| Explain the striking features about the location of Vijaynagara, its water resources and its fortifications. |
| Or |
| Explain how during 16th and 17th centuries agriculture was organized around two major seasonal cycles by giving examples of different crops. |
| Explain the changes reflected in the history of urban centres in India during the 18th century with special reference to network of trade. |
| Or |
| Explain the sources from which we can reconstruct the political career of Gandhiji and the history of the nationalist movement. |
| Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given at the end of it: |
| Why Kinfolk quarrelled? |
| This is an except from the Adi Parvan (literally, the first section) of the Sanskrit Mahabharata, describing why conflicts arose amongst the Kauravas and Pandavas: |
| The Kauravas were the ... sons of Dhritarashtra, and the Pandavas... were their cousins. Since Dhritarashtra was blind, his younger brother Pandu ascended the throne of Hastinapura ... However, after the premature death of Pandu, Dhritarashtra became king, as the royal princes were still very young. As the princes grew up together, the citizens of Hastinapura began to express their preference - for the Pandavas, for they were more capable and virtuous than the Kauravas. This made Duryodhana, the eldest of the Kauravas jealous. He approached his father and said, "You yourself did not receive the throne, although it fell to you, because of your defect. If the Pandava receives the patrimony from Pandu, his son will surely inherit it in turn, and so will his son, and his. We ourselves with our sons shall be excluded from the royal succession and become of slight regard in the eyes of the world, lord of the earth!? |
| Passages such as these may not have been literally true, but they give us an idea about what those who wrote the text thought. Sometimes, as in this case, they contain conflicting ides. |
| (1) Why did the citizens of Hastinapur express preference for Pandavas? |
| (2) Explain the reactions of Duryodhana against Pandavas. |
| (3) Explain the criteria of patrilineal succession. |
| Or |
| Fatalists and materialists |
| Here is an excerpt from the Sutra Pitaka, describing a conversation between king Ajatasatru, the ruler of Magadha, and the Buddha: |
| On one occasion King Ajatasatru visited the Buddha and described what another teacher, named Makkhali Gosala, had told him: |
| Though the wise should hope, by this virtut. ...by this penance I will gain karma ... and the fool should by the same means hope to gradually rid himself of his karma, neither of them can do it. Pleasure and pain, measured out as it were, cannot be altered in the course of samara (transmigration). It can neither be lessened or increased ... just as a ball of string will when thrown unwind to its full length, so fool and wise alike will take their course and make an end of sorrow." And tills is what a philosopher named Ajita Kesakambalin taught: |
| "There is no such thing, 0 king, as alms or sacrifice, or offerings...... there is no such thing as this world or the next...A human being is made up of the four elements. When he dies the earthy in him returns to the earth, the fluid to water, the heat to fire, the windy to air, and his senses pass into space... |
| The talk of gifts is a doctrine of fools, an empty lie ... fools and wise alike are cut off and perish. They do not survive after 'eath'. |
| The first teacher belonged to the tradition of the Ajivikas. They have often been described as fatalists those who believe that everything is predetermined. The second teacher belonged to the tradition of the Lokayatas, usually described as materialists. Texts from these traditions have not survived, so we know about them only from the works of other traditions. |
| (1) Explain what had Makkhali Gosala told the King Ajatasatru. |
| (2) Explain what did the philosopher named AJita Kesakambalin teach. |
| (3) Describe the beliefs of fatalists. |
| Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow: |
| The One Lord |
| Here is a composition attributed to Kabir |
| Tell me, brother, how,,, can there be |
| No one lord of the world but two? |
| Who led you so astray? |
| God is called by many names |
| Names like Allah, Ram, Karim, Keshav, Hari, and Hazrat. |
| Gold may be shaped into rings and bangles. |
| Isn't it gold all the same? |
| Distinctions are only in words that we invent......... |
| Kabir says they are both mistaken. |
| Neither can find the only Ram. One kills the goat, the other-cows. |
| They waste their lives in disputation. |
| (1) Name any two scriptures in which verses, ascribed to Kabir, have been compiled. |
| (2) How did Kabir describe the 'Ultimate Reality'? |
| (3) Explain the arguments given by Kabir against the lords of the world of different communities. |
| (4) Do you agree with Kabir? Give your own views as well. |
| Or |
| A warning for Europe |
| Bernier warned that if European kings followed the Mughal model: |
| Their kingdoms would be very far from being well-cultivated and peopled, so welt built, so rich, so polite and flourishing, as we see them. Our kings are otherwise rich and powerful; and we must avow that they are much better and more royally served. They would soon be kings of deserts and solitudes, of beggars and barbarians, such as those are whom I have been representing (the Mughals) ... We should find the great Cities and the great Burroughs (boroughs) rendered uninhabitable because of ill air, and to fall to ruine (ruin) without any bodies (anybody) taking care of repairing them; the hillocks abandoned, and the fields overspread with bushes, or filled with pestilential marishes (marshes), as hath been already intimated. |
