RBSE Class 8 Social Science Important Questions History Chapter 4 Tribals, Dikus and the Vision of a Golden Age

Rajasthan Board RBSE Class 8 Social Science Important Questions History Chapter 4 Tribals, Dikus and the Vision of a Golden Age Important Questions and Answers.

RBSE Class 8 Social Science Important Questions History Chapter 4 Tribals, Dikus and the Vision of a Golden Age

Multiple Choice Questions

Question 1.
Jhum cultivators are mainly found in:
(a) South India
(b) Western India
(c) Northeast and Central India
(d) North India 
Answer:
(c) Northeast and Central India

Question 2. 
Wages were considered insulting:
(a) in Baiga community
(b) in Khond community
(c) in Gond community
(d) in the Santhals
Answer:
 (a) in Baiga community
 
Question 3. 
In Madhya Pradesh, shifting cultivation is known as:
(a) Jhum farming 
(b) Bewar
(c) Ragad 
(d) None of these 
Answer:
(b) Bewar

Question 4. 
The Santhals revolted in:
(a) 1831-32 
(b) 1855
(c) 1910 
(d) 1940 
Answer:
(b) 1855

Question 5. 
The people of the Gaddis community of Kulu were:
(a) Jhum farmers 
(b) Hunters and collectors
(c) Laborers 
(d) Shepherds 
Answer:
(d) Shepherds

Question 6.
Birsa was from which tribe:
(a) Gond 
(b) Santhal
(c) Munda 
(d) Baiga
Answer:
 (c) Munda
 
Question 7. 
Dikiis means:
(a) Tribal 
(b) Deepak
(c) Outsider 
(d) Head/Chief 
Answer:
(c) Outsider 

Question 8. 
Which tribal community of Kashmir reared goats?
(a) Bakarwals 
(b) Gaddis
(c) Labadis 
(d) Van Gujjars
Answer:
(a) Bakarwals

Question 9. 
Where did the Warli Revolt take place:
(a) Central India
(b) Maharashtra
(c) Orissa
(d) None of these 
Answer:
(b) Maharashtra

Question 10. 
The symbol of Birsa Raj was:
(a) Red flag 
(b) Green flag
(c) Saffron flag 
(d) White flag
Answers : 
(d) White flag

Fill in the blanks

Question 1. 
Munda tribe lived in ..............  
Answer:
Chottanagpur

Question 2.
............. of Kashmir reared goats.
Answer:
Bakarwals

Question 3. 
Changes in ............. had a considerable effect on tribal lives.
Answer:
forest laws

Question 4.
............. was the symbol of Birsa Raj.
Answer:
White flag

Question 5. 
The fine quality of Indian ............. attracts everyone.
Answer:
silk

Question 6. 
In 1900 Birsa died of ..............
Answers : 
Cholera. 

State True or False

Question 1. 
First was born into the Santhal family.
Answer:
False 
 
Question 2. 
Tribal groups considered forests to be very important for their lives.
Answer:
True 

Question 3. 
The Labadis of Andhra Pradesh were cattle herders.
Answer:
True 

Question 4. 
Under British rule, the functions and powers of the tribal chiefs changed considerably.
Answer:
False 

Question 5. 
The British efforts to settle jhum cultivators were not very successful.
Answers : 
False 

Match Correctly

(a)	(b)
Munda	Orissa
Khonds	Maharashtra
Gaddis community	Chottanagpur
Bastar Rebellion	Kulu
Warli Revolt	Central India

Answer:

(a)	(b)
Munda	Chottanagpur
Khonds	Orissa
Gaddis community	Kulu
Bastar Rebellion	Central India
Warli Revolt	Maharashtra

Very Short Answer Type Questions

Question 1. 
Who are dikus
Answer: 
According to the tribals, the outsiders were called dikus.

Question 2. 
Name any two tribal communities who were the followers of Birsa Munda.
Answer: 
Santhals and Oraons.

Question 3. 
What is fallow land?
Answer:
 A field left uncultivated for a while so that the soil recovers fertility, is called fallow land. 
 
Question 4. 
Where does the Khond tribal community live? ,
Answer: 
The Khond tribal community lives in the forest of Orissa.

Question 5.
How did Khond make their living?
Answer: 
Khonds used to make their livelihood by hunting and gathering forest produce.

Question 6. 
How did tribals get things that were not produced in the forest?
Answer: 
Tribals used to get such things by exchanging goods and by buying or selling things. 

Question 7. 
Name any two tribal groups that lived by herding and rearing animals.
Answer: 
The Van Gujjars of Punjab and the Bakarwals of Kashmir.

Question 8. 
Why did the Forest Department establish forest villages?
Answer: 
To get a regular supply of cheap labor to cut trees for railway sleepers and to transport logs, forest villages were established.

