any trace on Indian society A purely destructive force, whose crimes in India have no meaning at all for the history of mankind
5. 5. Which debate in the House of Commons does the article mention at its start?

   The debate on the Corn Laws The debate on the Ten Hours’ Bill The debate on India The debate on Irish famine relief
6. 6. Which of these does Marx not list among the agents of India’s regeneration?

   A restored Mogul empire The free press A new class educated in European science The native army trained by British drill-sergeants
7. 7. With what image does the second article end?

   The hideous pagan idol who would drink nectar only from the skulls of the slain The sorcerer who can no longer control the powers of the nether world he has called up The phoenix that rises renewed from the ashes of the society it has burned The car of Juggernaut, crushing the worshippers who throw themselves beneath it
8. 8. Whose verses about Timur does Marx quote at the end of the first article?

   Hölderlin’s Goethe’s Byron’s Schiller’s
9. 9. Why does Marx think railways will lead to industry in India?

   The British plan to build cotton mills along every line, as they have promised Parliament Cheap transport will ruin Indian agriculture and drive the peasants into the towns Indian merchants will put their hoards into railway shares, and afterwards into cotton factories A country with iron and coal cannot run railways without the industrial processes they need
10. 10. What example does Marx give of “social destitution in the midst of natural plenty”?

    Gold mined in Mysore while the miners’ villages starved, for want of wages Cotton rotting at Bombay while Lancashire mills stood idle, for want of ships Grain cheap at Kandeish while people starved at Poonah, for want of roads Rice exported from Bengal while its own people starved, for want of money
11. 11. How does Marx describe the misery inflicted by the British on Hindostan?

    Essentially the same as under the Moguls, only better organised and more efficient Milder than the earlier conquests, since it left village life untouched Purely political, a mere change of masters that left Indian society as it had always been Essentially different and infinitely more intensive than all it suffered before
12. 12. When is the first article, “The British Rule in India”, dated?

    London, 10 June 1853 Paris, February 1848 Brussels, 1847 London, 1867
13. 13. What gives “a particular kind of melancholy” to the present misery of the Hindoo, according to Marx?

    The rule of the Moguls The decline of religion The heat of the climate and the failure of the monsoon Losing his old world without gaining a new one
14. 14. What does Marx say the idyllic village communities had always been, despite their inoffensive appearance?

    Centres of industry Seeds of democracy Bases of resistance to every foreign conquest The solid foundation of Oriental despotism
15. 15. How, according to Marx, was English supremacy established in India?

    By invitation of the Mogul emperor, who asked the Company to keep order in his realm By a single decisive battle at Plassey, after which all India submitted at once While all Indian powers fought all, the Briton rushed in and subdued them By peaceful trade alone, as the Company bought up the lands of bankrupt princes
16. 16. Where, according to Marx, does the barbarism of bourgeois civilisation “go naked”?

    In the factories In the colonies In the churches In parliament
17. 17. In the official report Marx quotes, who is the potail?

    The headman, who settles disputes and collects revenue The boundary-man, who guards the village limits and gives evidence on them The village accountant, who keeps the records of cultivation The village priest, who performs the rites and keeps the calendar
18. 18. Which department of government did the British neglect entirely?

    Finance War Public works Law courts
19. 19. What happened, according to Marx, to the Arabs, Turks, Tartars and Moguls who conquered India before the British?

    They stayed a separate caste, never adopting the customs of their subjects They soon became Hindooized, conquered by the superior civilisation of their subjects They destroyed Hindu civilisation and imposed their own religion and laws on India They left India after a few generations, unable to hold it against native revolts
20. 20. Which three departments of government does Marx say Asian states have had from immemorial times?

    Justice (the village courts), Religion (the temple lands), and Trade (the caravans) Army (defence of the frontier), Navy (the coasting trade), and Treasury (the land-tax) Revenue (the land-tax), Police (order in the villages), and Education (the Brahmins) Finance (plunder of the interior), War (plunder of the exterior), and Public Works
21. 21. What does Marx say explains why once-cultivated territories like Palmyra and Petra are now desert?

    Artificial fertility that decays once a central government neglects irrigation Overpopulation that exhausted the soil after centuries of continuous cultivation A slow change of climate that dried up the rivers and springs of Arabia and Persia Plagues and famines brought in by the caravans that once made these cities rich
22. 22. What will strengthen and perpetuate India’s political unity, according to Marx?

    The cotton trade The English language alone The Anglican church The electric telegraph
23. 23. To which country does Marx compare Hindostan?

    Germany Russia Spain Italy
24. 24. When will Indians reap the fruits of the new elements of society, according to Marx?

    When the railways are complete and Indian cotton is sold freely on the English and European market When Indians have been educated in English schools and admitted to the higher civil service When the East India Company’s charter expires and India is governed directly by the British Crown When the industrial proletariat rules Britain, or Indians grow strong enough to throw off the yoke
25. 25. Whose description of the old Dutch East India Company does Marx quote to characterise the British company?

    Lord Clive, the victor of Plassey Edmund Burke, at the trial of Warren Hastings Sir Stamford Raffles, Governor of Java Adam Smith
26. 26. How does Marx sum up the interests of Britain’s ruling classes in India until now?

    The aristocracy wanted to civilise it, the church to convert it, and the City merchants to trade with it The landlords wanted to settle it, the bankers to lend to it, the army to garrison it The crown wanted to annex it, the Company to govern it, and Parliament to leave it well alone The aristocracy wanted to conquer it, the moneyocracy to plunder it, the millocracy to undersell it
27. 27. From 1818 to 1836, by what proportion did the export of British twist (yarn) to India rise?

    1 to 50,000 1 to 10 1 to 5,200 1 to 500
28. 28. What social system does Marx say resulted from central public works and the union of farming and handicraft?

    Free city-states ruled by merchant guilds and councils Feudal manors held by military chiefs Nomadic tribes under hereditary chiefs The village system of self-governing communities
29. 29. What happened to the population of Dacca, famous for its fabrics?

    It rose to a million inhabitants It stayed the same It fell from 150,000 to 20,000 It doubled
30. 30. Who, according to Marx, broke up the Indian hand-loom and destroyed the spinning-wheel?

    The Mogul emperors The Mahrattas The Portuguese traders The British intruder
31. 31. What is Marx’s view of the idea of a golden age of Hindostan?

    He says it lasted until 1800 He does not share it He places it in the Mogul era He accepts it fully
32. 32. Why, according to Marx, did an economic function devolve on Asiatic governments?

    Agriculture depended on great landed estates, which only the state could own and manage as a whole Agriculture depended on artificial irrigation by canals and waterworks, needing central organisation Trade depended on long caravan routes, which only a central power could guard against desert bandits Manufacture depended on royal workshops, whose cottons were sold by the state to European merchants