RBSE Class 8 Social Science Important Questions History Chapter 3 Ruling the Countryside

Rajasthan Board RBSE Class 8 Social Science Important Questions History Chapter 3 Ruling the Countryside Important Questions and Answers.

RBSE Class 8 Social Science Important Questions History Chapter 3 Ruling the Countryside 

Multiple Choice Questions

Ruling The Countryside Class 8 Extra Questions And Answers Question 1. 
The East India Company was appointed as the Diwan of Bengal by the Mughal emperor on:
(a) 12 August 1757 
(b) 12 August 1764
(c) 12 August 1765 
(d) 12 August 1772
Answer:
(c) 12 August 1765

Class 8 History Chapter 3 Extra Questions And Answers Question 2.
The revenue system prepared by Holt Mackenzie was:
(a) Permanent Settlement
(b) Mahalwari Settlement
(c) Ryotwari System
(d) None of these 
Answer:
(b) Mahalwari Settlement

Ruling The Countryside Extra Questions Question 3. 
The Governor-General of India at the time when the permanent settlement came into force was:
(a) Charles Cornwallis 
(b) Lord Dalhousie 
(c) Warren Hastings 
(d) Wellesley 
Answer:
(a) Charles Cornwallis 

Class 8 History Chapter 3 Short Questions And Answers Question 4. 
‘Blue Rebellion’ was introduced in:
(a) May 1857 
(b) March 1859
(c) June 1861 
(d) December 1885
Answer:
(b) March 1859

Extra Questions For Class 8 History Chapter 3 Question 5. 
Champaran movement was started in:
(a) 1917 
(b) 1920
(c) 1922 
(d) 1930 
Answer:
(a) 1917

 

History Chapter 3 Class 8 Extra Questions Question 6. 
What did the Company consider itself after becoming a diwan?
(a) Ruler 
(b) Businessman
(c) Laborer 
(d) Supreme Authority
Answer:
(d) Supreme Authority

Class 8 History Chapter 3 Extra Questions Question 7. 
When was the permanent settlement implemented by the Company?
(a) In 1793 
(b) In 1802
(c) In 1822 
(d) In 1818 
Answer:
(a) In 1793

Class 8th History Chapter 3 Extra Questions Question 8. 
The British forced the farmers to produce which crop in Bengal?
(a) Cotton 
(b) Wheat
(c) Rice 
(d) Jute 
Answer:
(b) Wheat

Extra Questions On Ruling The Countryside Class 8 Question 9. 
Indigo cultivation was started in St. Domingue in the Caribbean island by:
(a) Portuguese 
(b) British
(c) French 
(d) Spanish 
Answer:
(c) French

Ruling The Countryside Extra Questions And Answers Question 10. 
When did synthetic dyes start to form?
(a) In the eighteenth century
(b) At the beginning of the nineteenth century
(c) At the end of the nineteenth century
(d) In the twenty-first century 
Answers: 
(c) At the end of the nineteenth century

Fill in the blanks:

Class 8 History Ruling The Countryside Extra Questions Question 1. 
The grant of Bengal ................. was a great event in the British imagination.
Answer:
Diwan

Ruling The Countryside Extra Question Answers Question 2. 
In ................., a terrible famine killed ten million people in Bengal.
Answer:
1770 

Class 8 History Ch 3 Extra Questions Question 3. 
The company introduced................. in 1793.
Answer:
Permanent Settlement

Ch 3 History Class 8 Extra Questions Question 4. 
The ................. plant grows primarily in the tropics.
Answer:
Indigo 

Class 8 Ruling The Countryside Extra Questions Question 5. 
In British revenue records mahal is a .................
Answer:
revenue estate

Ruling The Countryside Class 8 Extra Questions Question 6. 
The dye from .................  was pale and dull.
Answer:
woad.

State True or False

Class 8 Chapter 3 History Extra Questions Question 1. 
The British ruler appointed the East India Company as the Diwan of Bengal.
Answer:
False

History Class 8 Chapter 3 Extra Questions Question 2. 
The Munro system was implemented in Southern India.
Answer:
True

History Chapter 3 Extra Questions Class 8 Question 3. 
Woad plant grew only in tropical areas.
Answer:
False

Extra Questions Ruling The Countryside Question 4. 
Cloth dyers preferred indigo as a dye.
Answer:
True

Chapter 3 History Class 8 Extra Questions Question 5. 
Paddy could be cultivated after harvesting indigo.
Answer:
False

Class 8 History Chapter 3 Ruling The Countryside Extra Question Answer Question 6. 
In the early nineteenth century, artificial dyes were produced.
Answers : 
False

Match Correctly

(a)	(b)
Permanent Settlement	1917
Mahalwari system	1793
Champaran movement	Southern India
Munro system	1822
The pale and dull colour	Woad

Answer:

(a)	(b)
Permanent Settlement	1793
Mahalwari system	1822
Champaran movement	1912
Munro system	Southern India
The pale and dull colour	Woad

Very Short Answer Type Questions

Ruling The Countryside Class 8 Important Questions Question 1. 
What were the Company’s efforts after becoming the Diwan of Bengal?
Answer:
The effort of the Company s to increase the revenue as much as it could and buy fine cotton and silk cloth as cheaply as possible.

