History Optional · Paper II · Modern India
British Expansion in India Notes · PYQs · Solved Answers
Free notes, every previous year question and the solved answers for British Expansion in India (Paper II, Modern India), arranged so you can read a topic and immediately see how UPSC has asked it. Syllabus: Bengal, Mysore, the Marathas, the Punjab, paramountcy over the princely states.
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1985–2025
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40
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Paper II · Unit 02
British Expansion in India notes
Topic-wise notes for this unit in syllabus order. Read a topic, then open its previous year questions below.
Free notes
Free practice
Previous year questions: British Expansion in India
Every question UPSC has asked from this unit, year-wise, with a link to its solved answer.
Topic-wise question list
Year-wise question papers
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UPSC History Optional Question Paper 2026
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UPSC History Optional Question Paper 2025
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History Optional Question Paper: 2024
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History Optional Question Paper: 2023
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History Optional Question Paper: 2012
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History Optional Question Paper: 2011
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History Optional Question Paper: 2013
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History Optional Question Paper: 2014
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History Optional Question Paper: 2015
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History Optional Question Paper: 2016
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History Optional Question Paper: 2017
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History Optional Question Paper: 2018
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History Optional Question Paper: 2019
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History Optional Question Paper: 2021
History PYQ Master Pack
Solved PYQ answers: British Expansion in India
Topic-wise model answers, newest exam year first. Members open the full answer; everyone else sees the question and can join the pack.
PYQ Solutions
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“The seeds of domestic dissensions were thickly and deeply sown in the Maratha system under the Peshwas.”
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“The Sikh monarchy was Napoleonic in the suddenness of its rise, the brilliancy of its success and the completeness of its overthrow.” Critically examine.
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Twenty years of peace secured by the treaty of Salbai proved very costly to the Marathas in strategic terms. Elucidate.
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“Haidar Ali was born to build an empire, and Tipu Sultan to lose one”. Comment.
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‘The Treaty of Amritsar (1809) was significant for its immediate as well as potential effects’. Critically examine.
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‘The Battle of Plassey (1757) was a skirmish while the Battle of Buxar (1764) was a real war’. Critically examine.
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While individually the Marathas were clever and brave, they lacked the corporate spirit so essential for national independence. Discuss with reasons.
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The East India Company had thought that they had found an ideal puppet in Mir Kasim. Mir Kasim, however, belied the expectation of the company. Examine critically.
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Critically examine: Tipu Sultan had little success in setting forth a course of change significantly different from the general experience of the 18th century crisis of Indian politics and society where public life tended over and over to become a system of plundering.
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Critically examine: “Maharaja Ranjit Singh died in 1839. His death was the signal for an outburst of anarchy all over the Punjab.”
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Do you subscribe to the view that the Anglo-French tussle in Carnatic demonstrated the internal decay of the provincial chieftains of South India?
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“Tipu Sultan was trying to build in Mysore a strong centralised and militarised state, with ambitious territorial designs.” Critically examine.
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Underline the major considerations of the British imperial power that led to the annexation of Punjab.
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“The Maratha polity disintegrated through internal stress.” Critically comment in 150 words.
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‘Annexation of Punjab was part of a broad north-west frontier policy set in motion after the exit of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.’ Critically examine.
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“Punjab’s fate after Ranjit Singh was foredoomed as the impulse of neo-Victorian Imperialism was bound to overwhelm it.” Elucidate.
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How did the East India Company become the de jure power in India?
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Why was Mysore considered a threat by the British to their possessions and mercantile interests in the south? Do you think that Tipu Sultan’s posturing became his undoing?
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Examine the circumstances which led to the Third Mysore War. Could Cornwallis have avoided it?
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Examine the essential principles of the Subsidiary Alliance system. How far did it contribute in making the British Company the supreme sovereign authority in India?
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‘Upon the whole, then, I conclude that the treaty of Bassein was wise, just and a politic measure.’ Comment.
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‘The Treaty of Salbai (1782) was neither honourable to the English nor advantageous to their interests.’ Comment.
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“The rise and expansion of British empire was an accident rather than the result of a deliberate policy and design.” Critically examine this statement.
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“The verdict at Plassey was confirmed by the English victory at Buxar.” Comment.
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‘Dalhousie changed the map of India with speed and thoroughness no campaign could equal.’ Comment.
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Sir Charles Napier said, “We have no right to seize Sind, yet we shall do so, and a very advantageous, useful, human piece of rascality it will be”. Comment.
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The British “fought the First Maratha War in a period when their fortunes were at the lowest ebb”. Comment.
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The British conquered India “in a fit of absent mindedness.” Comment.
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The British policy towards Indian States in 1818-1858 was one of “isolation and noninterference tempered by annexation.” Comment.
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“The verdict of Plassey was confirmed by the English victory at Buxar.” Comment.
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‘This Anglo-Maratha War covering nearly nine years from the murder of Narayan Rao to the Treaty of Salbye emphatically discloses the vitality of the Maratha nation which had not been exhausted either by the disaster of Panipat or the death of their great Peshwa Madhavrao.’ Comment.
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Explain the British policy of ‘Subordinate union’ of Indian States with British India from 1858 to 1905. How did the Government of India implement this policy during this period?
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The British conquest of Sind was both a political and moral sequel to the first Afghan War. Comment.
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How did the British establish their control over Maharashtra in the first two decades of the 19th century? Why did the Maratha challenge ultimately collapse?
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‘The treaty of Bassein, by its direct and indirect operations, gave the Company the Empire of India.’ Comment.
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‘We have no right to seize Sind, yet we shall do so, and a very advantageous, useful and human piece of rascality it will be.’ Comment
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“…the hunt of the Pindaris became merged in the Third Maratha War.” Comment
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‘The revolution of 1760 (Bengal) was really no revolution.’ Comment
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‘Upon the whole, then, I conclude that the treaty of Bassein was wise, just and a politic measure.’ Comment
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“Thus ended the famous battle of Buxar, on which depended the fate of India and which was as gallantly disputed as was important in its results.” Comment
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