Class 10 History Chapter 6 Previous Year Questions - Work, Life and Leisure Additional Chapter (Deducted from CBSE 2021-22 examination)

Ans: The people in the chawls of Bombay entertained themselves in the following ways.

• Streets were used for different leisure activities. Magicians, monkey players or acrobats performed their acts here.
• People used to exchange news about jobs, strikes, riots or demonstrations.
• Liquor shops and akharas too came up where people spent their time.

Ans: The concept of the ‘Garden City’ was introduced to decongest localities in London.It was thought to have more green spaces that would serve as new lungs for the city that had been choking under pollution and crowd. For this less polluted large block of apartments were to be made to house the growing population in London. A pleasant space, full of plants and trees and beautiful views, would be developed where people would both live and work.This system was developed by an England based architect and planner Ebenezer Howard.

Ans: The chawls of Bombay were a small cosmopolitan community in themselves because of the following reasons.

1. Chawls were multi-storeyed low cost buildings that were built during 1860s to house the anxious migrants into the city of Bombay. 
2. These were owned by private landlords who looked for quick ways of making money. 
3. Each chawl was divided into smaller one room tenement with no private toilet. 
4. In the middle of the chawl there was an open space for social and cultural gatherings. 
5. People from different social backgrounds lived here. Those who belonged to the depressed classes found it difficult to find space in these chawls. They lived in shelter along the roads by using corrugated sheets, leaves or bamboo poles.

Ans: Family became a unit of production and consumption along with political decision making.

• Functions and shape of the family transformed. Following were the social changes that took place in the family life in the 18th century in London.
• Ties between the members of the family began to loosen with marriages breaking down.
• Women among the lower social classes, who worked for wages, controlled their lives themselves.
• Spirit of individualism developed among men and women.
• As women lost their jobs from industries, public spaces became male dominated and domestic sphere was meant ideal for women.
• Women faced higher levels of isolation despite being helped by maids.

Ans: The people living in chawls were living in pitiful condition.

• Many people lived together in single tenements.
• Due to closeness of gutters and animal shelters, people had to keep their windows shut even in humid weather.
• There were no private toilets or water connections, which often led to quarrels among residents.

Ans: Philanthropists were social workers, who worked for social upliftment and public morality. They took to donating time and money to fulfil their purpose. The following were the steps taken to control crime in London in the 1870s.

• Counting of criminal population, keeping a watch on their activities and investigating their way of life 
• Imposing huge penalties and offering work for deseving poor.

Ans: Rent Act was passed in Bombay in 1918 to keep the rents reasonable. It had a negative effect as landlords withdrew houses from the market, thus causing severe housing crises.

Ans: The problem of transport and housing crises was solved by underground railway in the following ways.

• The London underground railway partially solved the housing crises by carrying large masses of people to and from the city.
• Better-planned suburbs and a good railway network enabled a large number of people to live outside London and travel to work. A large number of houses were built for the working class, most of them were single-family cottages.
• By 1880, the expanded train service was carrying 40 million passengers a year

Ans: The following were the features witnessed by the gods in the novel written by Durgacharan Roy.

• The city was big and modern with improved transportation like train, large ships on rivers, etc.
• New forms of production units were belching smoke from the chimneys.
• Rivers were bounded by bridges. Monuments and a dazzling away of shops were selling a wide range of commodities.
• There were a lot of opportunities for trade and commerce, education and jobs.
• There was a negative aspect of the cities too. Poverty and poor housing were common with cheats and thieves, making their living by their tricks.
• The city had a confusing state of caste, religious and gender identities The city also witnessed breaking down of social distinctions, (any five)

Ans: The following points sum up the history of air pollution in Calcutta during the nineteenth century.

• Calcutta had a long history of air pollution. Its inhabitants inhaled grey smoke, particularly in the winter. Since the city was built on marshy land, the resulting fog combined with smoke to generate thick black smog.
• High levels of pollution were a consequence of the huge population that depended on dung and wood as fuel in their daily life. But the main polluters were the industries and establishments that used steam engines run on coal.
• Colonial authorities were at first intent on clearing the place of miasmas, or harmful vapours, but the railway line, introduced in 1855, brought a dangerous new pollutant into the picture coal from Raniganj.
• The high content of ash in Indian coal was a problem. Many pleas were made to banish the dirty mills from the city, with no effect.
• However, in 1863, Calcutta became the first Indian city to get smoke nuisance legislation.

