Match List – I with List – II and select the correct answer using the code given below the lists. List – I (Governor General/Viceroy) A. Lord Dalhousie B. Lord Curzon C. Lord William Bentinck D. Lord Cornwallis List – II (Important contribution/work) 1. Permanent settlement of Bengal 2. Prohibition of Practice of Sati 3. Partition of Bengal 4. Doctrine of Lapse Code :
- (a)A-4, B-3, C-1, D-2
- (b)A-3, B-4, C-1, D-2
- (c)A-3, B-4, C-2, D-1
- (d)A-4, B-3, C-2, D-1
Correct — D, A-4, B-3, C-2, D-1. Each pairing is a fixed point of modern Indian history. A goes to 4: Lord Dalhousie, Governor-General from 1848 to 1856, formulated and applied the Doctrine of Lapse, under which an Indian state whose ruler died without a natural heir lapsed to the Company — Satara in 1848, Jaitpur and Sambalpur in 1849, Udaipur in 1852, Jhansi in 1853 and Nagpur in 1854. B goes to 3: Lord Curzon, Viceroy from 1899 to 1905, ordered the Partition of Bengal, announced in July 1905 and brought into effect on 16 October 1905, which created the new province of East Bengal and Assam and triggered the Swadeshi movement. C goes to 2: Lord William Bentinck promulgated Regulation XVII on 4 December 1829, declaring the practice of sati illegal and punishable in the courts, a measure campaigned for by Raja Ram Mohan Roy. D goes to 1: Lord Cornwallis introduced the Permanent Settlement of Bengal in 1793, fixing the land revenue demand in perpetuity and recognising the zamindars as proprietors. That gives A-4, B-3, C-2, D-1, which is option (d).
- (a)A-4, B-3, C-1, D-2 — The first two pairings are right — Dalhousie with the Doctrine of Lapse and Curzon with the Partition of Bengal — but the last two are exchanged. It credits Bentinck with the Permanent Settlement, which was Cornwallis's measure of 1793, more than thirty years before Bentinck reached India, and it credits Cornwallis with the abolition of sati, which came in 1829, long after Cornwallis's death in 1805. This is the option that catches a candidate who is sure of the two annexation-and-partition pairs and then guesses the two Bengal measures.
- (b)A-3, B-4, C-1, D-2 — Not one pairing survives. It makes Dalhousie responsible for the Partition of Bengal, which came half a century after he left; it makes Curzon the author of the Doctrine of Lapse, which was already history by his time; and it repeats the Bentinck-Cornwallis swap of option (a).
- (c)A-3, B-4, C-2, D-1 — The mirror image of option (a). Bentinck with the ban on sati and Cornwallis with the Permanent Settlement are both correct here, but the top two are reversed, putting the Partition of Bengal in Dalhousie's tenure and the Doctrine of Lapse in Curzon's. The chronology alone rules it out: Dalhousie served 1848-56 and Curzon 1899-1905.
Four Governors-General and Viceroys account for four of the most consequential acts of British rule, and each is separated from the others by decades. Cornwallis (1786-1793) built the administrative and revenue frame — the Permanent Settlement of 1793 in Bengal, Bihar and Odisha, the Cornwallis Code and the Covenanted Civil Service. William Bentinck (1828-1835), the first to be styled Governor-General of India under the Charter Act of 1833, is remembered for social legislation, above all the outlawing of sati in 1829 and the suppression of thuggee. Dalhousie (1848-1856) was the great annexer and moderniser: the Doctrine of Lapse, the annexation of Awadh in 1856 on grounds of misgovernment, the first railway line from Bombay to Thane in 1853, the telegraph and Wood's Despatch on education. Curzon (1899-1905) is defined by the Partition of Bengal of 1905, along with the Indian Universities Act and the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act of 1904.
A four-way match on Governors-General is decided fastest by date, not by memory of the pairing. Fix each name to a period — Cornwallis in the 1790s, Bentinck in the late 1820s and 1830s, Dalhousie in the 1850s, Curzon at the turn of the twentieth century — and then ask when the measure happened. The Permanent Settlement is 1793, so it can only belong to Cornwallis; the ban on sati is 1829, so it can only be Bentinck; the Doctrine of Lapse belongs to the 1850s annexations, so Dalhousie; and the Partition of Bengal is 1905, so Curzon. Two chronological anchors are enough here, because every wrong option swaps a pair rather than shuffling all four independently.
