Question

The British thought surveys were important for effective administration. State whether true or false.

Answer 1

Answer: The answer is true. The British did think that Surveys were critical to establish an effective administration.

• Under the colonial administration, the practice of surveying also became common.
• To have an able administration it was important to know the country thoroughly, was the belief of the British.
• To map the entire nation, detailed surveys were conducted by the early nineteenth century.
• Many other surveys were conducted like zoological surveys, forest surveys, anthropological surveys, archaeological surveys, and botanical surveys.
• In the villages, revenue surveys were done.
• In order to understand the way to administer a region, work was done to understand the cropping pattern, local histories, the fauna, the flora, soil quality and the topography.
• Every ten years, a census was carried out which began from the end of the nineteenth century.
• These censuses recorded a lot of information like occupation of people, religions, castes, population of all the provinces.