Hi debbiem,

I would say, using "rule" and "colony" together is in a way redudancy. When X rules Y, Y is a colony of X. One does not need to say rule as a colony. This usage is awkward.

The usage Y is a colony of X is quite common, and does not seem to make the sense ambiguous.

As no expert has highlighted this, I would like to know, is the use of "which" in option D correct?

I believe we use "which" for things. That was the main reason I chose E with "who". Please clear this.

In option D, "Britain" is a country - hence use of "which" is alright. D is wrong because of redundant use of "ruled" - a colony is always ruled by the colonizer.

In option E "British" refers to the people of Britain - hence "who" is alright.

Hello expert, i got the answer but i have one query

In gmat questions, i have never seen usage of "had been", am i wrong in generalizing the concept that options with had been will be wrong.

Yes, this generalization is wrong - "had been" is the past perfect of the verb "to be".

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

The original sentence begins with a modifier ("Before its independence") that clearly describes India, though the subject of the main clause is Britain. Moreover, "ruled India as a colony" is wordy and the verb "ruled" is in the simple past when it would be better in the past perfect (two past actions, one of which was earlier). Finally, "they" has no grammatical antecedent and "would" is not a proper tense here (the simple past is required).

(A) This choice is incorrect as it repeats the original sentence.

(B) Britain should not be the recipient of the modifier "Before its independence."

(C) The pronoun "they" has no logical antecedent. Logically it probably refers to the British, but the British do not appear in the sentence. Also, the past perfect tense would have been preferable here (had been ruled) since the ruling occurred before the relinquishing of the power.

(D) The phrase "ruled as a colony by Britain" is awkward and unclear. The placement of the modifier "by Britain" makes it unclear that the ruling is being done by Britain.

(E) CORRECT. This correctly places India as the recipient of the opening modifier. The past perfect is utilized to indicate that different times in the past. Notice that the word "ruled" has been removed from this answer choice, however, this did not result in a change of meaning. To be a colony of the British is to be ruled by the British. The exclusion of the pronoun its in the beginning of the sentence (see answer choices A and C) is incidental. The sentence would have been correct with the pronoun its as well.
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I read the explaination regarding choice D and Choice E. However I am still not clear. Below is my analysis of the choices.


(D) Before independence in 1947, India had been ruled as a colony by Britain, which relinquished power
I thought this answer is correct and the reason for the same is the modifer is used correctly and the pronoun which refers to the noun Britain ( And I thought this use of pronoun is correct here)
I am not able to understand what is wrong with the phrase India had been ruled as a colony by Britain. And I also read in the GMAT Sentence correction guide that passive construction is allowed. And to me this choice doesnot sound awkward or wordy I feel that it brings out the intended meaning clearly.


(E) Before independence in 1947, India had been a colony of the British, who relinquished power
Modifier used correctly.
who correctly refers to British ( who is used for the people)
I did not choose this option because I thought the meaning is compromised here. And I thought that India had been a colony of British is quite different from India had been ruled as a colony by British.
May be India is a colony of British.

I am not able to understand please guide.

Hey Kyle, silly but nevertheless a doubt. I don't really understand how D changes the meaning of India to a colony 'next' to Britain.

Hi Kyle,

I understand that you explained that D is wrong because of the meaning. However, choice A used “ruled India as a colony” so shouldn’t we stick with the meaning of A? We have to leave out any outside information - for all we know Britain might really have ruled India as a colony and India wasn’t an actual colony. (Try replacing Britain with “country X” and India with country Y”).

Thanks!

Option A has no special significance. It is not any more (or less) likely to be correct than the other options are. That means that we should look at all 5 options and choose the one that conveys the intended meaning, without worrying about whether that meaning differs from the meaning in option A.
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Hi Ajitesh,

Thanks for your response. If that's the case, then how can we decide which meaning is better than which? How can we know what the author intends to say? To me, the meaning of "ruled some country as a colony" can be the author's intention just as much as "being some country's colony". Please help me explain that! Thanks.

Hi shabuzen102,

That's a good question, but there are no easy answers here. Here are a few things we could do/consider:

1. Focus on official questions. If you feel that a non-official question is asking you to take an unfair/unreasonable call, let that question go.
2. (But) be open to taking a call on other questions. There are many official questions (like this one and this one and this one) in which option A does not provide us the correct meaning.
3. The intended meaning has less to do with what is possible than with what is likely. We may have to read the entire question (all 5 options) before we have enough information to make a decision.

Also, we cannot overlook the fact that the GMAT will test meaning:
From the official mba.com blog... in 2011.

There is a lot of bad advice out there about how option A always contains the intended meaning. Ignore it. And if that were actually true (about option A), what would be the point of testing meaning in the first place?
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Thanks! I will try following this strategy and see where it leads me

from Manhattan Prep, who and whom can only modify people, how come in E who is used to modify a Country is still correct?

IMO, choice D is wordy and used passive voice. It is not necessarily wrong, but it is not as good as E.
Rule and Colony are not redundant here. A can be ruled by B but not as a colony.