Ans: The following were the three characteristics of the ancient cities.

• Towns and cities, that first appeared along river valleys, such as Ur, Nippur and Mohenjodaro in ancient times, were larger in scale than other human settlements of those times.
• There were certain conditions needed for the development of ancient cities. It could develop only when an increase in food supplies made it possible to support a wide range of non-food producers.
• Cites were often the nucleus of political power, administrative network, trade and industry, religious institutions, and knowledge production. It supported variegated social groups such as artisans, merchants and priests.

Ans: The following were the three features of chawls of Bombay.

• Chawls were multi-storeyed structures that had been built from at least the 1860s in the native parts of the town.
• Each chawl was divided into smaller one-room tenements, which had no private toilets.
• Chawls were also the place for the exchange of news about jobs, strikes, riots or demonstrations.

Ans: Refer to answer 8.

Ans: The following steps were taken to clean up London.

• Attempts were made to decongest localities, reduce pollution and landscape the city.
• Large apartments were built to accommodate the growing population.
• Rent control was introduced to ease the impact of severe housing shortage.
• Green open spaces were extended to beautify the city.

Ans: Refer to answer 15.

Ans: The underground railway in London was constructed to solve the housing problem. It was criticized initially because of the following reasons.

• A newspaper reported the danger to health and asphyxiation (lack of air) and heat in the train compartments.
• It was referred to as iron monsters, which added to the mess of the city. Charles Dickens in Dombey and Son described its destructive process of construction.
• About 900 houses were destroyed to make two miles of railways.
• It led to a large-scale displacement of the poor.
• The underground railway created huge ecological and environmental problem. The process of construction led to large-scale destruction of forests and other natural features.

Ans: The following were the changes in the work available to women in London during the 19th and 20th century.

• Factories employed large numbers of women in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
• With technological developments, women gradually lost their industrial jobs and were forced to work within households.
• The 1861 census recorded a quarter of a million domestic servants in London, of whom the vast majority were women, many of them recent migrants.
• A large number of women used their homes to increase family income by taking in lodgers or through activities like tailoring, washing and matchbox making.
• There was a change once again in the twentieth century. As women got employment in wartime industries and offices, they withdrew from domestic service.

Ans: The following points sum up how the Londoners got their wish for a clean air fulfilled.

• Due to the increasing pollution level, Londoners made demands for new ‘lungs’ for the city. Some attempts were made to bridge the gap between city and countryside through ideas like the Green Belt around London.
• The notion of the Garden City came into being, which was a pleasant space full of plants and trees, where people would both live and work.
• Smoke Abatement Acts of 1847 and 1853 were passed to clear the air.

Ans: The condition of urban family transformed in the following ways.

• By the twentieth century, the urban family had been transformed once again due to First World War. Women played an important part in this.
• This transformation came into being partly by the experience of the valuable wartime work done by women, who were employed in large numbers to meet war demands.
• The family now consisted of much smaller units and helped each other in the processes of production.
• Due to these developments, the family became the heart of a new market. It propelled the production of goods and services, and ideas.
• The ties between the members of households loosened and institution of marriage broke down.

Ans: The development or expansion of Bombay and London was different in the following ways.

• The development of Bombay was the result of fear about spread of plague epidemic, whereas the development of London was the outcome of the fear of spread of social disorder.
• Bombay faced scarcity of land while London had plenty of land in the countryside.
• The pace of development in Bombay was slower as compared to that in London.
• Bombay developed as a port town while London developed as an industrial town.

Ans: Refer to answer 6.

Ans: The problems faced by migrated people in Bombay in the mid nineteenth century were as follows.

• Housing: They were forced to live in cheap and unsafe multistoreyed structures called chawls. More than 70 per cent migrants lived in these thickly-populated chawls. They were overcrowded with no toilets and privacy.
• Shortage of water and other basic amenities: Water was scarce, which led to daily quarrels at the tap. People had to use streets and neighbourhood for cooking, washing and sleeping.
• Caste discrimination: Depressed classes faced difficulties in finding house. They were kept out of chawls and had to live in shelters made of sheets, leaves or bamboo poles.
• Fear of spread of diseases: Being overcrowded and built in an unplanned way, there was a constant danger of spread of epidemic diseases like plague and other communicable diseases in chawls.

