British Policies and Impacts: Economy, Land Revenue, and Education

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the economic policies, land revenue settlements, industrial exploitation, drain of wealth, and educational reforms introduced under British colonial rule in India.

Fundamental changes

Very basic and important changes that transformed the economic and social life of the Indian people during British rule.

Cash crops

Crops grown specifically in order to be sold in the market, such as indigo, cotton, jute, poppy, and sugarcane.

Permanent Settlement

A land revenue system introduced by Lord Cornwallis in 1793 in Bengal and Bihar where zamindars were recognized as hereditary owners of land and paid a fixed cash revenue to the British.

Lord Cornwallis

The British official who introduced the Permanent Settlement land revenue system in Bengal and Bihar in 1793.

Ryots

Indian peasants or tenant farmers who engaged in actual cultivation of land.

Ryotwari System

A land revenue system introduced in 1820 by Alexander Reed and Thomas Munro in Madras, Bombay, Assam, and Coorg, where revenue settlements were made directly with the cultivators and revised every 20 to 30 years.

Mahalwari System

A land revenue system introduced in parts of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, North-West provinces, and Punjab, where periodically revised settlements were made village by village or estate (Mahal) by estate with landlords or heads of families.

Dhaka muslin

A fine, high-quality cotton textile produced in Dhaka that was in high demand across European markets.

Open market

A market where it is easy to buy and sell goods freely.

One way free trade

A colonial trade policy where British manufacturers paid no duties on goods imported into India, while heavy duties were imposed on Indian textiles and goods exported to England.

Drain of Wealth

The systematic transfer of Indian economic resources and riches to Britain without India receiving any adequate economic or material return.

Dadabhai Naoroji

The prominent nationalist known as the 'Grand Old Man of India' who articulated the Drain of Wealth theory in his 1871 book 'Poverty and Un-British Rule in India'.

Investments

The British East India Company's practice of purchasing Indian goods using the territorial tax revenues of Bengal to export to England.

Diwani of Bengal

The formal right to collect and manage the territorial revenues of Bengal, acquired by the British East India Company in 1765.

John Sullivan's Sponge Metaphor

A remark by the President of the Board of Revenue in Madras characterizing the colonial financial drain: 'Our system acts very much like a sponge, drawing up all the good things from the banks of the Ganges, and squeezing them down on the banks of the Thames'.

Pathshalas and Maktabs

Traditional 18th-century elementary schooling institutions in India that provided predominantly religious education to the upper classes for Hindus and Muslims, respectively.

Charter Act of 1813

An act of the British Parliament that sanctioned an annual expenditure of one lakh rupees for the promotion of education among Indians.

Orientalists

Participants in the British educational debate who advocated for traditional Indian learning through the medium of native vernacular languages.

Anglicists

A faction led by Thomas Macaulay that favored the dissemination of Western education through the medium of the English language.

Wood's Despatch (1854)

An educational policy dispatch by Sir Charles Wood establishing Western education as the goal of colonial policy, declaring English as the medium for higher learning, vernaculars for mass education, and proposing universities.

Department of Public Instruction

A specialized provincial body placed under the charge of a Director across each of the Company's five territories to oversee educational progress and submit annual reports.

Grants-in-aid

A system recommended by Wood's Despatch to encourage private educational enterprises, provided they employed qualified teachers and maintained teaching standards.

University of Bombay

One of the three premier universities established in India in 1857 modeled after the University of London following the recommendations of Wood's Despatch.

Roorkee College of Engineering

An engineering institution established in colonial India reflecting the educational emphasis on technical and vocational training.

Fostering

Helping an idea or institution develop over an extended period of time.

Link language

A common language, specifically English in colonial India, that connected people living in different regions and strengthened the bond of national unity.