Question 9. 
What do you know about Mahua?
Answer:
Mahua is a flower that is eaten or used to make alcohol. 

Question 10. 
Which tribal group reared cocoons? 
Answer: 
Hazaribagh, in present-day Jharkhand, was an area where the Santhals reared cocoons. 

Question 11. 
Where and when did the revolt of Sonogram Sangma take place?
Answer: 
The revolt of Sonogram Sangma took place in Assam in 1906.

 
Question 12. 
What was the purpose of the Birsa movement?
Answer: 

1. To improve tribal society.
2. To remove out of tribal areas.

Short Answer Type Questions

Question 1. 
What was said about Birsa?
Answer: 

1. People said he had miraculous powers - he could cure all diseases and multiply grains.
2. Birsa himself declared that God had appointed him to save his people from trouble, and free them from the slavery of dikus (outsiders).

Question 2. 
Why Munda and other tribal people of that region were angry with the British rule?
Answer: 

1. All of them in different ways were unhappy with the changes they were experiencing and the problems they were facing under British rule.
2. Their familiar ways of life seemed to be disappearing, their livelihoods were under threat, and their religion appeared to be in danger.

Question 3. 
What did tribal people do when there was a short supply of forest products? 
Answer: 

1. Some tribal people used to go to the neighboring villages and do small jobs.
2. Some people worked as agricultural laborers.
3. Some other people carry loads and used to work as laborers in road construction work. 

Question 4. 
Why did the Baiga people shy from working for others?
Answer: 

1. The Baigas saw themselves as people of the forest, who could only live on the produce of the forest.
2. It was below the dignity of a Baiga to become a laborer.

Question 5. 
Why did the tribal people consider traders and moneylenders as the cause of their trouble?
Answer: 

1. Traders came around with things for sale and sold the goods at high prices.
2. Moneylenders gave loans with which the tribals met their cash needs, adding to what they earned. But the interest charged on the loans was usually very high.
3. So for the tribals, market and commerce often meant debt and poverty. They, therefore. 
4. came to see the moneylender and trader as evil outsiders and the cause of their misery.

Question 6. 
Describe some animal rearing and herding tribes.
Answer: 

1. The Van Gujjars of the Punjab hills and the Labadis of Andhra Pradesh were cattle herders.
2. The Gaddis of Kulu were shepherds.
3. The Bakarwals of Kashmir reared goats. 

Question 7. 
Discuss the rights of landowners of Munda community in Chottanagpur.
Answer: 

1. The Mundas of Chottanagpur, the land belonged to the clan as a whole.
2. All members of the clan were regarded as descendants of the original settlers, who had first cleared the land. Therefore, all of them had rights to the land.

Question 8. 
What do you mean by reserved forest in British rule?
Answer: 

1. The British extended their control all over the forest and then declared some forests as reserved forests.
2. These were the forests that produced timber that the British wanted.
3. In these forests, people were not allowed to move freely, practice jhum cultivation, collect fruits, or hunt animals.

Question 9. 
From where would the forest department get its labor to cut trees for railway sleepers and to transport logs? 
Answer: 
(1) Colonial officials came up with a solution. They decided that they would give jhum cultivators small patches of land in the forests and allow them to cultivate.

(2) There was a condition that those who lived in the villages would have to provide labor to the Forest Department and look after the forests. So in many regions, the Forest Department established forest villages to ensure a regular supply of cheap labor.

Question 10. 
Write a note on the revolt against the colonial forest laws.
Answer: 

1. Many tribal groups reacted against the colonial forest laws. They disobeyed the new rules and continued with practices that were declared illegal. 
2. At times rose in open rebellion, such as the revolt of Sonogram Sangma in 1906 in Assam, and the forest satyagraha of the 1930s in the Central Provinces.

Question 11. 
Describe the tribals who went away from home in search of work.
Answer: 

1. The plight of the tribals who had to go far away from their homes in search of work was even worse.
2. Tribals were recruited in large numbers to work the tea plantations of Assam and the coal mines in Jharkhand.
3. They were recruited through contractors who paid them miserably low wages and prevented them from returning home.

Question 12. 
Describe the revolt of tribals against the British policies and their exploitation. 
Answer: 
(1) Through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, tribal groups in different parts of the country rebelled against the changes in laws, the restrictions on their practices, the new taxes they had to pay, and the exploitation by traders and moneylenders.

(2) The Kols rebelled in 1831-32, Santhals rose in revolt in 1855, the Bastar Rebellion in central India broke out in 1910, and the Warli Revolt in Maharashtra in 1940. The movement that Birsa led was one such movement.

