This question is about the British in India Study the sources (Insert) carefully and then answer the questions which follow.

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (May/June 2015). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. [1] Clive persuaded Mir Jafar to switch sides
2. [1] Nawab's opening gunfire was ineffective
3. [1] The Nawab didn't cover their cannon and muskets when it rained
4. [1] English soldiers knew how to prepare for battle in the rain better
5. [1] Nawab's muskets were useless due to the wet powder
6. [1] Mir Jafar's men unwilling to fight against the British
7. [1] Jafar had turned traitor/been corrupted by the British
8. [1] Nawab had 500 casualties to Clive's 22
9. [1] It was raining
10. [1] The Nawab's troops retreated.
11. [1] LEVEL 1: Identify surface features from the source: A British officer is riding a horse surrounded by Indians.
12. [2-3] LEVEL 2: Unsupported inferences: The British officer looks important, the British look powerful.
13. [4-5] LEVEL 3: Inference(s) supported by detail from the source and/or contextual knowledge: The painter has made the British officer the largest figure to demonstrate the importance that they held in India. Similarly the Indians are shown as small people to reflect their lowly status. Local rulers are on horseback behind the British official. They are shown as smaller, reflecting their lower status to the British. The horses are shown as large animals, graceful in appearance and movement, again showing superiority and power. This is reinforced by soldiers on horses who were carrying weapons. The East India Company is shown as being a wealthy organisation as seen in the uniforms and the decorations on the horses. The Company were able to achieve this wealth through trading as can be seen by the boat shown in the picture and through the gaining of lands through conquest and agreements with local rulers. This is shown by the weapons displayed and the wealthy appearance of the Indians that the British were also able to exploit.
14. [1] LEVEL 1: Simplistic answer: They were better.
15. [2-4] LEVEL 2: Identifies reasons: They built roads and railways and had a good army.
16. [5-7] LEVEL 3: Explains reasons: The British built a huge network of roads and later railways that meant that communication and transport links between cities became better, soldiers could travel much more easily from trouble spot to trouble spot. It also benefitted British trading links which in turn produced more wealth. The battles of Plassey and Buxar also gave the British the vast riches of Bengal and favourable trading rights to the local nawabs. This provided massive new resources which Britain could use to consolidate its control. The British also introduced governor-generals into the provinces who administered them on British lines and provided yet more control. The British army using its vast local resources and superior weapons and skills were increasingly taking control of more land.
17. [1-2] LEVEL 1: Simplistic statement: They converted people.
18. [3-4] LEVEL 2: Description/identification of reasons: Christianity was taught in schools.
19. [5-7] LEVEL 3: Explains the work of Christian missionaries OR other reasons
20. [6-9] LEVEL 4: Explains the work of Christian missionaries AND other reasons: Christian missionaries came to India to convert the local population as well as to set up schools. In these schools the missionaries taught Christianity and expected local religions to be given up which was resented by Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs alike. However, there were other reasons why the Indians opposed the British attempts to westernise them. The replacement of Persian and Sanskrit by English as the official language in the 1830s deeply upset both the Muslims and Hindus. This had the potential to threaten their languages. A number of social reforms had been imposed by the British without consultation or care for local feeling which caused much unrest. Indians had to send their children to co-educational schools which was hated since it appeared to impose the British system on the Indians without due regard to their religious and cultural feelings. Thomas Macaulay believed that European ideas of education were vastly superior to anything coming out of India and, as a result, the British imposed a system of education that promoted western values on a people who resented this interference. They were also forced to abandon purdha which had been an Indian custom for centuries. In 1795 the killing of baby daughters was declared to be murder, but the British found difficulty in enforcing this as it was again a tradition practised in many parts of India. Suttee, the ritual burning of Indian women on the funeral pyres of their husbands was also banned by the British, first in Bengal and then in the rest of the country. Although the British had been reluctant to get involved in banning this practice, there was little opposition to the outlawing of it.
21. [10] LEVEL 5: As Level 4 – also produces a judgement or evaluation