The Subsidiary Alliance policy is associated with which British administrator?

The Subsidiary Alliance policy is associated with which British administrator?

• A. Lord Hastings
• B. Robert Clive
• C. Lord Dalhousie
• D. Lord Wellesley

Answer: (D)

The idea being tested is how the British sought to tighten control over Indian states by creating arrangements that left defense and foreign policy in British hands while allowing rulers to maintain some local authority. The Subsidiary Alliance was crafted and pushed by Lord Wellesley during his tenure as Governor-General of India in the late 1790s and early 1800s. Under this policy, a princely state could agree to keep a permanent British army stationed within its territory and to pay for it, while surrendering responsibility for its external affairs and defense to the British. A British resident would oversee the state, and the alliance effectively placed the state under British influence and protection, reducing its real sovereignty. If a state resisted, Britain could engage militarily to enforce the terms. This policy served to curb French influence and expand British power in India, and it is therefore associated with Lord Wellesley. Other administrators had different approaches or policies (for example, earlier expansion efforts by Clive or governance by Hastings, or later doctrines like the Doctrine of Lapse under Dalhousie), but the Subsidiary Alliance is distinctly linked to Wellesley.

The idea being tested is how the British sought to tighten control over Indian states by creating arrangements that left defense and foreign policy in British hands while allowing rulers to maintain some local authority.

The Subsidiary Alliance was crafted and pushed by Lord Wellesley during his tenure as Governor-General of India in the late 1790s and early 1800s. Under this policy, a princely state could agree to keep a permanent British army stationed within its territory and to pay for it, while surrendering responsibility for its external affairs and defense to the British. A British resident would oversee the state, and the alliance effectively placed the state under British influence and protection, reducing its real sovereignty. If a state resisted, Britain could engage militarily to enforce the terms.

This policy served to curb French influence and expand British power in India, and it is therefore associated with Lord Wellesley. Other administrators had different approaches or policies (for example, earlier expansion efforts by Clive or governance by Hastings, or later doctrines like the Doctrine of Lapse under Dalhousie), but the Subsidiary Alliance is distinctly linked to Wellesley.