Short Answer TypeWhen Gandhiji returned to India in 1915 he observed a few changes in India. Mention any two such changes.
”The annexation of Awadh displaced not just the Nawab but also dispossessed the taluqdars of the region, causing break down of an entire social order.” Critically examine the statement.
”The annexation of Awadh displaced not just the Nawab but also dispossessed the taluqdars of the region, causing break down of an entire social order.”
(i) The countryside of Awadh was dotted with the estates and forts of taluqdars who for many generations had controlled land and power in the countryside.
(ii) Before the coming of the British, taluqdars maintained armed retainers, built forts, and enjoyed a degree of autonomy, as long as they accepted the suzerainty of the Nawab and paid the revenue of their taluqas.
(iii) Some of the bigger taluqdars had as many as 12,000 foot soldiers and even the smaller ones had about 200.
(iv) The British were unwilling to tolerate the power of the taluqdars. Immediately after the annexation, the taluqdars were disarmed and their forts destroyed.
(v) The British land revenue policy further undermined the position and authority of the taluqdars. After annexation, the first British revenue settlement, known as the Summary Settlement of 1856, was based on the assumption that the taluqdars were interlopers with no permanent stakes in land: they had established their hold over land through force and fraud.
”Some scholars see partition as a culmination of communal politics.” Examine the statement.
On the given political outline map of India five important places of the Revolt of 1857 have been marked as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Identify them and write their names on the lines drawn near them.
Long Answer TypeRead the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follows:
The Malabar Coast (Present-day Kerala)
Here is an excerpt from Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, composed by an anonymous Greek sailor (c. first century CE):
They (i.e. traders from abroad) send large ships to these market-towns on account of the great quantity and bulk of pepper and malabathrum (possibly cinnamon, produced in these regions). There are imported here, in the first place, a great quantity of coin; topaz … antimony (a mineral used as a colouring substance), coral, crude glass, copper, tin, lead … There is exported pepper, which is produced in quantity in only one region near these markets
… Besides this there are exported great quantities of fine pearls, ivory, silk cloth, … transparent stones of all kinds, diamonds and sapphires, and tortoise shell.
Archaeological evidence of a bead-making industry, using precious and semi-precious stones, has been found in Kodumanal (Tamil Nadu). It is likely that local traders brought the stones mentioned in the Periplus from sites such as these to the coastal ports.
(1) Explain the importance of Malabar Coast.
(2) How did the exchange of goods take? Explain with example.
(3) Explain the working of the bead making industry.
(4) Who used these land and river routes?
OR
The importance of boundaries
The Manusmrti is one of the best-known legal texts of early India, written in Sanskrit and compiled between c. second century BCE and c. second century CE. This is what the text advises the king to do: Seeing that in the world controversies constantly arise due to the ignorance of boundaries, he should … have … concealed boundary markers buried – stones, bones, cow’s hair, chaff, ashes, potsherds, dried cow dung, bricks, coal, pebbles and sand. He should also have other similar substances that would not decay in the soil buried as hidden markers at the intersection of boundaries.
(1) Why did the controversies of boundaries arise? Explain.
(2) Suggest the ways to solve the boundary problems.
(3) Explain with example any such problem being faced by India today.
How were the Panchayats formed during sixteenth and seventeenth centuries? Explain their functions and authorities.
OR
Explain the origin, consolidation and the role of Zamindar in the villages. Were they an exploitative class?
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