Class 9 NCERT - Solved Question Answers Documents

Q1.    Refer to Activity, Textbook page 101.
Read sources A and B.

• Write briefly about what they tell you about the nature of the work undertaken by men and women in pastoral households.
• Why do you think pastoral groups often live on the edges of forests?

Ans.    • Men usually take the responsibility of outdoor activities. They graze the cattle and frequently lie out for weeks in the woods tending their herds. Women, on the other hand, repair to the markets every morning carrying baskets filled with milk products on their heads.
•     Pastoral groups often live on the edges of forests so that they can easily go to the towns to sell the produce of the dairy.

Q2.    Refer to Activity, Textbook page 104.
Write a comment on the closure of the forests to grazing from the standpoint of:

• a forester
• a pastoralist

Ans.    A forester gets everything from the forests. His life completely depends on forests. Hence, if his access to the forest is restricted or banned, it is very difficult for him to exist. Similarly, a pastoralist’s life is closely linked with the forests. The closure of the forests to grazing means paralysing his life for good.

Q3.    Refer to Activity, Textbook page 105.
Imagine you are living in the 1890s. You belong to a community of nomadic pastoralists and craftsmen. You learn that the government has declared your community as a criminal tribe.

• Describe briefly what you would have felt and done.
• Write a petition to the local collector explaining why the Act is unjust and how it will affect your life.

Ans.    • I would have felt deeply hurt. We are not criminals as stated by the colonial government. Forest is our home and we can’t live without it. The colonial government must understand this fact.
•    The colonial government in India has passed the Criminal Tribes Act. This Act has classified us as Criminal Tribes. I want to draw the attention of the local collector towards our miseries that have made us so helpless. We are not criminals as stated by the colonial government. We are just human beings like you. Hence, we need fair treatment from the authority. Our life totally depends upon forests. If our access to forests is restricted, how can we live? We will become unemployed and will have to face starvation. The Act is not just at all. Therefore, it must be made ineffective.

NCERT textbook Questions solved

Activities
 Q1.    Imagine that it is 1950 and you are a 60-year-old Raika herder living in post-independent India. You are telling your grand-daughter about the changes which have taken place in your lifestyle after independence. What would you say?
Ans.    Raikas had a very comfortable life before independence. They lived in their homes during the monsoons and moved out in search of pasture and  water by October. They combined a range of different activities such as cultivation and herding to make their living. But, after independence, their lifestyle got changed to a great extent. Now they had no grazing grounds or pastures. Many of the Raikas have switched over to different trades to earn their livelihoods.
Q2.    Imagine that you have been asked by a famous magazine to write an article about the life and customs of the Masai in pre-colonial Africa. Write the article giving it an interesting title.
Ans.    The Maasai cattle herders live primarily in East Africa: 300,000 in Southern Kenya and another 150,000 in Tanzania. The title Masai derives from the word ‘Maa’. 
‘ma sai means ‘My People’. The Masai are traditionally nomadic and pastoral people who depend on milk and meat for subsistence. In pre-colonial times, Maasai society was divided into two social categories — elders and warriors. The elders formed  the ruling group and their main task was to settle disputes. The warriors consisted of younger people who were mainly responsible for the protection of the tribe. They defended the community and organised cattle raids.
Q3.    Find out more about some of the pastoral communities marked in figures 11 and 13.
Ans.    Do yourself.

Questions

Q1.    Explain why nomadic tribes used to move from one place to another. What are the advantages to the environment of this continuous movement?
Ans.    Nomadic tribes do not live in one place but move from one place to another in search of pastures for their animals and to earn their living. The advantages to the environment of this continuous movement are given below:
(i)    Continuous movement of the nomadic tribes allows the pastures to recover and prevent their overuse.
(ii)    Their movement helps in making effective use of pastures available in different areas.
(iii)    Their cattle help in manuring the soil.
All these factors bring balance in the environment.

Q2.    Discuss why the colonial government in India brought in the following laws. In each case, explain how the law changed the lives of pastoralists.

