History (Term II)

Write any three points with a line of explanation each:
1. Heroic image: after 1857 the Rani was shown as a brave leader who led her people into battle and roused anger against unjust foreign rule.
2. Poetry: ballads and heroic poems praised her courage – a sword in one hand, the reins of her horse in the other, fighting for her motherland. Subhadra Kumari Chauhan's poem 'Khoob ladi mardani woh to Jhansi wali rani thi' is still read by children across India.
3. Popular prints and paintings: bazaar prints show her in battle armour, riding a horse with a raised sword – a symbol of resistance to injustice and alien rule.
4. She was often pictured as a 'masculine', warrior figure chasing the enemy and killing British soldiers, fighting till her last breath.
5. These images were later used by nationalists to inspire people, so her memory became part of the national struggle.
Tip: name at least one concrete art form (poem, print, painting) – examiners look for examples, not just 'she was brave'.

Any three reasons, each explained:
1. During World War I the British censored the press and allowed detention without trial; these controls continued after the war.
2. The war caused economic hardship – high prices, taxes, recruitment – and widespread discontent.
3. Rowlatt Act (1919): it extended the repressive wartime powers; Gandhiji called it a 'black law' and organised a countrywide protest.
4. Jallianwala Bagh massacre (April 1919) at Amritsar shocked the whole country and destroyed faith in British justice.
5. Khilafat issue: Indian Muslims were angry at the harsh treatment of the Ottoman Sultan (Khalifa); Gandhiji joined the Khilafat cause with non-cooperation to unite Hindus and Muslims.
6. Disappointment with the Government of India Act 1919 (Montagu-Chelmsford reforms).
7. The Congress sessions at Calcutta and Nagpur (1920) passed the resolution to launch non-cooperation.

Any three points:
1. Simon Commission (1928): an all-British commission sent to review Indian reforms; an all-India campaign of protest ('Simon Go Back') followed, and Lala Lajpat Rai died after being injured in a lathi charge while protesting.
2. Lahore Session of Congress (December 1929): under Jawaharlal Nehru the Congress declared 'Purna Swaraj' (complete independence) as its goal; 26 January 1930 was celebrated as Independence Day.
3. Economic depression (1929): prices of farm produce crashed and peasants and workers faced great distress, adding to unrest.
4. Salt Law: the State had a monopoly on making and selling salt and taxed an item used by every household – Gandhiji chose it as the symbol of unjust rule.
5. Growing national feeling and the failure of the government to respond to Indian demands.

Any three points:
1. Pant stressed political unity – India had to be built as one strong nation.
2. He opposed separate electorates, calling them harmful for minorities and for the nation, as they would isolate communities.
3. Every individual must be moulded into a citizen of the State; citizens, not communities, are the base of the social pyramid.
4. Each group had to be assimilated into the nation; members of all communities should act as equal members of one State.
5. There should be no 'divided loyalties' – the citizen's first loyalty must be to the State.
6. Communities could be recognised as cultural units with cultural rights, but not as separate political units.

Any three points:
1. Since the conquest of Bengal the Company faced problems in collecting revenue; officials hoped a new system would solve them.
2. In the 1770s the rural economy of Bengal was in crisis because of repeated famines (e.g. 1770) and falling farm output.
3. Officials believed that agriculture, trade and State revenue could all grow if investment in agriculture was encouraged – this needed security of property and a fixed demand.
4. So the revenue demand was fixed permanently; zamindars knew exactly what they had to pay and could keep any surplus from extending cultivation.
5. The Company wanted a regular, assured flow of revenue.
6. It hoped to create a loyal class of rich landowners / yeomen farmers who would improve the land.
Common mistake: do not describe the effects (zamindars' sunset law, auctions) – the question asks only for the reasons.

Explain about six points in sequence:
1. 1801 – Subsidiary Alliance: Awadh was forced to accept it. Under its terms the Nawab had to disband his own army.
2. British troops were posted inside the kingdom, paid for by the Nawab.
3. The Nawab became dependent on the British to keep law and order, and lost control over the rebellious chiefs and taluqdars.
4. British interest grew: Awadh's land was fertile and suited to indigo and cotton, and it was well placed to be the principal market of upper India. Lord Dalhousie said in 1851 that Awadh was 'a cherry that will drop into our mouth one day'.
5. 1856 – Annexation: the takeover completed a long process of annexation that had begun with Bengal a century earlier.
6. The excuse used was misgovernment: Nawab Wajid Ali Shah was accused of misrule and of being unpopular.
7. He was dethroned and sent away to Calcutta. In fact he was widely loved; his exile caused grief and anger, and many people followed him singing laments.
8. The annexation, followed by the summary land settlement that dispossessed taluqdars, made Awadh a major centre of the revolt of 1857.
Tip: present it as a time-line (1801 → 1851 → 1856) – that is what 'stages' means.

