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GS History Modern India
Q.

Given below are two statements, one labeled as Assertion (A) and the other labeled as Reason (R).

Which of the following statement is/are correct?

Assertion (A): Evangelists and free trade lobby were responsible for the end of monopoly in trade of the East India Company.

Reason (R): Both these sections were to benefit if the East India Company changed its stance from being atrader to that of a ruler/administrator.

Select the correct answer using the code given below:
Explanation:
  • Evangelicalism started its crusade against Indian barbarism and advocated the permanence of British rule with a mission to change the very “nature of Hindostan”. In India the spokespersons of this idea were the missionaries located at Srirampur near Calcutta; but at home its chief exponent was Charles Grant. The principal problem of India, he argued in 1972, was the religious ideas that perpetuated the ignorance of Indian people.
  • This could be effectively changed through the dissemination of Christian light, and in this lay the noble mission of British rule in India. To convince his critics, Grant could also show a complementarity between the civilizing process and material prosperity, without any accompanying danger of dissent or desire for English liberty. His ideas were given greater publicity by William Wilberforce in the Parliament before the passage of the Charter Act of 1813, which allowed Christian missionaries to enter India without restrictions.
  • The idea of improvement and change was also being advocated by the free-trade merchants, who believed that India would be a good market for British goods and a supplier of raw materials, if the Company shifted attention from its functions as a trader to those of a ruler. Under a good government the Indian peasants could again experience improvement to become consumers of British products. Fundamentally, there was no major difference between the Evangelist and the free-trade merchant positions as regards the policy of assimilation and Anglicization. Indeed, it was the Evangelist Charles Grant who presided over the passage of the Charter Act of 1833, which took away the Company’s monopoly rights over India trade.

Thus, Option A is Correct.

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