Class 8 History Chapter 6 Question Answers - Our Pasts III (Part - II)

Q1: What were the consequences of partition of Bengal?
Ans:  Consequences of partition of Bengal

• The partition of Bengal infuriated people all over India. All sections of the Congress – the Moderates and the Radicals, opposed it.
• Large public meetings and demonstrations were organised and novel methods of mass protest developed.
• The struggle that unfolded came to be known as the Swadeshi movement, strongest in Bengal but with echoes elsewhere too – in deltaic Andhra for instance, it was known as the Vandemataram Movement.

Q2: What economic impact did the First World War have on India?
Ans: The First World War altered the economic and political situation in India. It led to a huge rise in the defence expenditure of the Government of India. The government in turn increased taxes on individual incomes and business profits. Increased military expenditure and the demands for war supplies led to a sharp rise in prices which created great difficulties for the common people. On the other hand, business groups reaped fabulous profits from the war. The war created a demand for industrial goods (jute bags, cloth, rails) and caused a decline of imports from other countries into India. So Indian industries expanded during the war, and Indian business groups began to demand greater opportunities for development.

Q3: Why were people dissatisfied with British rule in the 1870s and 1880s?
Ans: People were dissatisfied with British rule in the 1870s and 1880s due to the following reasons:

• The Arms Act was passed in 1878, disallowing Indians from possessing arms.
• In the same year the Vernacular Press Act was also enacted in an effort to silence those who were critical of the government. The Act allowed the government to confiscate the assets of newspapers including their printing presses if the newspapers published anything that was found “objectionable”.
• In 1883, there was a furore over the attempt by the government to introduce the Ilbert Bill. The bill provided for the trial of British or European persons by Indians, and sought equality between British and Indian judges in the country. But when white opposition forced the government to withdraw the bill, Indians were enraged.

Q4: What was the Rowlatt act? Give an account of the Rowlatt Satyagraha?
Ans:  The Rowlatt Satyagraha

• In 1919 Gandhiji gave a call for a satyagraha against the Rowlatt Act that the British had just passed.
• The Act curbed fundamental rights such as the freedom of expression and strengthened police powers.
• Mahatma Gandhi, Mohammad Ali Jinnah and others felt that the government had no right to restrict people’s basic freedoms. They criticised the Act as “devilish” and tyrannical.
• Gandhiji asked the Indian people to observe 6 April 1919 as a day of non-violent opposition to this Act, as a day of “humiliation and prayer” and hartal (strike). Satyagraha Sabhas were set up to launch the movement.
• The Rowlatt Satyagraha turned out to be the first all-India struggle against the British government although it was largely restricted to cities.
• In April 1919 there were a number of demonstrations and hartals in the country and the government used brutal measures to suppress them.
• The Jallianwala Bagh atrocities, inflicted by General Dyer in Amritsar on Baisakhi day (13 April), were a part of this repression.

Q5: Discuss those developments of the 1937-47 period that led to the creation of Pakistan.
Ans:  Developments of the 1937-47 period that led to the creation of Pakistan

• From the late 1930s, the League began viewing the Muslims as a separate “nation” from the Hindus. In developing this notion it may have been influenced by the history of tension between some Hindu and Muslim groups in the 1920s and 1930s.
• More importantly, the provincial elections of 1937 seemed to have convinced the League that Muslims were a minority, and they would always have to play second fiddle in any democratic structure. It feared that Muslims may even go unrepresented. The Congress’s rejection of the League’s desire to form a joint Congress- League government in the United Provinces in 1937 also annoyed the League.
• The Congress’s failure to mobilise the Muslim masses in the 1930s allowed the League to widen its social support. It sought to enlarge its support in the early 1940s when most Congress leaders were in jail.
• At the end of the war in 1945, the British opened negotiations between the Congress, the League and themselves for the independence of India. The talks failed because the League saw itself as the sole spokesperson of India’s Muslims. The Congress could not accept this claim since a large number of Muslims still supported it.
• Elections to the provinces were again held in 1946. The Congress did well in the “General” constituencies but the League’s success in the seats reserved for Muslims was spectacular. It persisted with its demand for “Pakistan”.
• In March 1946 the British cabinet sent a three-member mission to Delhi to examine this demand and to suggest a suitable political framework for a free India.
• This mission suggested that India should remain united and constitute itself as a loose confederation with some autonomy for Muslim-majority areas. But it could not get the Congress and the Muslim League to agree to specific details of the proposal. Partition now became more or less inevitable.
• After the failure of the Cabinet Mission, the Muslim League decided on mass agitation for winning its Pakistan demand. It announced 16 August 1946 as “Direct Action Day”.
• Ultimately in 1947 partition took place with the birth of new country.

