Haryana State Board HBSE 9th Class Social Science Solutions History Chapter 4 Forest Society and Colonialism Textbook Exercise Questions and Answers.
Haryana Board 9th Class Social Science Solutions History Chapter 4 Forest Society and Colonialism
HBSE 9th Class Social Science History Forest Society and Colonialism TextBook Questions and Answers
Forest Society And Colonialism Class 9 Textbook Questions And Answers HBSE Question 1.
Discuss how the changes in forest management in the colonial period affected the following groups of people:
(i) Shifting cultivators
(ii) Nomadic and pastorals communities
(iii) Firms trading in timber/forest produce
(iv) Plantation owners
(v) Kings/British officials engaged in a shikar.
Answer:
(i) The shifting cultivators were not allowed to burn, the forests as was the practice traditionally. The colonial rulers thought that such a practice could not possibly provide timber for railway tracks. They also forbade them to burn the forests for fear of fires and flames spreading over to other areas. And then shifting cultivation made for the government harder to calculate taxes.
(ii) The changes made in the forest management during the colonial period put the nomadic and the pastoral communities to governmental regulation, for earlier, these communities used to a trade in forest products such as hides, horns, silk cocoons, ivory, bamboo, spices, fibers grasses, gums etc. Their trade was, to an extent, restricted.
(iii) The trading firms/mostly Europeans, had type benefits, given to them by the colonialists, of monopolizing the trade in forest products. This ultimately rooted the traditionally nomadic and pastoral communities, banjaras especially.
(iv) The European colonialists cleared – large areas of natural forests and gave the European planters at cheap rates. The plantation in tea and coffee and nibble benefitted the foreigners. On the one hand, die colonialists restricted the natives, to desist, the. forests products, and on the other, helped the European planters to make use of the forest areas for tea, coffee and rubber.
(v) At one point of time, hunting was allowed. Tire kings, the Nawab, the British officials indulged in hunting when it was regarded as adventurism. The colonialists did allow this without knowing that they were disturbing the ecological balance. However, in independent India, hunting has been banned; it was banned for the common people during colonial rule.
History Forest Society And Colonialism HBSE 9th Class Question 2.
What are the similarities between colonial management of the forests of Bastar and in Java?
Answer:
The following are the similarities between the colonial management of the forests in Basta r and in Java.
- The people of Bastar and Java resisted the foreigners (the English and the Dutch respectively) the new changes made by the colonialists in forest management.
- The people of Bastar and of Java, in fact, rebelled against the foreigner colonialists.
- In both cases, the colonialists suppressed the uprisings.
- In both cases the forest laws were so made that they went oh to benefit the colonialists and harm the natives.
- In both cases, the timber was used for railway and ship building and, thus, in both cases, forest timber was used for the same purposes.
- In both cases the native labour was exploited by the colonialists as free labour.
Forest Society And Colonialism Questions And Answers HBSE 9th Class Question 3.
Between 1880 and 1920, forest cover in the Indian subcontinent declined by 9.7 million hectares, from 108.6 million hectares to 98.9 million hectares. Discuss the role of the following factors in this decline:
Railways
Shipbuilding
Agricultural expansion
Commercial farming
Tea/Coffee plantations
Adivasis and other peasant users.
Answer:
Between 1800 and 1920, the forest cov er in the India subcontinent declined by 9.7 million hectares from 108.6 million hect¬ares to 98.9 million hectares. This was because of the laws passed by the colonial rulers who made use of forests for their own benefit. They used forest timber for railway tracks and in shipbuilding.
Another” factor responsible for the decline in forest cover has been the expansion in agricultural activities; more agriculture means more clearing of forests. Commercial farming too was another factor. The European planters, in course of tea, coffee and rubber plantains, took large areas of forest coyer; The Adivasis, the nomads and the pastoral communities used the cleared forest areas for grazing and other purposes.