Ans:

(i) For wealthy Britishers, an annual ‘London season’ was organised which included several cultural events, such as the opera, the theatre and the classical dance performances.
(ii) Working classes met in pubs and taverns to have a drink, exchange news and sometimes to also organise political action.
(iii) Libraries, art galleries and museums were established in the 19th century to provide entertainment for the common people. Music halls were common among the lower classes, and by the early 20th century, cinema became the source of great master entertainment for mixed audiences.

London Season

Ans: The congestion in the 19th century industrial London had led many wealthy residents of London to build homes in the countryside. Architect Ebenezer Howard developed the principle of ‘Garden City’, a pleasant place, full of plants and trees, where people could both live and work. Between the two world wars, the British State built a million houses, single family cottages for working classes. The city extended now beyond the range, where people could walk to work. The development of suburbs made new forms of mass transport absolutely necessary. To persuade people to leave the city and live in garden suburbs, some new means of travelling to the city for work was essential. The London underground railway solved the housing crisis by carrying large masses of people to and from the city.

Ans: For wealthy Britishers, there had been an annual ‘London Season’. Several cultural events, as the opera, the theatre, the classical musical performances were organised for an elite group of 300-400 families.

Many new types of large-scale entertainment for the common people came up. Libraries, art galleries and museums were established to provide entertainment to people who swarmed them. Music halls were popular among lower classes, and by the 20th century, cinema became the great mass entertainer for mixed audiences.

British industrial workers were encouraged to spend their holidays by the sea. Over a million British went to the seaside in 1883; their number increased to 7 million in 1939.

Ans: City development everywhere has been at the expense of ecology and environment. To accommodate factories, housing and other institutions, natural features are either transformed or flattened out. Large quantities of refuse and waste products pollute air and water and excessive noise becomes a feature of urban life.

In the late 19th century, use of coal in homes and industries raised serious problems. For example, in Calcutta, inhabitants inhaled grey smoke, particularly in winter. Since Calcutta was built on marshy land, the fog and smoke combined to generate a thick black smog. High level of pollution was a result of the huge population using dung and wood as fuel in their daily life. Main polluters were the industries that used steam engines run on coal. The introduction of the railway in 1855 brought a new dangerous pollutant — coal from Raniganj. It had a high content of ash. Calcutta became the first Indian city in 1863 to get smoke nuisance legislation. In 1920, the rice mills of Tollygunge began to burn rice husk instead of coal, and people complained of “black soot falling like drizzling rain” causing bad tempers, dirty clothes and smoke related illnesses. The inspectors of Bengal Smoke Nuisance Committee finally managed to control industrial smoke, but found controlling domestic smoke more difficult.

Ans:

(i) Rent control to prevent severe housing shortage.
(ii) Building a Green Belt around London as “New Lungs” for the city.
(iii) Building holiday homes in the country side by wealthy residents of London.
(iv) Ebenezer Howard, an architect and planner, planned “Garden City” full of plants and trees
where people could work as well as live.

1. Raymond Unwin and Barry Parker designed the Garden city of New Earswick.
2. A million houses, were built by local authorities.

Ans: Originally Bombay was the city of several islands which were joined into one land mass over a period of time. The first project began in 1784, when the Governor of Bombay, William Hornby, approved the building of the great sea wall. It was done to prevent flooding of the low lying areas of Bombay.

In the mid-nineteenth century, several plans were formulated for reclamation of more land from the sea. Both private and Government companies took part in it. In 1864, the Black Bay Reclamation Company won the right to reclaim the western shore from the tip of Malabar Hill to the end of Colaba. This meant levelling of hills around Bombay. By the 1870s, though most private companies had closed down because of the high cost of reclamation, Bombay had expanded to about 22 square miles. As the population continued to increase rapidly, more and more area was reclaimed from the sea.

Ans: The London underground railway partially solved the housing crisis by carrying large masses of people to and from the city. On the first day of its opening on 10 January 1863, the underground railway carried 10,000 passengers between Paddingtion and Farrington Street in London. By 1880 the expanded train service was carrying 40 million passengers a year. As a result the population in the city became more dispersed. Better planned suburbs came up and a good railway network enabled large numbers to live outside central London and travel to work.

Ans: The well-off people of London demanded that slums should be cleared in London. Slowly these people came to realise that there was a need for housing for the poor. The reasons were that

First: The vast mass of one-room house occupied by the poor were seen as a serious threatto public health. They were overcrowded, badly ventilated and locked sanitation.
Second : They were seen as fire hazards due to poor housing.
Third : There was a fear of social disorder, specially after the Russian Revolution in 1917. Workers’ mass housing schemes were planned to prevent the London poor from turning rebellious.

