(a) "The Sikh monarchy was Napoleonic in the suddenness of its rise, the brilliancy of its success and the completeness of its overthrow." (10 marks)

(b) "The seeds of domestic dissensions were thickly and deeply sown in the Maratha system under the

Question

Critically examine the following statements in about 150 words each:

(a) "The Sikh monarchy was Napoleonic in the suddenness of its rise, the brilliancy of its success and the completeness of its overthrow." (10 marks)

(b) "The seeds of domestic dissensions were thickly and deeply sown in the Maratha system under the Peshwas." (10 marks)

(c) "Bhagat Singh and his comrades significantly expanded the meaning and scope of revolution, redefining it beyond mere political upheaval to include social and ideological transformation." (10 marks)

(d) "The significant feature of the Indian Councils Act of 1892 was the principle of election which it introduced, though the word 'election' was very carefully avoided in it." (10 marks)

(e) "The colonial rule opened the Indian markets for British-manufactured goods and led to 'deindustrialization' or destruction of indigenous handicraft industries." (10 marks)

UPSC Answer Check · Accepted Answer

(a) Sikh monarchy

The rise was indeed sudden: Ranjit Singh, leader of the Sukerchakia misl, took Lahore in 1799, subdued rival misls, and added Multan (1818), Kashmir (1819) and Peshawar (1834). His Fauj-i-Khas, trained by European officers such as Ventura and Allard, and a revenue system run by Hindu, Muslim and Sikh ministers made the Punjab the last major independent power in India. The analogy has limits. Unlike Napoleon, Ranjit Singh accepted a check on expansion at the Treaty of Amritsar (1809), which fixed the Sutlej as his boundary with the British. His state rested on personal authority rather than codified institutions, so after his death in 1839 succession disputes, court factions (the Dogras, the Sandhawalias) and a politicised Khalsa army destroyed it within a decade: the Anglo-Sikh wars (1845–46, 1848–49), the Treaty of Lahore (1846) and annexation in 1849. The overthrow was complete as a state, but Sikh identity and later reform movements survived (J.S. Grewal).

(b) Dissensions under the Peshwas

The statement has force. The Peshwa's rise shifted power from the Chhatrapati to Pune, and the great sardars (Scindia, Holkar, Gaikwad, Bhonsle) held saranjams and armies of their own, so loyalty was negotiated rather than commanded. Family feuds struck the centre: Raghunathrao's rivalry with Madhavrao I, the murder of Narayanrao (1773) and Raghunathrao's alliance with Bombay led to the first Anglo-Maratha war. The Barbhai council and the rivalry of Nana Phadnavis and Mahadji Scindia divided policy, and after 1795 Baji Rao II's weakness let Scindia and Holkar fight openly; Holkar's victory near Poona (1802) drove the Peshwa to the Treaty of Bassein (1802). Brahmin dominance of the bureaucracy and revenue farming added social and fiscal strains. Yet the system also showed resilience, recovering after Panipat and dominating north India under Mahadji. The seeds were real, but British diplomacy, subsidiary alliances and superior military organisation turned them into collapse by 1818 (G.S. Sardesai, Stewart Gordon).

(c) Bhagat Singh and the meaning of revolution

Bhagat Singh and his comrades moved revolutionary nationalism from individual heroism towards a socialist programme. Through the Naujawan Bharat Sabha (1926) and the renaming of the HRA as the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (1928), they tied independence to the end of exploitation of man by man. In court (1929–30) Bhagat Singh defined revolution as a change in the existing order, not "the cult of the bomb and pistol"; the Assembly bomb was thrown "to make the deaf hear" and deliberately harmed no one. His writings, including "Why I am an Atheist", and Bhagwati Charan Vohra's "Philosophy of the Bomb" attacked communalism, caste and religious obscurantism, and "Inquilab Zindabad" became a mass slogan. The 1929 hunger strike, in which Jatin Das died, made prisoners' rights a national cause. Limits remain: the organisation was small, the Saunders killing (1928) kept it linked to violence, and Bhagat Singh himself later rejected individual terrorism in favour of mass organisation. The statement holds for ideas more than for organised achievement (Bipan Chandra).

(d) Indian Councils Act, 1892

The statement is largely accurate. The Act enlarged the councils and allowed bodies such as municipalities, district boards, universities, chambers of commerce and landholders' associations to "recommend" members, whom the Governor-General or Governor then nominated. This was indirect election in substance, but the word was avoided because the British denied that India was ready for representative government. It met part of the Congress demand, and members could now discuss the budget and ask questions, though not supplementary questions or vote on the budget. Its limits were sharp: official majorities stayed, the electorates were narrow and propertied, and nominations could be refused. The Morley–Minto reforms of 1909 made the principle explicit, with separate electorates. The significance of 1892 lies in conceding, without naming it, the representative principle on which later reforms built.

(e) Deindustrialisation

The claim is broadly valid but needs qualification. The end of the Company's trade monopoly (1813) and one-way free trade flooded India with Lancashire cloth; import duties were kept low and removed on most cotton goods in 1882, and a countervailing excise was imposed on Indian mill cloth in 1896. Handloom weaving, spinning and urban crafts such as those of Dhaka and Murshidabad collapsed, and India became an exporter of raw cotton and indigo. Nationalist economists such as R.C. Dutt made this central, and Amiya Kumar Bagchi's estimate for Gangetic Bihar shows the share of industrial workers falling from about 18.6% (1809–13) to 8.5% (1901). Revisionists such as Morris D. Morris, Marika Vicziany and Tirthankar Roy argue that the decline was uneven, that handloom weaving survived in coarse and specialised cloth, and that a modern mill industry grew from the 1850s. The verdict is that colonial trade policy destroyed much of the traditional textile economy, though the scale and uniformity of deindustrialisation remain debated.

(a) "The Sikh monarchy was Napoleonic in the suddenness of its rise, the brilliancy of its success and the completeness of its…

Model answer

(a) Sikh monarchy

(b) Dissensions under the Peshwas

(c) Bhagat Singh and the meaning of revolution

(d) Indian Councils Act, 1892

(e) Deindustrialisation

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