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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

Discuss the causes that led to the ‘economic drain’ in Bengal following the Battle of Plassey.

  • UPSC 2004
  • Economic Impact of British Colonial Rule

Before 1757 the East India Company had to ship bullion into India to pay for its purchases; within a decade of Plassey, the flow of wealth had reversed direction entirely, and it never reversed back.

You are reading the opening of the model answer. The full answer is part of the History Optional PYQ Master Pack.

What the full answer covers

  • The Shift from Trade to Political Privilege (1757-65)
  • The Grant of Diwani (1765) and the "Investment" System
  • Subsidiary Channels That Deepened the Drain
  • Administrative Failure and the Compounding of the Drain
  • Legacy: From Company Plunder to Theorised "Drain"

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