Ans: The weallthy British had a long ‘‘London Season.’’ They organised cultural events like the opera, theatre and classical music performances for the elite group of 300-400 families. The working classes met in pubs to have a drink, exchange news and sometimes to organise political action.

With industrialisation, large-scale entertainment for the common people came into being with the state help. Libraries, art galleries and museums were built for the improvement of people and create a pride in British achievements. When entry was made free in 1810, the number of visitors shot up to 825,901 in 1846. Music halls were popular among lower classes and by the early 20th century cinema became the great mass entertainment for mixed audiences. British industrial workers were encouraged to spend their holidays near the seaside. Nearly 7 million people visited Blackpool in 1939.

Ans: The function and shape of the family was completely transformed by life in the industrial city.
(i) Ties between members of households loosened
(ii) Among working class the institution of marriage tended to break down
(iii) Women of upper and middles classes in Britain, faced increasingly high level of isolation. Their lives though were made easier by maids who cooked, cleared and cared for young children on low wages.
(iv) Women who worked had some control over their lives, specially among the lower social classes. Many reformers felt that marriage as an institution had broken down.
(v) When women lost their industrial jobs, conservative people forced them to withdraw into their homes. 20th century saw another change, the family became the heart of new market – of goods, services and of ideas. Families after the war became smaller units.

Ans: 

(i) The father came down from the Sahyadris.
(ii) To earn a living in a mill.
(iii) The father withered away toiling all his life and the son is going to meet the same fate — toil, depression and hardly any relief from both.

Ans: The earliest project of land reclamation began in 1784. The Bombay Governor had great sea wall built to prevent flooding of low-lying areas. Government and private companies joined hands and formulated plans to reclaim more and more land. In 1864, Back Bay Reclamation Company won the right to reclaim the western foreshore from the tip of Malabar hill to the end of Colaba.

By the 1870s the city had expanded to 22 sq km. Bombay Port Trust built a dry dock between 1914-1918 and used the excavated earth to create the 22 acre Ballard Estate. Much later, the famous Marine Drive of Bombay was developed.

Ans:

(i) Women tried to solve their financial problems by working in the factories.
(ii) When technological development deprived them of their jobs, they started working as domestic help. Out of a quarter million domestic helps the vast majority were women.
A large number of women used their homes to increase family income by taking in lodgers. They took up tailoring, washing or match-box making. During the war, they were once again employed in war-time industries and offices.

Ans:

(i) The biggest problem was housing. 70% of the working people lived in thickly populated ‘chawls’ of Bombay. Chawls were multi-storeyed structures, with one room tenements which had no private toilets. Rents were high. People had to keep their windows closed even in humid weather due to close proximity of filthy gutters, privies, buffalo stables etc.
(ii) There was an acute shortage of water due to unplanned expansion of the city. People often quarreled for a turn at the tap.
(iii) People had to use streets and neighborhoods for various activities like cooking, washing and sleeping. There was constant fear of epidemics, specially like plague, due to unclean surroundings and too many people.

Ans: The city life of Calcutta was full of contrasts, according to Durgacharan Ray.
1. In the 19th century, Calcutta was brimming with opportunities — for trade, commerce and jobs.
2. But on the hand, another aspect of its life was — its cheats, thieves, its appalling poverty and the poor quality of housing. The Gods themselves were cheated by the shopkeepers.
3. There was confusion of caste, religious and gender identities in the city. All social\ distinctions that appeared to be natural and normal seemed to be breaking down. The contrasting images were of wealth and poverty, splendour and dirt, opportunities and disappointments.

Ans: The capitals of the Bombay, Bengal and Madras Presidencies in British India were called ‘‘Presidency Cities”. Their special features were :
(i) They were multi-functional cities, they had major ports, warehouses, homes and offices, army camps as well as educational institutions, museums and libraries.
(ii) A large number of people lived in these cities. Bombay had a population of nearly 1,500,000 people in 1941 as compared to 644,405 in 1872. The cities combined political and economic functions for the entire region.

