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Q.Identify the person with the help of following information : - He was a famous engineer, surveyor and cartographer. - He was appointed the first Surveyor General of India in 1815. Options : (A) Alexander Greenlaw (B) Colin Mackenzie (C) John Marshall (D) R.E.M. Wheeler

CBSECBSE Class XII Board 2024MCQ· 1mImportance★★★★★
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The first Surveyor General of India (1815) was a Scottish military engineer who combined surveying with pioneering archaeological and ethnographic documentation across South India. Colin Mackenzie fits all three descriptors perfectly.

This question tests recognition of a key figure in the early colonial mapping and documentation of India. The three clues—engineer, surveyor-cartographer, and first Surveyor General in 1815—point to someone who bridged military engineering with systematic geographical and cultural recording during the East India Company's expansion.

Let me work through each candidate against the given facts:

  1. Colin Mackenzie (Option B) was a Scottish military engineer who joined the Madras Engineers in 1783. He spent decades surveying Mysore, the Deccan, and eventually much of peninsular India, producing detailed maps and collecting thousands of manuscripts, inscriptions, and antiquities. His work went far beyond pure cartography—he documented temples, recorded local histories, and assembled what became the Mackenzie Collection. In 1815, the East India Company formalized the Survey of India and appointed him its first Surveyor General, a position he held until his death in 1821.

  2. Alexander Greenlaw (Option A) is not a recognized historical figure in Indian surveying or cartography records. No major colonial survey or engineering project bears this name. …

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