Forest Society And Colonialism Class 9 Notes Questions Answers HBSE Question 4.
Why are forests affected by wars?
Answer:
The World War 1 and II had an important impact on forests. In India the working plans were abandoned and the forest department cut freely trees to meet the British war needs. The timber was used for war industries.
HBSE 9th Class Socia Science History Forest Society and Colonialism Important Questions and Answers
Class 9 Chapter 4 History HBSE Question 1.
How much-cultivated area rose during 1880-1920?
Answer:
The cultivated area rose by 9.7 million hectares between 1880 and 1920.
Question 2.
Why was railways essential to the colonial rulers?
Answer:
For (i) colonial trade
(ii) movement of troops.
Question 3.
Which places did the Indus Valley Railway touch when introduced?
Answer:
Multan on the one hand and Sukkur on the other hand, a distance of nearly 300 miles.
Question 4.
Which places were joined together by the Northern State Railway?
Answer:
Lahore on the one hand and Multan on the other.
Question 5.
Who was Dietrich Brandis and who appointed him?
Answer:
Dietrich Brandis was a German forest expert. The British Government appointed him as Inspector General of Forests in India.
Question 6.
When was the Indian Forest Act passed?
Answer:
The Indian Forest Act was passed in 1865.
Question 7.
Which Act divided the forest into reserved, protected and village forests?
Answer:
The Act of 1878.
Question 8.
Could the villagers according to the Act of 1878, make use of the reserved forests?
Answer:
The villagers could not take anything from the reserved forests, even for their own use.
Question 9.
What is scientific forestry?
Answer:
Scientific forestry is a system of cutting trees Controlled by the forest department in which old trees are cut and new ones planted.
Question 10.
What is lading?
Answer:
Lading is local name for shifting cultivation of Southeast Asia. In Central America, it is called milpa, while in Sri Lanka, it is called Chena.
Question 11.
Why did the colonial government decide to ban shifting cultivation? Give one reason.
Answer:
It was difficult for the government to calculate, taxes on shifting cultivation.
Question 12.
Name some of the nomadic and pastoral communities of Madras Presidency.
Answer:
Korava, Karacba, and Yerukula.
Question 13.
Name the leaders of the movements of Santhal Pargana, Chhotanagpur, Andhra Pradesh who resisted the British colonialists.
Answer:
1. Santhal Pargana: Siddhu & Kanu
2. Chhotanagpur: Birsa Munda
3. Andhra Pradesh: Alluri Sitarama Raju
Question 14.
Who were the Kalangs?
Answer:
The Kalanga were a community- of Java (Indonesia) who were skilled forest cutters and shifting cultivators.
Question 15.
“The forest area is. fast disappearing”. Substantiate.
Answer:
The forest area indeed is fast disappearing. Between 1700 and 1995, which may be characterized as the period of industrialization,
13.9 million sq km of forests or 9.3% of the world’s total areas had been cleared for
- industrial use
- cultivation,
- pastures, and fuelwood.
Question 16.
What were the banana republics?
Answer:
The power of an American-owned United Fruit Company to grow bananas on a large industrial scale, in Central America is said to be a banana republic.
Question 17.
Should the land unused be improved or remain with the Aboriginals,? Give your arguments.
Answer:
The land unused remains unproductive. It may be in regions like Central America or Australia. It is important that the land be used or improved upon so to be productive. It is the land that helps us grow crops, and take from it numerous natural resources. The land wasted is the land lost. It is important that people make use of it, and make it productive.
Question 18.
As the oak forests were disappearing, how did England manage to have timber for its shipbuilding requirement?
Answer:
By the early nineteenth century, oak forest in England was disappearing. This created a problem of timber supply for the Royal Navy. By the 1920s, search parties were sent to explore the forest resources of India. Within a decade, trees were being felled on a massive scale and vast quantities of timber were being exported from India.
Question 19.
Write a brief note on scientific forestry.
