Question

Could life get any worse? Your kingdom's treasury is dwindling, and revenue collection is getting harder. Now, the Governor-General of the English East India Company has announced a new policy which empowers the Company to take over territories of rulers who don't have a natural heir. This will lead to a lot of trouble for you, because you don't have an heir to pass the throne to!

Identify the policy and the Governor-General who introduced it.

• A. Doctrine of Lapse, Lord Dalhousie
• B. Doctrine of Lapse, Lord Wellesley
• C. Subsidiary Alliance, Lord Dalhousie
• D. Subsidiary Alliance, Lord Wellesley

Answer 1

The correct option is A Doctrine of Lapse, Lord Dalhousie

The Governor-General of the English East India Company, Lord Dalhousie, introduced a policy called the Doctrine of Lapse. Doctrine of Lapse is a policy that helped the English East India Company take over territories of rulers who didn’t have a natural heir. Annexation in the absence of a natural heir was enforced in the cases of Satara, Jaitpur and Sambalpur, Baghat, Chota Udaipur, Jhansi, and Nagpur.