NIFT UG 2018 Question Paper with solutions

 The emotional appeal of imperialism never completely stilled the British conscience. However, liberal thinkers throughout the nineteenth century argued that democracy was incompatible with the maintenance of authoritarian rule over foreign people. To think empirically was to think in terms of restrictive and protective measures, in defiance of the revealed truths of classical economics. Thus, when the British government took over responsibility for India from the East India Company in 1858 , many politicians were conscious of saddling Britain with a heavy burden. In the first seventy years of the nineteenth century, enlightened British liberals looked forward to the day when India would stand on its own feet. Even in the days of colonialism, British radicals continued to protest. The self proclaimed imperialists, however honourable their motives, would place fait accompli before the country and commit blunder of incalculable consequence. The danger they felt was all the greater because British foreign policy still remained a stronghold of the aristocracy, while that related and persuasive lobby, the British officer class also had a vested interest in imperial expansion.
 It took the humiliation of the Boer to teach the British government what it would cost to hold an empire by force. However, this fact did not escape Gandhi, the supreme tactician of the Indian liberation movement. He saw that some perceptive British thinkers had much earlier recognised that Britain could not continue long to rule India except with the co-operation of many sections of its population. Once that co-operation was withdrawn, the foundation of British authority in India would crumble. Furthermore, the Indian nationalist leaders were able to exploit the aversion of the British liberal conscience to method used by the local colonial rulers in combating Indian non-cooperation.