Question 2. 
Why, did the artisans leave the village after the Company s appointed as diwan?
Answer:
Artisans were deserting villages since they were being forced to sell their goods to the Company at low prices.

Question 3. 
When and where did the permanent settlement begin?
Answer:
Permanent settlement was started in Bengal province in 1793.

Question 4. 
What did the Company benefit from the permanent settlement?
Answer:
It was felt that it would ensure a regular flow of revenue into the Company’s coffers.

Question 5. 
What kind of revenue system was implemented in the North-Western Provinces of the Bengal?
Answer:
Mahalwari settlement,

Question 6. 
Who started the Mahaiwari system?
Answer:
Holt Mackenzie, 

Question 7. 
In which area did the ryotwari system begin?
Answer:
In Southern India,

Question 8. 
What do you understand by mahal? 
Answer:
In British revenue records, mahal is a revenue estate which may be a village or a group of villages.

Question 9. 
Which climate is suitable for indigo cultivation?
Answer:
Tropical climate.

Question 10. 
Which other plant is cultivated in Europe instead of the indigo plant?
Answer:
Woad plant.

Question 11. 
Which climate is suitable for woad cultivation?
Answer:
Temperate climate.

Question 12. 
Name a few areas which cultivate woad. 
Answer:
Northern Italy, Southern France and parts of Germany and Britain.

Question 13. 
Why do cloth dyers, prefer indigo as a dye? 
Answer:
Indigo produced a rich blue colour, whereas the dye from woad was pale and dull.

Question 14. 
When did the ‘Blue Rebellion’ start in Bengal?
Answer:
‘Blue Rebellion’ started in Bengal in 1859. 

Question 15. 
Why was Indigo Commission formed? 
Answer:
To enquire about the entire system of indigo production, Indigo Commission was formed.

Question 16. 
What was the report of the Indigo Commission?
Answer:
The Commission held the planters guilty and criticised them for the coercive methods they used with indigo cultivators.

Question 17. 
In which area did the planters shift indigo cultivation after the indigo revolt in Bengal? 
Answer:
After the revolt, indigo production collapsed in Bengal, but the planters now shifted their operation to Bihar.

Question 18. 
What do you mean by bigha?
Answer:
It is a unit of measurement of land. In Bengal, the British standardised it to about one-third of an acre.

Short Answer Type Questions

Question 1. 
How was the economy of Bengal getting entangled in a deep crisis?
Answer:

1. After getting the Diwani of Bengal, the company imposed huge revenue to get enough revenue.
2. The farmers were unable to pay their rent. Due to this, cultivation was beginning to collapse.
3. The artisans had to. forcibly sell their goods to the company at very low prices. Artisan production was in decline, and they were deserting villages.
4. Now, gold and silver stopped coming from Britain in exchange for export to Bengal.

Question 2. 
Why did Munro choose the Ryotwari system for Southern India?
Answer:

1. Munro felt that in the south there were no traditional zamindars.
2. The settlement had to be made directly with the cultivators (ryots) who had tilled the land for generations. Therefore, he chooses the Ryotwari system for the South.

Question 3. 
Why did Indian indigo demand increase by the end of the eighteenth century?
Answer:

1. The variety7 of Indian indigo was good. It produced a rich blue colour.
2. Britain began to industrialise and its cotton production expanded dramatically.
3. This creates an enormous new demand for cloth dyes.
4. While the demand for indigo increased its existing supplies from the West Indies and America collapsed.

Question 4. 
Explain how Britain saw indigo cultivation as an important business opportunity.
Answer:
(1) As the indigo trade grew, commercial agents and officials of the Company began investing in indigo production.

(2) Many Company officials left their jobs to look after their indigo business.

(3) Attracted by the prospect of high profits, numerous Scotsmen and Englishmen came to India and became planters. Those who had no money to produce indigo could get loans from the Company and the banks that were coming up at the time.

Question 5. 
Write a brief note on the Indigo Commission report.
Answer:

1. The Commission held the planters guilty and criticised them for the coercive methods they used with indigo cultivators. 
2. It declared that indigo production was not profitable for ryots.
3. The Commission asked the ryots to fulfil their existing contracts but also told them that they could refuse to produce indigo in future. 