Ans: London was a colossal city by 1750 with a bursting population. By 1880 the population was about 4 million. Crime flourished as London grew. It is reported there were 20,000 criminals living in London by the 1870s. The police worried about the law and order and philanthropists worried about public morality. Industrialists wanted a hard-working, orderly labour force. Actually the ‘‘criminals’’ were in fact poor people who lived by stealing food from shops, lumps of coal and clothes drying on hedges.
Steps taken to control crime were :
(i) Population of the criminals was counted, their activities were watched and their way of life were investigated.
(ii) Authorities imposed high penalties for crime and offered work to the ‘deserving poor.’’
(iii) Compulsory Elementary Education Act was passed so that children went to school rather than take to crime or work in underpaid factories.
(iv) The need for housing for the poor was recognised to stop the poor from turning rebellious.

Ans: People were afraid to travel in London underground railway because they thought they were a menace to health. A newspaper reader warned the public ‘‘of compartments full of smoking pipes, the foul atmosphere, which was a mixture of sulphur, coal dust and fumes from the gas lamps.’’ He thought he would die of asphyxiation and heat.
Many people called the railway ‘‘iron monsters,’’ which added to the mess and unhealthiness of the city. The famous writer, Charles Dickens, in one of his words criticised the railway for destroyed houses, knocking down sheets, deep pits and trenches thrown about.’’ To make two miles of railway, 900 houses were dug up and had led to the massive displacement of the London poor.

Ans: Ebenezer Howard was an architect and town planners. He developed the principle of the Garden City, a pleasant space full of plants and trees, where people would live and work. He believed this would also produce better quality citizens.

Ans: See answer to 17, Technological development made women lose their jobs in the factories machines replaced them. They had to work from homes or work as domestic helpers. The 1861 Census reported that out of quarter of a million domestic workers vast majority were women, many of them recent migrants to London. A large number of women augmented the family income by taking in lodgers and through activities like tailoring, washing or match-box making.

Ans: The underground railways resulted in massive destruction in the process of construction. The railway coaches and railroads were made of iron. Green spaces were hardly available. Iron pillars, bridges and other works of iron could be seen everywhere. The underground railways were a menace to health and environment. The whole system appeared to be like a huge monster.

Ans: It was largely a middle-class-led social reform movement which emerged in Britain and America from the nineteenth century onwards. This movement identified alcoholism as the cause of the ruin of families and society, and aimed at reducing the consumption of alcoholic drinks, particularly amongst the working classes.

Ans:

(i) The city of London was a powerful magnet for migrant populations. It was a city of clerks, shopkeepers, skilled and semi-skilled artisans, soldiers, servants and beggars. It was the city of classes as well as masses.
(ii) Apart from London dockyards, five major types of industries employed large number of workers. These industries included clothing, printing, footwear, metal and engineering.
(iii) During the First World War London began manufacturing motor cars and electrical goods and number of large factories multiplied.

Ans: The European elite, the richer Parsis, Muslims and uppercaste traders and industrialists lived in sprawling, spacious bungalows. But more than 70 per cent of the working people lived in the thickly populated chawls of Bombay. The homes being small, streets and neighbourhoods were used for a variety of activities such as cooking, washing and sleeping. Liquor shops and akharas came up in empty spot. Streets were also used for different types of leisure activities. Chawls were also the place for exchange of news about jobs, strikes, riots or demonstrations.

Ans: Most of the workers were employed in industries and factories. Because of bursting population led to unemployment and crime and an increase in the number of poor. Factories employed large number of women in the early 19th century but they lost their industrial jobs due to technological developments. Most women worked as domestic servants; of them many were migrants to London. Large numbers of children were pushed into low-paid work, often by their parents. Children took to crime as it earned them more money than honest work. A young thief could earn 10 shillings 6 pence a week from thieving – honest work fetched him this money after making 1,296 match boxes in a day.

Most workers lived in unsafe tenements which were health hazards, overcrowded, badly ventilated and lacking sanitation. Poor housing was a constant fire hazard. The workers could only expect a lifespan of 29 years. The workers were expected to die, according to Charles Booth, in a ‘work house, hospital or a lunatic asylum.’ There was a widespread fear of social disorder, because of the unhealthy, poverty stricken life the workers led.

Ans: The first section of the underground railway in the world opened on 10 January 1863 between Paddington and Farringtion Street in London. On that day 10,000 passengers were carried with trams running every ten minutes.