Question 13. 
What were the powers of tribal chiefs, before the arrival of the British? 
Answer: 

1. Before the arrival of the British, in many areas, the tribal chiefs were important people.
2. They enjoyed a certain amount of economic power and had the right to administer and control their territories.
3. In some places, they had their own police and decided on the local rules of land and forest management.

Question 14. 
Write two qualities of jhum cultivators.
Answer: 

1. Shifting cultivators were found in the hilly and forested tracts of the northeast and central India.
2. The lives of these tribal people depended on free movement within forests and on being able to use the land and forests for growing their crops.

Question 15. 
Describe the reforming views of Birsa?
Answer: 

1. Birsa asked his people to give up drinking liquor. In his opinion, liquor was not only affecting the personal and family life of the people but the society was also badly affected by it.
2. Birsa appealed to the people to keep their villages clean.
3. He also urged to stop believing in witchcraft and sorcery.

Question 16. 
What were the political aims of the Birsa movement?
Answer: 

1. Birsa wanted to drive out missionaries, moneylenders, Hindu landlords, and the government. He did not want the British officers to stay there.
2. The aim of this movement was to set up a Munda Raj with Birsa at its head.

Question 17. 
What was the significance of the Birsa movement?
Answer: 
This movement had two significance:
1. First:
it forced the colonial government to introduce laws so that the land of the tribals could not be easily taken over by dikus.

2. Second:
it showed once again that the tribal people had the capacity to protest against injustice and express their anger against colonial rule. They did this in their own specific way, inventing their own rituals and symbols of struggle.

Long Answer Type Questions

Question 1. 
Describe Jhum farming.
Answer: 

1. Jhum cultivation was mainly done on small patches of land, mostly in forests.
2. The cultivators cut the treetops to allow sunlight to reach the ground and burnt the vegetation on the land to clear it for cultivation.
3. They spread the ash from the firing, which contained potash, to fertilize the soil. They used the ax to cut trees and the hoe to scratch the soil in order to prepare it for cultivation.
4. They broadcast the seeds, that is, scattered the seeds on the field instead of plowing the land and sowing the seeds.
5. Once the crop was ready and harvested, they moved to another field. Due to this reason, Jhum cultivation is also known as shifting cultivation.

Question 2. 
Describe the hunting and food gathering activity of the Khond people.
Answer: 

1. Khond community lives in the forest of Orissa. They were originally hunters and gatherers.
2. They regularly went out on collective hunts and then divided the meat amongst themselves.
3. They ate fruits and roots collected from the forest and cooked food with the oil they extracted from the seeds of the sal.
4. They used many forest shrubs and herbs for medicinal purposes and sold forest produce in the local markets.
5. The local weavers and leather workers turned to the Khonds when they needed supplies of Kusum and Palash flowers to color their clothes and leather.

Question 3. 
The tribal community began to consider markets and traders as their biggest enemies. Explain with the example of the silk trade.
Answer: 
The tribal community began to consider markets and traders as their biggest enemies. This can be understood from the following examples of the silk trade:
(1) In the eighteenth century, Indian silk was in demand in European markets. The fine quality of Indian silk was highly valued and exports from India increased rapidly. As the market expanded, East India Company officials tried to encourage silk production to meet the growing demand.

(2) Hazaribagh, in present day Jharkhand, was an area where the Santhals reared cocoons.

(3) The traders dealing in silk sent in their agents who gave loans to the tribal people and collected the cocoons. The growers were paid? 3 to ? 4 for a thousand cocoons.

(4) These were then exported to Burdwan or Gaya where they were sold at five times the price.

(5) The middlemen: so-called because they arranged deals between the exporters and silk growers - made huge profits. The silk growers earned very little. Therefore, many tribal groups saw the market and the traders as their main enemies.

Question 4. 
Describe the early life of Birsa Munda.
Answer: 
The early life of Birsa Munda - Birsa was born into a Munda family of Chottanagpur in the mid-1870s. The son of a poor father, he grew up around the forests of Bohonda, grazing sheep, playing the flute, and dancing in the local akhara. As an adolescent, Birsa heard tales of the Munda uprisings of the past and saw the sirdars (leaders) of the community urging the people to revolt. They talked of a golden age when the Mundas had been free of the oppression of dikus.

Birsa went to the local missionary school and listened to the sermons of missionaries. There too he heard it said that it was possible for the Mundas to attain the Kingdom of Heaven, and regain their lost rights. This would be possible if they became good Christians and gave up their “bad practices”. Later Birsa also spent some time in the company of a prominent Vaishnav preacher. He wrote the sacred thread and began to value the importance of purity and piety. Birsa was deeply influenced by many of the ideas he came in touch within his growing-up years.