Question

Note on the importance of surveys under colonial administration.

Answer 1

(i)The British believed that a country had to be properly known before it could be effectively administered. 

(ii)By the early nineteenth century detailed surveys were being carried out to map the entire country. In the villages, revenue surveys were conducted. 

(iii)The effort was to know the topography, the soil quality, the flora, the fauna, the local histories, and the cropping pattern – all the facts seen as necessary to know about to administer the region. From the end of the nineteenth century, Census operations were held every ten years