Long Answer TypeDelhi
Here is an excerpt from Ibn Battuta’s account of Delhi, often spelt as Delhi in texts of the period:
The city of Delhi covers a wide area and has a large population ... The rampart round the city is without parallel. The breadth of its wall is eleven cubits; and inside it are houses for the night sentry and gatekeepers. Inside the ramparts, there are store-houses for storing edibles, magazines, ammunition, ballistics and siege machines. The grains that are stored (in these ramparts) can last for a long time, without rotting ... In the interior of the rampart, horsemen as well as infantrymen move from one end of the city to another. The rampart is pierced through by windows which open on the side of the city, and it is through these windows that light enters inside. The lower part of the rampart is built of stone; the upper part of bricks. It has many towers close to one another. There are twenty eight gates of this city which are called darwaza, and of these, the Budaun darwaza is the greatest; inside the Mandwi darwaza there is a grain market; adjacent to the Gul darwaza there is an orchard ... It (the city of Dehli) has a fine cemetery in which graves have domes over them, and those that do not have a dome, have an arch, for sure. In the cemetery they sow flowers such as tuberose, jasmine, wild rose, etc.; and flowers blossom there in all seasons.
(1) How had Ibn Battatu describe the cities in the Sub-Continent?
(2) What was his description of Delhi?
(3) Mention any four changes in Delhi of today.
OR
The Poor Peasant
An excerpt from Bernier’s description of the peasantry in the countryside:
Of the vast tracts of country constituting the empire of Hindustan, many are little more than sand, or barren mountains, badly cultivated, and thinly populated. Even a considerable portion of the good land remains untilled for want of labourers; many of whom perish in consequence of the bad treatment they experience from Governors. The poor people, when they become incapable of discharging the demands of their rapacious lords, are not only often deprived of the means of subsistence, but are also made to lose their children, who are carried away as slaves. Thus, it happens that the peasantry, driven to despair by so excessive a tyranny, abandon the country.
In this instance, Bernier was participating in contemporary debates in Europe concerning the nature of state and society, and intended that his description of Mughal India would serve as a warning to those who did not recognize the 'merits' of private property
(1) How have the tracts of Hindustan been described by Bernier?
(2) Why did the land remain untilled? Explain.
(3) What happens when the poor peasants are unable to fulfil the demands of their landmarks?
Explain the cause and the contribution of Non-Cooperation Movement to India’s Freedom Struggle. Why did Gandhiji couple Non-Cooperation Movement with Khilafat Movement?
OR
Assess the significance of the Salt March in India’s Freedom Struggle. How did the British Government react to it?
Gandhiji was the most influential and revered of all the leaders who participated in the freedom struggle, that characterization is not misplaced.
(i) Mahatma Gandhi’s non-cooperation initiatives in Champaran, Ahmedabad and Kheda had installed nationalistic fervour in every Indian.
(ii) During the Great War of 1914-18, the British had instituted censorship of the press and permitted detention without trial. Now, on the recommendation of a committee chaired by Sir Sidney Rowlatt, these tough measures were continued.
(iii) In response, Gandhiji called for a countrywide campaign against the “Rowlatt Act”. In towns across North and West India, life came to a standstill, as shops shut down and schools closed in response to the bandh call. The protests were particularly intense in the Punjab, where many men had served on the British side in the War – expecting to be rewarded for their service.
(iv) The situation in the province grew progressively tenser, reaching a bloody climax in Amritsar in April 1919, when a British Brigadier ordered his troops to open fire on a nationalist meeting. More than four hundred people were killed in what is known as the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
(v) Emboldened by its success, Gandhiji called for a campaign of “non-cooperation” with British rule. Indians who wished colonialism to end were asked to stop attending schools, colleges and law courts, and not pay taxes. In sum, they were asked to adhere to a “renunciation of (all) voluntary association with the (British) Government”.
(vi) If noncooperation was effectively carried out, said Gandhiji, India would win swaraj within a year. To further broaden the struggle he had joined hands with the Khilafat Movement that sought to restore the Caliphate, a symbol of Pan-Islamism which had recently been abolished by the Turkish ruler Kemal Attaturk
(vii) Gandhiji hoped that by coupling non-cooperation with Khilafat, India’s two major religious communities, Hindus and Muslims, could collectively bring an end to colonial rule. These movements certainly unleashed a surge of popular action that was altogether unprecedented in colonial India.
(viii) During the Non-Cooperation Movement thousands of Indians were put in jail. Gandhiji himself was arrested in March 1922, and charged with sedition.
OR
The significance of the Salt March in India’s Freedom Struggle and the reaction of the British Government:
(i) Soon after the observance of the “Independence Day”, on 26 January 1930, Mahatma Gandhi announced that he would lead a march to break one of the most widely disliked laws in British India, which gave the state a monopoly in the manufacture and sale of salt.
(ii) His picking on the salt monopoly was another illustration of Gandhiji’s tactical wisdom. For in every Indian household, salt was indispensable; yet people were forbidden from making salt even for domestic use, compelling them to buy it from shops at a high price.
(iii) The state monopoly over salt was deeply unpopular; by making it his target, Gandhiji hoped to mobilise a wider discontent against British rule.
(iv) On 12 March 1930, Gandhiji began walking from his ashram at Sabarmati towards the ocean. He reached his destination three weeks later, making a fistful of salt as he did and thereby making himself a criminal in the eyes of the law. Meanwhile, parallel salt marches were being conducted in other parts of the country.
(v) As with Non-cooperation, apart from the officially sanctioned nationalist campaign, there were numerous other streams of protest.
(vi) Across large parts of India, peasants breached the hated colonial forest laws that kept them and their cattle out of the woods in which they had once roamed freely. In some towns, factory workers went on strike while lawyers boycotted British courts and students refused to attend government-run educational institutions.
(vii) The rulers responded by detaining the dissenters. In the wake of the Salt March, nearly 60,000 Indians were arrested, among them, of course, Gandhiji himself.
(viii) Gandhiji told the upper castes that “if you are out for Swaraj you must serve untouchables. You won’t get Swaraj merely by the repeal of the salt taxes or other taxes. For Swaraj you must make amends for the wrongs which you did to the untouchables. For Swaraj, Hindus, Muslims, Parsis and Sikhs will have to unite.
'No, no! You can never be ours'
This is the third story the researcher related:
I still vividly remember a man I met in Lahore in 1992. He mistook me to be a Pakistani studying abroad. For some reason he liked me. He urged me to return home after completing my studies to serve the qaum (nation). I told him I shall do so but, at some stage in the conversation, I added that my citizenship happens to be Indian. All of a sudden his tone changed, and much as he was restraining himself, he blurted out.
'Oh Indian! I had thought you were Pakistani'. I tried my best to impress upon him that I always see myself as South Asian. 'No, no! You can never be ours. Your people wiped out my entire village in 1947, we are sworn enemies and shall always remain so'.
(1) What did the person advice the researcher who met him in Lahore in 1992?
(2) How did the person react on knowing that the researcher was Indian?
(3) What did the Indian try to explain?
(4) Who was right and why? Explain.
The League’s resolution of 1940 demanded: that geographically contiguous units are demarcated into regions, which should be so constituted, with such territorial readjustments as may be necessary, that the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in a majority as in the north-western and eastern zones of India should be grouped to constitute 'Independent States', in which the constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign.
(1) Explain the background of the League’s Resolution of 1940.
(2) Explain the provision of the Resolution of 1940.
(3) What did Mohd. Iqbal say on this issues in his Presidential Address?
(4) Was the demand of the League reasonable? Comment.
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