1. At first, the people were afraid to travel underground. They found the atmosphere a mixture of sulphur, coal dust and foul fumes from the gas lamps above and found them a danger to health.
2. Most felt the “Iron Monsters” added to the mess and unhealthiness of the city. To make two miles of railways, 900 houses had to be destroyed. Streets were knocked up, pits and trenches dug. The underground railway led to a massive displacement of the London poor, specially during the two world wars.
3. The underground railway broke down social distinctions but also created new ones.

Ans: For wealthy Britishers, there had been an annual ‘London Season.’ Several cultural events, as the opera, the theatre, the classical musical performances were organised for an elite group of 300-400 families.

Many new types of large-scale entertainment for the common people came up. Libraries, art galleries and museums were established to provide entertainment to people who swarmed them. Music halls were popular among lower classes, and by the 20th century, cinema became the great mass entertainer for mixed audiences. British industrial workers were encouraged to spend their holidays by the sea. Over a million Britishers went to the seaside in 1883; their number increased to 7 million in 1939.

Ans: See answer to Q 4 (in Short Answer Questions)
(i) High levels of pollution were a consequence of the huge population that depended on dung and wood as fuel in their daily life.
(ii) Main polluters were the industries and establishments that used steam engines run on coal.
(iii) The city was built on marshy land, the resulting fog combined with smoke generated thick black smog and Calcutta’s inhabitants inhaled grey smoke, specially in winter. A new pollutant coal — was added by the railways. The body that controlled industrial pollution was Bengal Smoke Nuisance Commission.

Ans: Four reasons for Bombay’s expansion :
(i) When Bombay became the capital of Bombay Presidency in 1819, the city expanded. With the growth of trade in cotton and opium, large communities of traders, bankers, as well as artisans and shopkeepers came to settle in Bombay.
(ii) When textile mills were established in Bombay there was fresh surge of migration. The first cotton textile mill in Bombay was established in 1854. In 1921, there were 85 cotton mills with about 146,000 workers. About one-fourth of Bombay’s inhabitants between 1881 and 1931 were born in Bombay, the rest were migrants from nearby district of Ratnagiri to work in Bombay mills.
(iii) Bombay was a junction of two major railways. This encouraged an even higher scale of migration into the city. For example, famine in dry regions of Kutch drove large number to Bombay in 1888-89.
(iv) Bombay became a premier city of India in the late 19th century. It dominated maritime trade of India and its population expanded from 644, 405 on 1572 to nearly, 1,500,000 in 1941

Ans: 

(i) Ties between members of family loosened.
(ii) Among working classes the institution of marriage tended to break down.
(iii) Women of upper and middle class faced high level of isolation, though their life became easier by maids who cooked, cleaned or cared for young children.
(iv) Women who worked had some control over their lives. Women without jobs were forced to withdraw into their camp.
(v) 20th century saw homes another change, the family became smaller unit after the war. A new spirit of individualism was encouraged among men and women, and a freedom from collective values that were a feature of the smaller rural communities.

Ans: By 1750, one out of every nine people of England and Wales lived in London. It was a colossal city with a population of about 6,75,000. Its population multiplied four-fold in the 70 years between 1810 and 1880, increasing from one million to 4 million. London was a powerful magnet for migrant populations. The 19th century London was “a city of clerks, shopkeepers, small masters and skilled artisans, growing number of semi-skilled out workers, soldiers, servants, casual labourers, sheet sellers and beggars.’’ London’s dockyards and five major types of industries employed large number of workers. The five were : Clothing and footwear, wood and furniture, metals and engineering, printing and stationery, and precision products like surgical instruments, watches, and objects of precious metals.
During the First World War (1914-18) London began manufacturing motor cars and electrical goods, which led to increase in population as more workers were needed.

Ans: Marginal Groups in London were about 20,000 criminals who worried the police about law and order. The people who made a living by crime were in fact poor people who lived by stealing lead from roofs, food from shops, lumps of coal and clothes drying on hedges. There were others who were more skilled at their trade, experts at their jobs. They were cheats, tricksterts, pickpockets and petty thieves crowding the streets of London.

Women were forced out of work from factories due to technological development they formed a large group that worked as domestic servants. They also worked at home to increase their income by taking in ladgers, working as tailors, wasting etc only during the war, they found jobs in factories and offices.

