3. Effects of British Rule

(1) Civil Services

• To strengthen the British rule in India, there was a need for bureaucrats.
• Lord Cornwallis introduced bureaucracy, and Civil services became an important part of the British government.
• He restricted the private trade carried out by the company officers and, for this purpose, he increased their salary.
• For the convenience of administration, he divided the British occupied territories into districts under a District Collector.
• The officers were appointed through competitive examinations known as Indian Civil Services (ICS).

(2) Commercialisation of Agriculture

• Initially, food grains were cultivated by the farmers to fulfill their domestic needs as well as the needs of the village.
• The British Government started giving more encouragement to cash crops like cotton, indigo, tobacco, tea etc.
• The process of giving stress on the cultivation of profit-giving cash crops instead of food grains is known as the commercialisation of agriculture.

(3) Economic policies of British

• England was a modern nation where a capitalist economy prevailed due to the industrial revolution.
• The British inculcated an economic system in India which was conducive to the economic system in England.
• Due to this, the Britishers gained economic benefit, but India started facing economic exploitation.
• They made important changes in the land revenue system to increase income, which led to the severe exploitation of Indian farmers.

(1) Farmers in India became bankrupt.

• To increase income, the British made important changes in the revenue system where the payment of tax was made compulsory in the form of cash.
• If the farmer failed to pay the tax in time, his land would be confiscated.
• For payment of taxes, Indian farmers started selling the crops at whatever price they received, and merchants and brokers started purchasing their goods at a minimum rate.
• At certain times, the farmer had to mortgage his land to the money lender for the arrangement of money to pay the tax, and thus the farmer became bankrupt.

(2) There was decline of traditional industries in India.

• The British government obtained huge taxes on goods exported from India to England, whereas very less tax was imposed on goods imported from England to India.
• The goods manufactured in England were machine-made and hence there was maximum production at minimum cost.
• To compete with such cheap products was difficult for the Indian artisans.
• Eventually, it led to the closing down of traditional industries and many artisans became unemployed.