• Wasteland Rules
• Forest Act
• Criminal Tribes Act
• Grazing Tax

Ans.• Wasteland Rules: To colonial govern-ment, all uncultivated land appeared to be unproductive which produced neither revenue nor agricultural produce. It was seen as ‘wasteland’ that needed to be brought under cultivation. By expanding cultivation, the colonial government would increase its revenue collection. It could at the same time produce more jute, cotton, wheat and other agricultural produce that were required in England. Hence, 
Wasteland Rules were enacted in the various parts of the country from the mid-nineteenth century. By these rules, uncultivated lands were taken over from the pastoralists and given to select individuals. These individuals were encouraged to settle these lands.
These lands were actually grazing tracts used regularly by pastoralists. So expansion of cultivation meant the decline of pastures and a problem for pastoralists.
•    Forest Act: By the mid-nineteenth century, various Forest Acts were being enacted in different provinces. Through these Acts, some forests which produced commercially valuable timber like deodar or sal, were declared ‘Reserved’. No pastoralist was allowed access to these forests. Other forests were classified as ‘Protected’. In these, some customary grazing rights of pastoralists were granted but their movements were severely restricted.
These Forest Acts changed the lives of pastoralists. They were prevented from entering many forests that had earlier provided valuable forage for their cattle. Even in the areas they were allowed entry, their movements were regulated.
•    Criminal Tribes Act: The British officials had no faith in nomadic people. They distrusted mobile craftsmen and traders who hawked their goods in villages and pastoralists who changed their places of residence every season. The colonial  government wanted to rule over a settled population. They wanted the rural people to live in villages, in fixed places with fixed rights on particular  fields. Such population was easy to identify and control. Therefore, they passed the Criminal Tribes Act in 1871 under which many communities of craftsmen, traders and pastoralists were classified as Criminal Tribes.
 Once this Act came into force, these communities were expected to live only in notified village settlements. They were not allowed to move out without a permit.
 •    Grazing Tax:     In order to expand its revenue income, grazing tax was introduced in most pastoral tracts of India in the mid-nineteenth century. Henceforth, pastoralists had to pay tax on every animal they grazed on the pastures. Not only this, they had to seek a permit to enter a grazing area to graze their cattle.
Grazing Tax proved to be an additional burden on the poor pastoralists.
Q3.    Give reasons to explain why the Maasai community lost their grazing lands.
Ans.    The Maasai community is found in East Africa, Southern Kenya and Tanzania. This community has faced the continuous loss of its grazing lands. Let’s see why this happened:
(i)    Before colonial times, Maasai land stretched over a vast area from North Kenya to the steppes of northern Tanzania. In the late 19th century, European imperial powers scrambled for territorial possessions in Africa, slicing up the region into different colonies. In 1885, Maasai land was cut into half with an international boundary between British Kenya and German Tanganyika. Subsequently, the best grazing lands were gradually taken over for White settlement and the Maasai were pushed into a small area in South Kenya and North Tanzania.
(ii)    From the late 19th century, the British colonial government in East Africa encouraged local peasants to expand cultivation. As cultivation expanded, pasture lands were turned into cultivable fields.
(iii)    Large areas of grazing land were also turned into game reserves like the Maasai Mara and Samburu National Park in Kenya and Serengeti Park in Tanzania. Pastoralists were not allowed to enter these reserves. They could neither hunt animals nor graze their cattle herds in these areas. Very often these reserves were in areas that had traditionally been regular grazing grounds for Maasai herds. The Serengeti National Park, for instance, was created over 14,760 km of Maasai grazing land.
Q4.    There are many similarities in the way in which the modern world forced changes in the lives of pastoral communities in India and East Africa Write about any two examples of changes which were similar for Indian pastoralists and the Maasai herders.
Ans.    Both India and East Africa were under the control of the British imperialistic powers. Hence, both of them were exploited in the same pattern. We can give here two examples of changes which were similar for the pastoral communities of both the countries:
(i)    The pastoral communities of both the places gradually lost their grazing lands because the colonial government wanted to expand cultivation. In India, the uncultivated land was seen as wasteland that needed to be brought under cultivation. Hence, waste land rules were enacted in various parts of the country. By these rules uncultivated lands were taken over and given to select individuals. These individuals were encouraged to settle these lands. In most areas, the lands taken over were actually grazing tracts used regularly by pastoralists. Similarly in East Africa the grazing lands of the Maasai were gradually taken over by the British colonial government to expand cultivation. As cultivation expanded, Maasai pasture lands were turned into cultivable fields.
(ii)    Both Indian pastoralists and the Maasai herders were nomadic and viewed with suspicion by the British colonial government. They were not allowed to move out without a permit. They were forced to live within the confines of special reserves.