| (1) What kind of warning European traveller wants to give? Describe briefly. |
| (2) 'On what accounts Bernier's description was at variance with the contemporary Mughal records.? Explain. |
| (3) Explain Bernier's suggestions given about the great cities. |
| Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow: |
| 'That is very good, Sir - bold words, noble words? |
| Somnath Lahiri said: |
| Well, Sir, I must congratulate Pandit Nehru for the fine expression he gave to the spirit of the Indian people when he said that no imposition from the British will he accepted by the Indian people. Imposition would be resented and objected to, he said, and he added that if need be we will walk the valley of struggle. That is very good. Sir - bold words, noble words. |
| But the point is to see when and how are you going to apply that challenge. Well, Sir, the point is that the imposition is here right, row. Not only has the British Plan made any future Constitution ... dependent on a treaty satisfactory to the Britisher but it suggests that for even, little difference you will have to run to the Federal Court or dance attendance there in England; or to call on the British Prime Minister Clement Attlee or someone else. Not only is it a fact that this, Constituent Assembly, whatever plans we may be hatching, we are under the shadow of British guns, British Army, their economic and financial stranglehold - which means that the final power is still in the British hands and the question of power has not yet been finally decided, which means the future is not yet completely in our hands. Not only that, but the statements made by Attlee and others recently have made it clear that if need be, they will even threaten you with division entirely. This means, Sir, there is no freedom in this country. |
| As Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel put it some days ago, we have freedom only to fight among ourselves. That is the only freedom we have got ... Therefore, our humble suggestion is that it is not a question of getting something by working out this Plan but to declare independence here and now and call upon the Interim Government, call upon the people of India, to stop fratricidal warfare and look out against its enemy, which still has the whip in hand, the British Imperialism-and go together to fight it and then resolve our claims afterwards when we will be free. |
| (1) Why did Somnath Lahiri congratulate Pt. Nehru? |
| (2) Explain why Somnath feels that the absence of constitution will mean dependence on the British. |
| (3) How did he feel that the final power was still in the hands of the British? |
| (4) Explain the views of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel. |
| Or |
| 'The real minorities are the masses of this country' |
| Welcoming the Objectives Resolution introduced by Jawaharlal Nehru, N.G. Rangy said: |
| Sir, there is a lot of talk about minorities. Who are the real minorities? Not the Hindus in the so called Pakistan provinces, not the Sikhs, not even the Muslims. No, the real minorities are the masses of this country. These people are so depressed and oppressed and suppressed till now that they are not able to take advantage of the ordinary civil rights. What is the position? You go to the tribal areas. According to law, their own traditional law, their tribal law, their lands cannot be alienated. Yet our merchants go there, and in the so called free market they are able to snatch their lands. Thus, even though the law goes against this snatching away of their lands, still the merchants are able to turn the tribal people into veritable slaves by various kinds of bonds, and make them hereditary bond-slaves. Let us go to the ordinary villagers. There goes the money-lender with his money and he is able to get the villagers in his pocket. There is the landlord himself, the zamindar, and the malguzar and there are the various other people who are able to exploit these poor villagers. There is no elementary education even among these people. These are the real minorities that need protection and assurances of protection. In order to give them the necessary protection, we will need much more than this Resolution... |
| (1) Who are the real minorities according to Shri N.G. Rangy and why? |
| (2) Explain N.G. Ranga's views about the condition of ordinary villagers. |
| (3) Mention the views of Prof. N.G. Ranga regarding the tribal areas and the tribal law. |
| On the given political outline map of India mark and label the following mature Harappan sites Rakhigadi, Nageshwar, Lothal, Kalibangan, Kotdiji. |
| Or |
| On the given political outline map of India mark and label the following territories under Babar, Akbar and Aurangzeb: Delhi, Goa, Agra, Ajmer, Amber. |
| On the given political outline map of India five territories/cities under the British control in 1857 have been marked as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5o Identify them and write their names on the lines- drawn nearby: |
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