UPSC Prelims 2022 Q59: Early European Settlements in India — Explained
With reference to Indian history, consider the following statements:
1. The Dutch established their factories/warehouses on the east coast on lands granted to them by Gajapati rulers.
2. Alfonso de Albuquerque captured Goa from the Bijapur Sultanate.
3. The English East India Company established a factory at Madras on a plot of land leased from a representative of the Vijayanagara empire.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
- 1 and 2 only
- 2 and 3 only
- 1 and 3 only
- 1, 2 and 3
Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only
Statement-wise explanation
- 1: incorrect — The Gajapati (Surya) dynasty of Odisha lasted from 1434 to 1541. Its last strong king, Prataparudra, died in 1540, and Odisha fell to the Afghan rulers of Bengal in 1568. The Dutch only arrived on the Coromandel coast in the early 1600s. They got leave to trade at Masulipatnam (1605) from the Qutb Shahi ruler of Golconda, and they built a fort at Pulicat with permission from the Vijayanagara ruler. No Gajapati ruler existed to grant them land.
- 2: correct — Goa belonged to the Adil Shahi Sultanate of Bijapur. Afonso de Albuquerque occupied it in March 1510, but a Bijapuri counter-attack pushed him out in May. He took it back by assault in November 1510. Goa became Portugal's first territorial holding in Asia and later the capital of Portuguese India.
- 3: correct — On 22 August 1639, Francis Day and Andrew Cogan of the English East India Company got a strip of coastal land near Madraspatnam. The grant came from Damarla Venkatadri Nayaka, a local Nayaka serving the Vijayanagara ruler Peda Venkata Raya (Venkata III) at Chandragiri. Fort St George was begun there in 1640. The date is marked every year as Madras Day.
How to eliminate
Statement 2 is a core textbook fact: Albuquerque took Goa from Bijapur in 1510. If you know it, options keeping 2 remain, which are '1 and 2 only', '2 and 3 only' and '1, 2 and 3'. Statement 1 then falls to a dating check. The Gajapatis of Odisha were a 15th–16th-century power that ended around 1541, while the Dutch East India Company was only founded in 1602. A ruler cannot grant land to a company formed decades after their dynasty fell. With 1 gone, only '2 and 3 only' is left, so you don't need to know the Madras grant in detail. The trap is that each statement has a believable-sounding local ruler. The habit to build: put the dynasty's dates next to the European company's arrival. Facts to remember: Goa 1510 from Bijapur; Madras 1639 from a Vijayanagara Nayaka; Dutch at Masulipatnam (Golconda) and Pulicat (Vijayanagara).
Know more
Who gave Europeans their first footholds in India?
European companies did not conquer their first settlements. Most were granted, leased or bought from local rulers, and UPSC often tests which ruler it was. In the 16th–17th centuries, the south and east coasts were split between the Bijapur and Golconda sultanates (two of the five Deccan sultanates), a weakened Vijayanagara state, and its Nayakas. Vijayanagara had shifted its base to Penukonda and then Chandragiri after its defeat at Talikota in 1565.
| Power | Settlement | Year | Obtained from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portuguese | Goa | 1510 | Captured from Bijapur (Adil Shahi) |
| Dutch | Masulipatnam | 1605 | Qutb Shahi ruler of Golconda |
| Dutch | Pulicat | 1610 | Vijayanagara ruler |
| English | Masulipatnam | 1611 | Golconda |
| English | Madras | 1639 | Damarla Venkatadri Nayaka, under Vijayanagara (Chandragiri) |
| Danish | Tranquebar | 1620 | Nayaka of Thanjavur |
| French | Pondicherry | 1674 | Sher Khan Lodi, Bijapur governor |
Three points to keep straight:
- Goa was the only conquest in this list. Albuquerque's capture in 1510 was a military takeover. The others were trading grants.
- Vijayanagara outlived Talikota. It survived in reduced form at Chandragiri until the 1640s. That is how a 'Vijayanagara representative' could lease Madras in 1639.
- Gajapatis are too early. The Odisha Gajapati empire ended around 1541. In UPSC statements, a ruler-name that doesn't match the period is a common way to make a statement false.
Madras became the English headquarters on the Coromandel coast. Fort St George was the Company's first fortified settlement in India.
NCERT Concepts to Revise
- Dutch East India Company: Statement 1 is about where the Dutch company's east-coast factories came from; its founding date of 1602 is useful for checking the timeline.
- Adil Shahi dynasty: Statement 2 names the Bijapur Sultanate, which the Adil Shahi dynasty ruled when the Portuguese reached Goa.
- East India Company: Statement 3 tests who granted the English Company the land for its Madras factory.
- Deccan sultanates: Bijapur and Golconda, two of the five Deccan sultanates, controlled much of the coast where Europeans first traded.
- Battle of Talikota: Vijayanagara's defeat in 1565 shrank the empire, which matters when judging whether it could still grant land in 1639.