Question

NCERT Solutions Class 8, Social Science, History, Chapter- 3, Ruling the Countryside.

For a comprehensive understanding of this chapter and effective preparation for CBSE exams and competitive exams, students are encouraged to refer to NCERT Solutions. These solutions, crafted by subject matter experts, This study material is meticulously structured to align with the latest CBSE syllabus.

In these NCERT Solutions for  Class 8 Social Science, we have discussed all types of NCERT intext questions, exercise questions as well as multiple choice type questions.

Concepts covered in Class 8 Social Science History chapter- 3 Ruling the Countryside, are :

• The Company Becomes the Diwan
• Revenue for the Company
• The need to improve agriculture
• A new system is devised
• The Munro system
• Crops for Europe
• Does colour have a history?
• Why the demand for Indian indigo?
• Britain turns to India
• How was indigo cultivated?
• The problem with nij cultivation
• Indigo on the land of ryots
• How was indigo produced?
• The “Blue Rebellion” and After

Our NCERT Solutions for Class 8 Social Science provide detailed explanations to assist students with their homework and assignments. Proper command and ample practice of topic-related questions provided by our NCERT solutions is the most effective way to achieve full marks in your exams. Begin studying right away to ace your exams.

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Answer 1

NCERT Solutions Class 8, Social Science, History, Chapter- 3, Ruling the Countryside.

1. Match the following:

ryot	village
mahal	peasant
nij	cultivation on ryot’s lands
ryoti	cultivation on planter’s own land

Solution:

ryot	peasant
mahal	village
nij	cultivation on planter’s own land
ryoti	cultivation on ryot’s lands

2. Fill in the blanks:

(a) Growers of woad in Europe saw ______ as a crop which would provide competition to their earnings.

(b) The demand for indigo increased in late eighteenth-century Britain because of ______.

(c) The international demand for indigo was affected by the discovery of ______.

(d) The Champaran movement was against ______.

Solution:

(a) Growers of woad in Europe saw indigo as a crop which would provide competition to their earnings.

(b) The demand for indigo increased in late eighteenth-century Britain because of the expansion of cotton production as a result of industrialisation, which in turn created an enormous demand for cloth dyes.

(c) The international demand for indigo was affected by the discovery of synthetic dyes.

(d) The Champaran movement was against the indigo planters.

3. Describe the main features of the Permanent Settlement.

Solution:

In order to get a stable revenue income, most of the East India Company’s officials believed that investment in land had to be encouraged and agriculture had to be improved. Debates on how this was to be done led to the introduction of the Permanent Settlement in 1793. The aim of this settlement was to ensure a regular flow of revenue for the Company. As per the settlement, rajas and taluqdars were recognised as zamindars. They were asked to collect rent from the peasants and pay revenue to the Company. The amount to be paid was fixed permanently and it was not to be increased ever in the future. The Company believed that as the revenue amount was fixed, the zamindars would benefit by investing in land improvement, which would in turn lead to increased production. If the zamindars failed to pay the revenue, which they usually did as the fixed revenue was very high, they lost their zamindari.

4. How was the mahalwari system different from the Permanent Settlement?

Solution:

Mahalwari system	Permanent Settlement
The mahalwari system, devised by Holt Mackenzie, came into effect in 1822, in the North Western provinces of the Bengal Presidency.	The Permanent Settlement was introduced in 1793 by Lord Cornwallis.
It was devised as an alternative to the Permanent Settlement.	It was aimed at ensuring stable revenue for the East India Company.
The village headmen were in charge of collecting revenue.	The rajas and taluqdars were in charge of collecting revenue.
The revenue amount was not fixed, and was to be revised periodically. The estimated revenue of each plot within a village was added up to calculate the revenue that each village or mahal had to pay.	The revenue amount was fixed and was never to be increased in the future.

5. Give two problems which arose with the new Munro system of fixing revenue.

Solution:

Two problems which arose with the new Munro system of fixing revenue were:

• Driven by the desire to increase the income from land, revenue officials fixed too high a revenue demand.
• Peasants were unable to pay ryats fled the countryside and villages became deserted in many regions.

6. Why were ryots reluctant to grow indigo?

Solution:

Under the ryoti system, the indigo planters forced the ryots to sign an agreement or contract. At times, the village headmen signed the contract on behalf of the ryots. Those who signed the contract got cash advances at low rates of interest to produce indigo. The loan committed the ryot to cultivate indigo on at least 25 per cent of the area under his holding. On delivering the crop to the planter, the ryot was given a new loan, and the cycle started again.