Large number of children were forced into low-paid work. ‘‘A child of 7 could easily make 10 shillings led a week from thieving — a low-paid worker had to make 56 gross of match boxes a week to earn that much” (According to an article by Andrew Mearns). Only by the passage of Compulsory Elementary Education Act in 1870 and passing of Factory Acts (since 1872) children were kept out of industrial work. So, the marginal groups were the criminals, women are workforce and children forced to work in low-paid jobs.

Ans: See answer to Q. 6, Q 25 short answer.
Merits :

1. It partly solved the housing crisis by carrying large masses of people to and from the city.
2. When the first section of the underground in the world opened on 10 January, 1863, it carried 10,000 passengers, with trains running every ten minutes.
3. By 1850, the trains were carrying 40 million passengers a year. By the 20th century, most large metropolises such as New York, Tokyo, Chicago had indispensable metro services.
4. The population in cities became more dispersed. Better planned suburbs and a good railway network enabled large numbers to live outside central London and travel to work.

Drawbacks :

1. They created more pollution and were considered by people to be a menace to health. Passengers complained of smoking pipes, an atmosphere which was a mixture of sulphur, coal dust and foul fumes causing asphyxiation. Many called the the trains ‘‘iron monsters’’ adding to mess and unhealthiness.
2. To make two miles of railway, 900 houses were knocked down. It led to a displacement of the London poor, specially between the two wars. They wore down social distinctions but also created new ones.

Ans: The mid-century workers in London did not have proper houses to live in. They had to find residence in cheap, usually unsafe tenements.

According to a survey by a Liverpool shipowner in 1887, as many as one million Londoners (about 1/5 of the population of London at that time were very poor, expected to live upto an average age of 29 as compared to 55 among the gentry and the middle class. They were expected to die in a ‘‘workhouse, hospital or lunatic asylum.

There were constant worries about fire hazard created by poor housing. The one-room houses occupied by the poor were a serious threat to public health. There was a constant fear of uprising by the poor.

The only leisure for working classes was to meet in pubs and drink, exchange news and sometimes also organise for political action. Crime flourished among workers who did not have jobs. Children were forced to work for low wages. Women tried to earn by working at home or domestic maids. Later on there was a drive to build more houses, clear up the city, provide libraries and museums for the workers. Workers were encouraged to take annual leave and go to the seaside like Blackpool. Cinema also became a means of mass entertainment.

Ans: There were a number of films about migrants because many people in the film industry were themselves migrants. They came from cities like Lahore, Calcutta, Madras and contributed to the national character of the industry. Many famous writers like Ismat Chugtai, Saadat Hasan Manto were associated with Hindi cinema. People who came from Lahore now in Pakistan, contributed the most to the development of the Hindi cinema. The films dealt with the arrival in the city of new migrants and the real pressures of life they had to deal with : the two movies are CID (1956) and Guest House (1959).

Ans: Natural features were transformed in response to the growing demand for space for factories, touring and other institutions. Large quantities of refuse and waste production polluted air and water, while excessive noise became a feature of urban life. Hundreds of factory chimneys spewed black smoke into the skies. Domestic sewage and factory wastes polluted water and soil. There was serious housing problems in the cities resulting in congestion, overcrowding and sanitation problems. Streets were full of squalour and crowded with houseless migrants. Cities like London, Bombay and Calcutta were over-populated and over-polluted.

Ans: As cities developed in the 19th century, women lost their industrial jobs. Conservative people opposed their presence in public spaces and women were forced to withdraw into their houses. The public space became exclusively a male preserve and the domestic sphere was seen as the proper place for women. But from 1870s onwards women’s participation in political movements increased. In the 20th century large number of women were employed in factories and offices and they raised voices in public fora.

Ans: Between the two World Wars (1919 – 39), the responsibility for housing the working classes was accepted by the British state, and a million houses were built for them in sub-urban areas by local authorities. The city had gradually extended beyond the range where people could walk to work. Development of suburbs made new forms of mass transport very necessary. The London underground railway partially solved the housing crisis by carrying large masses of people to and from the city. Underground railway created huge ecological and environmental problem. The process of construction led to large scale destruction of forests and other natural features.

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(i) London had hundreds of small factories and workshops. It was a city of clerks, shopkeepers, skilled and semi-skilled artisans, soldiers and servants, casual labourers, street vendors, etc.
(ii) Apart from London dockyards, five major types of small industries employed large number of people.
(iii) During the First World War (1914-18) London began manufacturing motor cars and electrical goods. Hundreds of large factories sprang up employing thousands of workers.