Question 6.
Why did indigo cultivation fail in Caribbean islands?
Answer:
Indigo cultivation was foiled in Caribbean islands due to the following reasons:

1. African slaves who worked on the plantation here revolted in 1791.
2. They burned the gardens and killed their wealthy owners.
3. In 1792, the French government abolished slavery in its colonies leading to a labour shortage. 

Long Answer Type Questions

Question 1. 
What were the main issues before the Company after getting the Diwan of Bengal?
Answer:
1. The Company became the chief financial administrator of the territory under its control. Now it had to think of administering the land and organising its revenue resources. This had to be done in a way that could yield enough revenue to meet the growing expenses of the company.

2. A trading company had also to ensure that it could buy the products it needed and sell what it wanted.

3. Being an alien power, it needed to pacify those who in the past had ruled the countryside and enjoyed authority and prestige.

4. Those who had held local power had to be controlled but, they could not be entirely eliminated.

Question 2. 
What problems resulted from the permanent settlement?
Answer:
The following problems arose due to the permanent settlement imposed by the Company in 1793:
(1) Company officials soon discovered that the zamindars were in fact not investing in the improvement of land. The revenue that had been fixed was so high that the zamindars found it difficult to pay. Anyone who failed to pay the revenue lost his zamindari. Numerous zamindaris were sold off at auctions organised by the Company.

(2) The prices in the market rose and cultivation slowly expanded. This meant an increase in the income of the zamindars but no gain for the Company since it could not increase a revenue demand that had been fixed permanently.

(3) The zamindars did not have an interest in improving the land. Some had lost their lands in the earlier years of the settlement; others now saw the possibility of earning without the trouble and risk of investment. As long as the zamindars could give out the land to tenants and get rent, they were hot interested in improving the land.

(4) The cultivator found the system extremely oppressive. The rent he paid to the zamindar was high and his right on the land was insecure. To pay the rent he had to often take a loan from the moneylender, and when he failed to pay the rent he was evicted from the land he had cultivated for generations.

Question 3. 
Describe the main aspects of the Mahalwari settlement.
Answer:
From the North-Western provinces of then Bengal, an Englishman named Holt Mackenzie prepared a new system which was implemented in 1822. This system was called Mahalwari Settlement. 
Its main aspects are as follows:
(1) Under this arrangement, a village or village group (mahal) was considered a revenue estate.

(2) Indian society needed to be preserved. Under his directions, collectors went from village to village, inspecting the land, measuring the fields, and recording the customs and rights of different groups. The estimated revenue of each plot within a village was added up to calculate the revenue that each village (mahal) had to pay.

(3) This demand was to be revised periodically, not permanently fixed.

(4) The charge of collecting the revenue and paying it to the Company was given to the village headman, rather than the zamindar.

Question 4. 
The British produced crops in India according to the needs of Europe. Discuss.
Answer:
(1) The British also realised that the countryside could not only yield revenue, it could also grow the crops that Europe required.

(2) By the late eighteenth century the Company was trying its best to expand the cultivation of opium and indigo.

(3) In the century and a half that followed, the British persuaded or forced cultivators in various parts of India to produce other crops: jute in Bengal, tea in Assam, sugarcane in the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh), wheat in Punjab, cotton in Maharashtra and Punjab, rice in Madras.

Question 5. 
Describe the development of indigo cultivation in the world.
Answer:
(1) By the thirteenth century' Indian indigo was being used by cloth manufacturers in Italy, France and Britain to dye cloth.

(2) Worried by the competition from indigo, woad producers in Europe pressurised their governments to ban the import of indigo.

(3) By the seventeenth century, European cloth producers persuaded their governments to relax the ban on indigo import.

(4) By the end of the eighteenth century, the demand for Indian indigo grew further.

(5) The French began cultivating indigo in St. Domingue in the Caribbean islands, the Portuguese in Brazil, the English in Jamaica, and the Spanish in Venezuela. India plantations also came up in many parts of North America.

(6) Indigo plantations came to the fore in many parts of North America as well. Thus, indigo cultivation developed in the world.

Question 6. 
What do you understand by the NIJ arrangement bf indigo production? Why did the planters show disinterest in the expansion of the area under NIJ farming till the last phase of the 19th century?
Answer:
Nij Cultivation:

1. In this system, the planter produced indigo in lands that he directly controlled.
2. The planters either brought the land or rented it from other zamindars and produced indigo by directly employing hired labourers.

The reason for the planters showing disinterest in the expansion of the areas are:

1. Cultivation of indigo needs large areas, which were not available.
2. They attempted to lease the land around the indigo factory, and evict the peasants from the area. But this always led to conflicts and tension.
3. Indigo and paddy are cultivated at the same time, therefore a required number of labours was not available.
4. On large scale cultivation of indigo, many ploughs and bullocks were required on which more investment was needed.