The peasants realised that this system of growing indigo was in fact quite oppressive. The price that they got from the planters for the indigo was very low. The loans, though tempting at first, were part of a vicious cycle from which they could not escape. The planters insisted that the peasants cultivate indigo on the most fertile parts of their land, but the peasants preferred growing rice on the best soils. The reason for not wanting to grow indigo was that indigo, with its deep roots, exhausted the soil rapidly. So, after an indigo harvest, the land could not be used for sowing rice.

7. What were the circumstances which led to the eventual collapse of indigo production in Bengal?

Solution:

The ryots began to refuse to grow indigo. They were supported by the village headmen and some zamindars in their fight. The scale of protest was so much that the government had to intervene. The Indigo Commission of set up to enquire into the problems. The Commission accepted the faults of the planters and allowed the ryots to grow whatever they wished. This led to eventual collapse of indigo production in Bengal.

8. Find out more about the Champaran movement and Mahatma Gandhi’s role in it.

Solution:

The peasants of Champaran and other areas of North Bihar were growing indigo under the Tinkathia system. Under this system, the peasants were bound to plant 3 out of 20 parts of land with indigo for the landlord.

This means that out of 20 khatas which make an acre, they had to dedicate 3 khatas for indigo plantation leaving peasants in extreme poverty.

Mahatma Gandhi was invited by some of the peasants to look after their misery. Gandhiji accepted the invitation and started a mass movement.

Gandhiji established an ashram here and handpicked eminent lawyers like Dr. Rajendra Prasad to study the atrocities on the villagers and worked for the betterment of the villages. This was the first time Gandhi used the word Satyagraha.

As a result, Gandhiji was arrested and was asked to leave the province for creating unrest. Finally, a law was passed exempting farmers from Indigo plantation.

It was during this agitation he was called Bapu and Mahatma for the first time.

9. Look into the history of either tea or coffee plantations in India. See how the life of workers in these plantations was similar to or different from that of workers in indigo plantations.

Solution:

• Accounts of earlier Indian history do not mention the use of tea or its cultivation. We get a mention by a Dutch sea-traveller in 1598 that tea is being eaten as well as drunk in India.
• In 1824, tea plants were discovered in the hills of the Indian state of Assam. The British introduced tea culture into India in 1836. India had been the top producer of tea for nearly a century.
• The workers in the tea plantations were oppressed. They were given low wages. There were poor housing and lack of social mobility. For making more profits, the tea planters reclaimed wastelands where the workers had to labour hard to develop plantation. For this, the planters introduced indentured labour system. The local as well as outside labourers were employed under contract.
• There were two types of indentured labour system- Arkatti and Sardari. Under Arkatti system, unlicensed recruitment was carried from Chotanagpur and other tribal areas of the sub-continent. Under the Sardari system new labourers were employed by those who were already employed in the plantation gardens.
• The labourers had to work hard. The outside labourers had to stay at the garden for a longer period. They were not permitted to meet their family, even on occasions. They were exploited in many ways. They were not allowed to leave the plantation garden during the contract period.
• The labourers in the tea plantations and indigo farming were similar in the way that they were exploited heavily. The profit was made by the owners and the labourers got almost nothing. They were different in the way that, however, there was a contract with the planters, but indigo workers were not under indentured labour system.

Answer 2

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The Champaran movement was against
(a) peasants
(b) East India Company
(c) the oppressive attitude of the planters
(d) none of the above

The correct option is : (c) the oppressive attitude of the planters

2. Gandhiji visited Champaran
(a) to see the plight of Indigo planters in Champaran
(b) to see the progress of Indigo plantation
(c) to see the managing system of company
(d) none of the above

The correct option is : (a) to see the plight of Indigo planters in Champaran

3. In which year was the Permanent Settlement System started?
(a) 1900
(b) 1885
(c) 1890
(d) 1793

The correct option is : (d) 1793

4. The lathi weilding strongmen maintained by planters are:
(a) Ryots
(b) Peasant
(c) Lathiyals
(d) Vat-Beater

The correct option is : (c) Lathiyals

5. Who among the following introduced the Ryotwari Settlement system ?
(a) Thomas Munro
(b) Holt Mackenzie
(c) Lord Dalhousie
(d) Lord Cornwallis

The correct option is : (a) Thomas Munro

6. From among the regions mentioned below, which region introduced the Mahalwari Settlement System in 1822 ?
(a) Bombay
(b) Madras
(c) Bihar
(d) Uttar Pradesh

