BCS Written History key terms

A 1793 revenue system introduced by Lord Cornwallis in Bengal that fixed land tax in perpetuity and made zamindars recognised proprietors of land, converting them into tax-collecting landlords dependent on the colonial state.

A colonial land revenue arrangement, associated with Thomas Munro in Madras, that assessed tax directly on individual cultivators (ryots) rather than on intermediary landlords, with periodic revision of the demand.

A nineteenth-century revenue settlement in parts of northern and central India that assessed tax on a village or estate (mahal) as a unit, holding co-sharers jointly responsible for payment.

A hereditary revenue intermediary who collected land tax from cultivators for the state and retained a share, later often treated as a landlord under colonial settlement policy.

A policy applied by Lord Dalhousie whereby a princely state without a natural heir was annexed rather than permitting an adopted son to succeed, used to justify acquisitions such as Satara and Jhansi.

A treaty system perfected by Lord Wellesley under which an Indian ruler accepted British troops in his territory, paid for their upkeep, surrendered control of foreign relations, and received protection.

A widespread armed uprising beginning with Indian soldiers' revolt at Meerut and Delhi, driven by military grievances, agrarian distress and fears about religious change, which the British suppressed and later called the Mutiny.

A political organisation founded in 1885 that became the principal vehicle of Indian nationalism, shifting from petitionary politics to mass agitation for self-rule under leaders such as Gandhi and Nehru.

The 1905 division of Bengal by Lord Curzon into a Muslim-majority eastern province and a western province, which provoked the Swadeshi agitation and was annulled in 1911.

A nationalist campaign from 1905 urging boycott of British goods and promotion of indigenous industry and education, marking a turn toward mass mobilisation and economic nationalism in Bengal and beyond.

A political party founded in 1906 at Dhaka to safeguard Muslim political interests, which later adopted the demand for a separate Muslim state and led the Pakistan movement.

The 1940 resolution of the All-India Muslim League, moved by A. K. Fazlul Huq, demanding autonomous Muslim-majority regions in the north-west and east of India, later interpreted as the demand for Pakistan.

A mass campaign launched by Gandhi in 1920-22 urging Indians to withdraw cooperation from British institutions through boycott of courts, schools and councils, suspended after violence at Chauri Chaura.

Gandhi's 1930 march to Dandi to make salt in defiance of the colonial salt monopoly, launching civil disobedience that drew mass participation and international attention to Indian demands for self-rule.

The 1947 division of British India into the dominions of India and Pakistan amid communal violence and mass migration, accompanied by the partition of Bengal and Punjab provinces.

The boundary drawn in 1947 by a commission chaired by Cyril Radcliffe dividing Punjab and Bengal between India and Pakistan, whose hastily fixed alignment left lasting disputes.

A campaign in East Pakistan, culminating in police firing in Dhaka on 21 February 1952, demanding recognition of Bengali as a state language; it is commemorated as International Mother Language Day.

The 1971 armed struggle of East Pakistan, supported by India, against West Pakistani rule, resulting in the independence of Bangladesh after the surrender of Pakistani forces in December 1971.

The provisional government of Bangladesh formed in April 1971 at Mujibnagar, with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as president in absentia, which directed the liberation struggle and sought international recognition.

A 1966 programme launched by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman demanding greater autonomy for East Pakistan, including separate fiscal and foreign-exchange arrangements, widely seen as a precursor to independence.

The Mughal ranking system fixing each officer's numerical rank (zat) and cavalry obligation (sawar), determining salary, status and military duty, and forming the empire's administrative and military backbone.

A Mughal assignment of land revenue from a specified area granted to an official in lieu of salary, which was transferable and revocable rather than hereditary property.

The Mughal system of measuring cultivated land and assessing revenue directly on the peasantry, developed notably in the reign of Akbar, replacing cruder tribute-based extraction.

A syncretic devotional order promulgated by Akbar in 1582, centred on loyalty to the emperor and drawing on multiple religious traditions; it attracted few adherents and did not displace established religions.

A grant of revenue rights over a region assigned to a military or administrative officer in the Delhi Sultanate, entitling him to collect revenue in return for service and maintenance of troops.

Village and district councils in Chola South India, notably the ur and sabha, which managed local revenue, irrigation and temple affairs, documented in inscriptions and valued as evidence of decentralised governance.

A copper-plate or stone record documenting the donation of land or revenue rights to Brahmins or temples, valued by historians for evidence on land tenure, kingship and local society.

The study of coins, used by historians to date reigns, trace trade networks, read royal titles and iconography, and reconstruct economic and political change where texts are scarce.

The study and interpretation of inscriptions on stone, metal or other durable material, a principal source for Indian chronology, royal proclamations, donations and administrative practice.

A historiographical approach, associated with Ranajit Guha, that foregrounds the agency and experience of peasants, workers and other subordinate groups rather than elites in narratives of South Asian history.

An interpretation of Indian nationalism, associated with Anil Seal and John Gallagher, stressing competition among Indian elites for patronage and power rather than coherent anti-colonial ideology.

Historical writing that interprets India's past and freedom struggle through the framework of national identity and anti-colonial resistance, sometimes idealising indigenous achievements and unity.

In Edward Said's usage, a body of Western scholarship and representation that constructs the East as exotic, static and inferior, thereby supporting colonial domination; also denotes early European study of Asian languages.

A Bronze Age urban civilisation of the Indus valley and adjoining regions, known for planned cities, standardised weights, seals and undeciphered script, flourishing roughly 2600 to 1900 BCE.

The first large empire of the Indian subcontinent, founded around 321 BCE by Chandragupta and expanded under Ashoka, whose edicts on stone and pillars document administration and Buddhist patronage.

A Sanskrit treatise on statecraft attributed to Kautilya, discussing taxation, espionage, diplomacy and royal duty, and used as a key source for Mauryan and early Indian political economy.

A succession of Turkic and Afghan dynasties ruling from Delhi between the thirteenth and early sixteenth centuries, introducing Persianate administration, the iqta system and new architectural forms.

A dynasty founded by Babur in 1526 that ruled much of South Asia until the eighteenth century, noted for centralised revenue administration, mansabdari ranks and monumental architecture.

A period of cultural and intellectual revival in Europe from roughly the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, marked by humanist scholarship, classical recovery, artistic innovation and print culture.

A mechanical press using movable type, developed in fifteenth-century Europe, that lowered the cost of reproducing texts and accelerated the spread of literacy, religious reform and scientific knowledge.

The transition from handicraft to machine-based production beginning in eighteenth-century Britain, transforming labour, urban life, transport and global trade and underpinning European imperial expansion.

The process by which colonies in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean achieved political independence, mainly between the 1940s and 1970s, reshaping international order and postcolonial state building.