Before its independence in 1947, Britain ruled India as a

Question

Before its independence in 1947, Britain ruled India as a colony and they would relinquish power  only after a long struggle by the native people.

A. Before its independence in 1947, Britain ruled India as a colony and they would relinquish power

B. Before independence in 1947, Britain had ruled India as a colony and relinquished power

C. Before its independence in 1947, India was ruled by Britain as a colony and they relinquished power

D. Before independence in 1947, India had been ruled as a colony by Britain, which relinquished power

E. Before independence in 1947, India had been a colony of the British, who relinquished power

I couldn't understand their explanation for a particular option , will be posting the explanation later.

daagh · Answer

D looks to me better than E since in E, the term the British seems to refer to British People and to say that the people relinquished power is less elegant than a country relinquished power. India and Britain are nations and the equation between nations seems more balanced than equation between a nation and the people. A and B are dropped due to misplaced modification. C has an arguable - they.-

I may be far off in my contention from that of MGMAT; after all they ought to know better.

I may be far off in my contention from that of MGMAT; after all they ought to know better.

Raths · Answer

I narrowed down to D and E and then chose D over E , but the MGMAT says that it is E . They even gave some
explanation which says why E over D , but i couldn't understand it.

Here is what they said...

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 modifer "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.

cheeringbuddha · Answer

I do not think usage of "Who" is correct with a country name. Option D looks correct.

gmat1011 · Answer

I don't think "British" refers to a country - it refers to a nationality, a type of people; so "who" can go with British.

daagh · Answer

True - The British in E refers to the people of Britain. But my doubt is,whether India
was a colony of the country of Britain or the people of Britain. Another example:  Japan attacked the U.S / The Japanese attacked the U.S  . Which usge is more befitting and customary ? A country being attacked by another country or a country being attacked by another country's people?

adishail · Answer

It implies - before Britain's independence. Hence, incorrect. The part before the comma is modifying the noun. Remember - Noun modifier has to touch the noun it modifies   A. Before its independence in 1947, Britain ruled India as a colony and they would relinquish power

Same as A  B. Before independence in 1947, Britain had ruled India as a colony and relinquished power

They - who ? India or Britain. It is not clear what is the antecedent of the pronoun THEY  C. Before its independence in 1947, India was ruled by Britain as a colony and they relinquished power

The relative pronoun WHICH can only refer to THINGS   D. Before independence in 1947, India had been ruled as a colony by Britain, which relinquished power

Modifier correctly modifies INDIA. Relative pronoun refers to people of Britain E. Before independence in 1947, India had been a colony of the British, who relinquished power

Raths · Answer

Can sm1 explain what they are trying to explain in option D.

scheol79 · Answer

I answered E.

I eliminated D because it was written in passive voice and because 'ruled as a colony by' was redundant compared with 'a colony of.'

MGMAT OE simply states that D's nonsensical because British (people), not Britain (Country), rule another nation.

However, I agree with Daagh. I don't see why you can't write 'Britain ruled India'.

Britain ruled India vs British ruled India. Britain actually sounds more natural to my ears.

Edit: Below is the response from a MGMAT staff.

"ruled as a colony" is unclear.

the gmat doesn't tolerate this sort of circumlocution. you have to say things directly.
i.e., if india WAS a colony, then you have to say that it WAS a colony.
"ruled as a colony" doesn't necessarily mean that; it could just signify that india was ruled as though it were a colony, even though it wasn't one.

--

analogy:

joe was a slave --> he was actually a slave.
joe was treated as a slave --> he probably wasn't a slave.

same problem in (d).

scheol79 · Answer

There's nothing wrong with 'which'. Which can modify Britain.

dimitri92 · Answer

India had been ruled as a colony by Britain  .. it is unclear what this means.

-it  could  mean that india was ruled by britain and it was a british colony .. in this case, it is redundant to say  ruled as a colon y because if india was ruled by britain, then it, surely, was a british colony.
-it  could  also mean that india was ruled (don't know by whom) in a way a colony was ruled by britain .. this totally changes the meaning

i don't think the use of  which  is incorrect here. HTH.

naveenhv · Answer

I went with D. But it appears that E is the correct one. 'Ruled as a colony' is open to interpretation while a 'Colony' is 'ruled' by default.

Before its independence in 1947, Britain ruled India as a

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