The correct option is : (d) Uttar Pradesh

7. Growers of woad in Europe saw crop as competition to their earnings.
(a) tea
(b) rubber
(c) indigo
(d) coffee

The correct option is : (c) indigo

8. Indigo production came down in Bengal in
(a) 1850
(b) 1852
(c) 1855
(d) 1859

The correct option is : (d) 1859

9. How much proportion of Indigo was imported from India by Britain in 1810?
(a) 75%
(b) 95%
(c) 90%
(d) 85%

The correct option is : (b) 95%

10. From the given possibilities, which year did the British introduce the Permanent Settlement of Bengal?
(a) 1793
(b) 1800
(c) 1815
(d) 1780

The correct option is : (a) 1793

11. The Company tried many experiments to increase the land revenue. Name the Settlement system introduced in the Madras and Bombay presidencies ?
(a) Permanent Settlement System
(b) British Settlement System
(c) Ryotwari Settlement System
(d) Mahalwari Settlement System

The correct option is : (c) Ryotwari Settlement System

12. Why was there a popular demand for Indian indigo in Italy, France and Britain?
(a) India was the biggest producer of indigo and no other country produced indigo
(b) There was a ban on indigo import in other countries
(c) Indigo imports were tax free
(d) Indigo was used to dye cloth and there was a huge demand

The correct option is : (d) Indigo was used to dye cloth and there was a huge demand

13. Mahalwari systems was devised by:
(a) Thomas Munro
(b) Holt Mackenzie
(c) Charles Cornwallis
(d) Robert Clive

The correct option is : (b) Holt Mackenzie

14. What do you mean by the term Mortgage?
(a) Agreement between moneylenders and nawab
(b) Agreement between king and peasants
(c) Agreement between moneylenders and peasants
(d) None of these

The correct option is : (c) Agreement between moneylenders and peasants

15. What happened in 1770 in Bengal so that one-third of the population was wiped out?
(a) The British shipped a lot of locals to Britain and the met with an accident.
(b) Robert Clive had to wage a battle with the locals and killed many .
(c) The British and the French had a war in Bengal and many were killed .
(d) Due to a terrible famine, ten million people in Bengal were wiped out.

The correct option is : (d) Due to a terrible famine, ten million people in Bengal were wiped out.

16. What do you mean by nij and ryoti?
(a) The two main trading centres of indigo
(b) The two main areas where indigo was cultivated in India
(c) The two important systems of indigo cultivation
(d) The two main sets of zamindars

The correct option is : (c) The two important systems of indigo cultivation

17. What is Bigha?
(a) Unit of temperature
(b) Unit of capacity
(c) Unit of measurement
(d) None of these

The correct option is : (c) Unit of measurement

18. After harvest, the indigo plant was taken to the in the indigo factory.
(a) dye
(b) vat
(c) farm
(d) machine

The correct option is : (b) vatcorrect

19. What is the literal meaning of the Greek word indikon?
(a) Blue
(b) Dye
(c) From India
(d) From England

The correct option is : (c) From India

20. Given below are some points with regard to the nij cultivation of indigo. Select the one that is not related to the nij cultivation
(a) The planters produced indigo in the lands that he directly controlled.
(b) Planters cultivated in lands either bought by them or rented it from other zamindars and produced indigo by directly employing hired labourers
(c) Planters needed large areas in compact blocks to cultivate indigo
(d) The planters were forced to sign a contract , an agreement (satta)

The correct option is : (d) The planters were forced to sign a contract , an agreement (satta)

21. Where did the Ryotwari Settlement was introduced?
(a) Bombay Presidency
(b) South and West India
(c) Deccan
(d) Punjab

The correct option is : (b) South and West India

22. ______ was Governor General of India in 1793
(a) Warren Hastings
(b) Charles Cornwallis
(c) Louis Chole
(d) George Martin

The correct option is : (b) Charles Cornwallis

23. Zamindars were responsible for collecting ____ from peasants.
(a) rent
(b) goods
(c) food
(d) money

The correct option is : (a) rent

24. _____ was Madras governor in 1819.
(a) Thomas Munro
(b) Franklin
(c) Jacob Smith
(d) Holt Mackenzie

The correct option is : (a) Thomas Munro

25. Who introduced the Permanent Settlement of Bengal?
(a) Lord Cornwallis
(b) Lord William
(c) Lord Louise
(d) None of these

The correct option is : (a) Lord Cornwallis

26. What are commercial crops?
(a) Crops cultivated for tax paying
(b) Crops cultivated for own use
(c) Crops cultivated for sale
(d) None of these

The correct option is : (c) Crops cultivated for sale

27. Morris cotton print was invented by
(a) William Morris
(b) Robert Morris
(c) John Morris
(d) Morris Will

The correct option is : (a) William Morris

28. What do you mean by the term ‘Plantation’?
(a) Rearing of animals
(b) A large farm operated by a planter
(c) A Large Kingdom
(d) None of these

The correct option is : (b) A large farm operated by a planter