Points to develop with examples:
1. Hindustani: by the 1930s Congress and Mahatma Gandhi had accepted Hindustani – a mix of Hindi and Urdu, easy to understand and spoken by a large part of the people – as the national language, because it grew out of the meeting of many cultures.
2. After Partition, communal tension made Hindi and Urdu drift apart.
3. R.V. Dhulekar (United Provinces) made an aggressive plea that Hindi be the national language and that the Constitution be framed in Hindi, causing uproar.
4. Language Committee compromise: Hindi in Devanagari script would be the official language; the change to Hindi would be gradual – English would continue for official purposes for the first 15 years; each province could choose one language for its own official work.
5. Opposition from the south: S.G. Durgabai (Madras) said the campaign for Hindi was causing fear in the south; non-Hindi areas felt Hindi was being imposed.
6. Shankarrao Deo (Bombay) accepted Hindustani as the language of the nation but warned that pushing Hindi would create suspicion.
7. T.A. Ramalingam Chettiar said the cause of Hindi would not be helped if it was pushed too aggressively; the matter had to be handled with care.
8. Conclusion: members agreed the issue was sensitive and had to be settled by consensus – hence Hindi was called the 'official' language, not the 'national' language.
Answer is marked as a whole – name at least three members and their views.

Points to develop:
1. Three lists: the Draft Constitution divided subjects into the Union List (only the Centre makes laws), the State List (only States) and the Concurrent List (both share).
2. More items were placed under exclusive Union control than in other federations, and the Concurrent List was also long.
3. Article 356 gave the Centre power to take over a State's administration on the Governor's recommendation; the Union also controlled most taxes (customs, company tax) while some were shared.
4. Case for States – K. Santhanam (Madras): powers had to be reallocated to strengthen States as well as the Centre; an overburdened Centre could not function well; States needed adequate fiscal provisions so they would not depend on the Centre even for small expenditure. He warned that the proposed allocation would make States weak and could even lead to the break-up of the Centre. Members from Orissa also feared financial weakness.
5. Case for a strong Centre – Jawaharlal Nehru: a strong Centre was needed to ensure peace, coordinate vital matters and speak for the whole country internationally.
6. B.R. Ambedkar wanted a Centre 'much stronger' than under the Government of India Act 1935.
7. Gopalaswami Ayyangar: the Centre should be 'as strong as possible'.
8. Balakrishna Sharma (United Provinces): only a strong Centre could plan for the country's well-being, mobilise resources, run a proper administration and defend India from aggression.
9. The violence of Partition strengthened the demand for centralisation; the final Constitution leaned towards a strong Union.
Evaluated as a whole – show both sides of the debate with names.

Abul Fazl (2 marks – any two points):
1. He was a leading noble at Akbar's court, the emperor's adviser and the spokesman of his policies.
2. He was a learned man, well read in Arabic, Persian, Greek philosophy and Sufism.
3. He was a free thinker who stood against the conservative ulama, supporting Akbar's aim of keeping the state free of religious orthodoxy.
4. As court historian he both shaped and expressed the ideas linked with Akbar's reign.
The Akbar Nama (4 marks – any four points):
1. It is one of the major illustrated official chronicles of the Mughals; its paintings show battles, sieges, hunts, buildings under construction and court scenes.
2. Abul Fazl spent about thirteen years on it, revising the draft many times.
3. It drew on many sources – day-to-day records of events (waqai), official papers and the oral evidence of well-informed people.
4. It is in three books: the first two are chronicles (the first runs from Adam to one celestial cycle of Akbar's life), and the third is the Ain-i Akbari.
5. Besides political events, it describes the empire's geography, society, administration and culture without following chronology.
6. The Ain shows the empire as home to Hindus, Jainas, Buddhists and Muslims living in a composite culture.
7. Its ornate Indo-Persian prose was admired at court and many writers tried to imitate it.

To be judged as a whole; key points:
1. The nobles were the main pillars of the Mughal state.
2. They were recruited from varied ethnic and religious groups – Turanis, Iranis, Afghans, Rajputs, Deccanis, etc. – so that power stayed balanced and no one group could challenge the throne.
3. The official chronicles therefore pictured them as a guldasta, a bouquet of different flowers.
4. The image stressed their unity: whatever their background, they were bound together by loyalty to the emperor.
5. Each noble was given a mansab with two numbers – zat, showing his place in the hierarchy and his salary, and sawar, the number of horsemen he had to maintain.
6. Nobles had to give military service: they led campaigns, and recruited, equipped and trained the cavalry, the core of the army.
7. They also served as officers in the provinces; imperial service gave them power, wealth and reputation.
8. The highest officials – the Mir Bakhshi (paymaster general), the Diwan-i Ala (finance minister) and the Sadr-us Sudur (in charge of grants and appointment of qazis) – helped Akbar shape the empire's administrative, revenue and monetary system.

(i) Any one: for Gandhiji spinning was a form of service and a path to spiritual uplift; the charkha symbolised self-help and self-reliance; it stood for the dignity of labour and human values against machine-worship. (1)
(ii) Any one: khaddar did not aim to destroy machines but to regulate their use and check their unchecked spread; it used simple domestic machinery (the wheel) to serve the poorest in their own cottages, giving them work. (1)
(iii) Any two: the charkha gave villagers a supplementary income alongside agriculture and gave dignity to their labour; it helped villages become self-contained and self-reliant; Gandhiji believed it could restore India's old prosperity; he called it a bridge between rich and poor, since spinning by all classes created a spirit of service. (1 + 1)
Note: answer from the source and your knowledge of Theme 'Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement' – do not copy the passage lines.