History India s Freedom Struggle Part I 2017-2018 Std V Answer the following with reference to the context: What actually brought the British to India was trade. The British trading company that came to India in 1600 was known as the English East India Company. In 1615, the English diplomat Sir Thomas Roe was asked by James I, King of England, to arrange a commercial treaty with the Mughal ruler Nuruddin Salim Jahangir. Q.1) When and why did the East India Company come to India? Ans: The East India Company came to India in 1600 to trade. Q.2) a) What were the terms of the commercial treaty? Ans; According to the terms of this treaty: The East India Company would have the right to live and build factories in certain parts of India. In return the company would give the Mughal Emperor goods from the European market. b) Name any 2 places in India where the company had set up their trading post? Ans: The trading posts were setup at Surat, Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. ( 1 )
Q.3) How did the British help Indians to progress and develop? Ans: The positive impacts of the British rule in India were as follows: The British introduced railways in India They introduced western education that helped Indians to expose to all the developments in the field of science and arts. They also put an end to certain inhuman social and religious practices such as sati and child marriage. They legalised remarriage of widows. Q.5) a) What was Sati? Ans: Sati was an inhuman religious practice of burning Hindu widows alive on the funeral pyre of their husbands. b) Name the social reformer who fought against this practice? Ans: Raja Rammohan Roy c) Name the English Governor general who banned the practice of Sati? Ans: Governor General, Lord Bentinck, in 1929. Raja Rammohan Roy Lord Bentinck 2. Answer the following with reference to context: In spite of all the positive contributions of the British, the people of India were unhappy. Q.1) How did the British rule destroy Indian goods? Ans: The machine-made goods of the British were sold at a cheaper rate than the goods produced in India. As a result,the Indian trade suffered. ( 2 )
Q.2) How did the Doctrine of Lapse affect the Indian rulers? Ans: According to The Doctrine of lapse, if an Indian ruler adopted a child, that child could not be the heir to the throne. In that case, the British government took over the kingdom of the ruler. Q.3) Why were the Indian king s unhappy with the Subsidiary alliance? The Indian kings were unhappy with the Subsidiary Alliance because according to this policy any Indian king who agreed to accept the subsidiary was obliged to keep British forces within his territory and pay for their maintenance. Q.4) What led to poverty and discontent among the peasants? Ans Peasants had to pay very high land revenue/taxes. They could barely afford to do this. They found it a burden and this led to their poverty. Lord Dalhousie Lord Wellesley 3. Anger and discontent were simmering among the sepoys or the Indian soldiers serving in the British Army. There were many causes behind this anger and discontent. ( 3 )
Q.1) Give three reasons to justify the above statement. Ans: The following reasons are: Indian soldiers could not wear the traditional religious marks such as a turban or bear a beard. They were posted in foreign lands away from their families. They were badly housed and poorly paid. The new Pattern 1853 Enfield Rifle was introduced in the army and this was responsible for the revolt that started in Barrackpore on 29 th March, 1857. Q.1) a) Why did the Hindu and Muslim soldiers refuse to use the Enfield Rifle? Ans: The Hindu and Muslim soldiers refused to use the Enfield Rifle as they were forced to bite off the casing of the Rifle s in order to use the cartridges, which were greased with beef or pork fat. This hurt the religious sentiments of both the Hindu and Muslim soldiers because the Hindus considered cow as sacred and for the Muslims pork was a taboo or was forbidden. Q.1) b) How did they react when they were forced to do so? Ans: When they were forced to do so, their anger which was bottled up burst forth and the soldiers then rose in revolt against the British. Q.2) What was the consequence of the Sepoy Mutiny? Ans: One important consequence of the Sepoy Mutiny was that now instead of the East India Company having control over India, the country was ruled under the British Crown namely Queen Victoria who was declared Empress of India. Q.1) a) Name the young soldier in the above picture who revolted? Ans: The young soldier in the above picture is Mangal Pandey. ( 4 )
b) Why is he considered as India s first freedom fighter? Ans: He is considered to be the first freedom fighter as he initiated the revolt when he was forced to use the cartridge. He lost his patience and shot his sergeant, for which he was arrested and hanged later. Q.2) What followed this killing? Clashes broke out in Meerut. The rebel soldiers marched to Delhi where they overthrew the British. They placed Bahadur Shah Zafar, the eighty-year-old Mughal king, on the throne. Q.3) Name two other freedom fighters who took part in the Revolt of 1857. The other freedom fighters were Tantia Tope, Begum Hazrat Mahal,Nana Saheb and Bahadur Shah Zafar. Q.4) The revolt of 1857 came as a jolt to the country. Explain. Ans: The revolt of 1857 came almost as a jolt to a country that was asleep to the fact that it no longer had its independence; that people from another country were gradually gaining control over it. Q.5) Who was Bahadur Shah Zafar? Ans: He was, the last of the Mughal ruler, and one of the greatest Urdu poets of India. His Urdu poetry is still very popular. ( 5 )