Q6: Under what circumstances did Mahatma Gandhi initiate Quit India Movement?
Ans:  In September 1939, after two years of Congress rule in the provinces, the Second World War broke out. Critical of Hitler, Congress leaders were ready to support the British war effort. But in return they wanted that India be granted independence after the war. The British refused to concede the demand. The Congress ministries resigned in protest. Mahatma Gandhi decided to initiate a new phase of movement against the British in the middle of the Second World War. The British must quit India immediately, he told them. To the people he said, “do or die” in your effort to fight the British – but you must fight non-violently.

Q7: Explain the event of Dandi march.
Ans:  Dandi march

• Gandhiji declared that he would lead a march to break the salt law.
• According to this law, the state had a monopoly on the manufacture and sale of salt.
• Gandhiji and his followers marched for over 240 miles from Sabarmati to the coastal town of Dandi where they broke the government law by gathering natural salt found on the seashore, and boiling sea water to produce salt.
• Peasants, tribals and women participated in large numbers. A business federation published a pamphlet on the salt issue.
• The government tried to crush the movement through brutal action against peaceful satyagrahis. Thousands were sent to jail.

Q8: State the demands of the Congress made in its early years.
Ans:  The Congress in the first twenty years was “moderate” in its objectives and methods. During this period it made several demands.

• The Congress demanded a greater voice for Indians in the government and in administration.
• It wanted the Legislative Councils to be made more representative, given more power, and introduced in provinces where none existed.
• It demanded that Indians be placed in high positions in the government. For this purpose it called for civil service examinations to be held in India as well, not just in London.
• The demand for Indianisation of the administration was part of a movement against racisim, since most important jobs at the time were monopolised by white officials.
• Other demands included the separation of the judiciary from the executive, the repeal of the Arms Act and the freedom of speech and expression.
• It demanded reduction of revenue, cut in military expenditure, and more funds for irrigation.

Q9: Discuss the various forms that the Non-Cooperation Movement took in different parts of India. How did the people understand Gandhiji?
Ans: Non-Cooperation Movement took various forms in different parts of India.

• In Kheda, Gujarat, Patidar peasants organised nonviolent campaigns against the high land revenue demand of the British.
• In coastal Andhra and interior Tamil Nadu, liquor shops were picketed.
• In the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, tribals and poor peasants staged a number of “forest satyagrahas”, sometimes sending their cattle into forests without paying grazing fee. They were protesting because the colonial statehad restricted their use of forest resources in various ways.
• In Sind (now in Pakistan), Muslim traders and peasants were very enthusiastic about the Khilafat call. In Bengal too, the Khilafat-Non-Cooperation alliance gave enormous communal unity and strength to the national movement.
• In Punjab, the Akali agitation of the Sikhs sought to remove corrupt mahants – supported by the British – from their gurdwaras. This movement got closely identified with the Non-Cooperation Movement.
• In Assam, tea garden labourers, shouting “Gandhi Maharaj ki Jai”, demanded a big increase in their wages. They left the British-owned plantations amidst declarations that they were following Gandhiji’s wish.
• People thought of Gandhiji as a kind of messiah, as someone who could help them overcome their misery and poverty.

Q10: Evaluate the dynamic role of Gandhiji in the Indian nationalist struggle for freedom as a leader of the masses.
Ans: Role of Mahatma Gandhi

• Mahatma Gandhi emerged as a mass leader. Gandhiji, aged 46, arrived in India in 1915 from South Africa.
• Having led Indians in that country in non-violent marches against racist restrictions, he was already a respected leader, known internationally.
• His South African campaigns had brought him in contact with various types of Indians.
• Mahatma Gandhi spent his first year in India travelling throughout the country, understanding the people, their needs and the overall situation.
• His earliest interventions were in local movements in Champaran, Kheda and Ahmedabad where he came into contact with Rajendra Prasad and Vallabhbhai Patel. In Ahmedabad he led a successful millworkers’ strike in 1918.
• In 1919 Gandhiji gave a call for a satyagraha against the Rowlatt Act that the British had just passed.
• Gandhiji supported urged the Congress to campaign against “Punjab wrongs” (Jallianwala massacre), the Khilafat wrong and demand swaraj. The Non-Cooperation Movement gained momentum through 1921-22.
• He abruptly called off the Non-Cooperation Movement when in February 1922 a crowd of peasants set fire to a police station in Chauri Chaura.
• Gandhi again took off with another nonviolent movement known as the civil disobedience movement in 1930.
• The Quit India Movement was launched under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi in August 1942.