CBSE Class 11-commerce Answered

Indian economy under the British colonial regime remained basically agrarian as about 85 percent of the people lived in villages and survived with the agricultural activity. Indian agriculture was stagnated because of the various systems of land settlement which were introduced by the colonial government particularly under the Zamindari system.

The motive behind the systematic decentralisation put in effect by the British in pre-independent India was to use India as an exporter of raw materials for the modern industries in Britain and expand the Indian market for finished product of those industries.

The structure and the volume of foreign trade were adversely affected because of the restrictive policies of commodity production, trade and tariff pursued by the colonial government.