- Lord Cornwallis introduced the Permanent Settlement in 1793 for Bengal, Bihar and Odisha, fixing the revenue demand in perpetuity and making the zamindars proprietors of the land
- Lord William Bentinck's Regulation XVII of 4 December 1829 declared sati illegal and punishable by the criminal courts, first in the Bengal Presidency and soon afterwards in Madras and Bombay; Raja Ram Mohan Roy had campaigned for it
- Lord Dalhousie applied the Doctrine of Lapse to annex Satara (1848), Jaitpur and Sambalpur (1849), Udaipur (1852), Jhansi (1853) and Nagpur (1854); Awadh was annexed in 1856 on the different ground of alleged misgovernment
- Lord Curzon's Partition of Bengal was announced in July 1905 and took effect on 16 October 1905, creating the province of East Bengal and Assam; it was annulled in 1911
- William Bentinck became the first Governor-General of India under the Charter Act of 1833, the office having previously been that of Governor-General of Bengal
- Swapping Cornwallis and Bentinck between the Permanent Settlement and the ban on sati — the two options that do this account for half the choices in this question
- Confusing the Partition of Bengal of 1905 by Curzon with the partition of the Bengal Presidency's territories under earlier Governors-General, or with the 1947 partition
- Assuming Awadh was annexed under the Doctrine of Lapse; it was taken in 1856 on the ground of alleged misgovernment, which is a different justification
UPPSC almost always asks this as a match list or as a 'which pair is not correctly matched' item, keeping to the four or five best-known measures; UPSC asks the same names but goes one layer deeper — which Act redesignated the office, who created the Covenanted Civil Service, what the terms of a revenue settlement actually were.
With reference to the colonial period of Indian history, match List I (Person) with List II (Event) and select the correct answer using the codes given below the lists: List I (Person) A. MacDonald B. Linlithgow C. Dalhousie D. Chelmsford List II (Event) 1. Doctrine of Lapse 2. Communal Award 3. August Offer 4. Dyarchy Codes:
- (a) A-3 B-2 C-1 D-4
- (b) A-3 B-2 C-4 D-1
- (c) A-2 B-3 C-1 D-4
- (d) A-2 B-3 C-4 D-1
Answer(c) A-2 B-3 C-1 D-4
The identical construction — a person-to-measure match list built around the same anchor, Dalhousie with the Doctrine of Lapse. It shows how the format is solved: fix the one pairing you are certain of, then let the codes eliminate the rest.
Which one of the following pairs is not correctly matched?
- (a) Pitt's India Act — Warren Hastings
- (b) Doctrine of Lapse — Dalhousie
- (c) Vernacular Press Act — Curzon
- (d) Ilbert Bill — Ripon
Answer(c) Vernacular Press Act — Curzon
The same set of pairings tested in the negative. Doctrine of Lapse with Dalhousie stands as a correct pair, while the Vernacular Press Act belongs to Lytton in 1878, not to Curzon — a reminder that Curzon's measure in this 2025 question is the Partition of Bengal and nothing earlier.
With reference to the Civil Administration in 1905, which of the statements is/are correct ? 1. Lord Curzon decided to rearrange the provincial boundaries. 2. A new province was constituted, called East Bengal and Assam. Select the correct answer using the codes given below :
- (a) 1 only
- (b) Both 1 and 2
- (c) 2 only
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer(b) Both 1 and 2
The Curzon half of this question, expanded. It confirms that Curzon redrew provincial boundaries in 1905 and that the new province of East Bengal and Assam was created — the substance of pairing B-3.
Given below are two statements, one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other as Reason (R) : Assertion (A) : The British Government introduced different land revenue system in different part of India. Reason (R) : It led to create different classes in Indian peasantry. Select the correct answer from the codes given below.
- (a) Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A)
- (b) Both (A) and (R) are true but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A)
- (c) (A) is true but (R) is false
- (d) (A) is false but (R) is true
Answer(a) Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A)
The Cornwallis half, seen through its consequences. The Permanent Settlement was one of the several land revenue systems the British imposed in different regions, and that patchwork is what produced the different classes of Indian peasantry the assertion describes.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Permanent Settlement of Bengal was introduced in 1793 during the governor-generalship of
- (a)Warren Hastings
- (b)Lord Cornwallis
- (c)Lord Wellesley
- (d)Lord William Bentinck
Answer(b) Lord Cornwallis — the settlement of 1793 fixed the land revenue in perpetuity in Bengal, Bihar and Odisha and recognised the zamindars as proprietors.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The practice of sati was declared illegal and punishable by Regulation XVII of 1829, promulgated during the tenure of
- (a)Lord Cornwallis
- (b)Lord Hastings
- (c)Lord William Bentinck
- (d)Lord Dalhousie
Answer(c) Lord William Bentinck — the regulation of 4 December 1829 was issued in the Bengal Presidency and extended to Madras and Bombay in 1830.