Answer:
The Imperial Forest Research Institute, set up at Dehradun in 1906, taught what is called scientific forestry. In scientific forestry, natural forests which had lots of different types of trees were cut down. In their place, one type of tree was planted in straight rows. This is called a plantation.
Forest officials surveyed the forests, estimated the area under different types of trees, and made working plans for forest management. The colonial rulers planned how much of the plantation area was to be cut every year. The area cut was then to be replanted so that it was ready to be cut again in some future years.
Question 20.
What were the forest Acts and what characteristics they have?
Answer:
After the Forest Act was enacted in 1865, it was amended twice, once in 1878 and then in 1927. The 1878 Act divided forests into their categories; reserved, protected, and village forests. The best forests were called ‘reserved forests. Villagers could not fake anything from these forests. For house building or fuel, they could take the wood
Question 21.
Give the status of the Bastar region.
Answer:
In 1947 Bastar kingdom was merged with Ranker kingdom and became Bastar district in Madhya Pradesh. In 1998 it was divided again into three districts, Ranker, Bastar, and Dantewada. In 2001, these became part of Chhattisgarh. Tire 1910 rebellion first started in the Kanger forest area and soon spread to other parts of the state:
Question 22.
Men tion the location of the Bastar region?
Answer:
Bastar is located in the southernmost part of Chhattisgarh and borders Andhra Pradesh/Orissa and Maharashtra. The central part of Bastar is on a plateau. To the north of this plateau is the Chhattisgarh plain and to its South is the Godavari plain. The river Indrawati winds across Bastar east to west.
Question 23.
What is deforestation? How has cultivation been responsible for the clearing of forests?
Answer:
The disappearance of forests is deforestation. The process of deforestation has become more systematic and extensive during colonial rule. In 1600 about one-sixth of India’s landmass was under cultivation. Now the figure has gone up to about half. As the population grew, so grew the demand for food, and so began the process of cultivation.
In the colonial period, cultivation expanded rapidly. Two major reasons were:
first, the British directly encouraged the production of commercial crops like jute, Sugar, wheat and cotton. The demand, for these crops, increased in the nineteenth century. Secondly, in early 19th century, the colonial state thought that the forests Were unproductive and that land cultivation would not only yield agricultural products/but also revenue for the state. That is why we find that between 1880 and 1920, cultivation area rose by 9.7 million hectares.
Question 24.
Why did the British make use of timber for railway in India ? Explain.
Answer:
The spread of railways, ever since 1850, created a new demand. Railways were essential for colonial trade and for the movement of troops. To run locomotives, wood was needed as fuel, and to lay railway lines, sleepers were essential to hold the tracks together. From the 1860s, the railway network expanded rapidly. By 1890′, about 25,500 km of track had been laid. In 1946, the length of the tracks had increased to over 765,000 km.
As the railway tracks spread through India, a larger and larger number of trees were felled. As early as the 1,850s, in the Madras. Presidency alone, 35,000, trees were being cut annually for sleepers. The government gave out contracts to individuals to supply the required quantities. These contractors began cutting trees indiscriminately. Forests around the railway tracks fast started disappearing.
Question 25.
How did the forest laws bring days of hardships for the villagers? Explain.
Answer:
The villagers had the face the days of hardships because of the stricter forest laws. After these Acts, all their everyday practices-cutting wood for houses, grazing their cattle, collecting fruits and roots, hunting and fishing became illegal. People were now forced to steal wood from the forests, and if they were caught, they were at the mercy of the forest guards who would take bribes from them. Women who collected fuelwood were especially worried. It was also common for police constables and forest guards to harass people for demanding free food from them.
The villagers had to abandon the shifting cultivation, for the government restricted this type of farming due to heavy losses of timber burnt during the process. It felt that land which was used for cultivation every few years could not grow trees for railways timber. When a forest was burnt, there was the added danger of the flames spreading and burning valuable timber.
Shifting cultivation also made it harder for the government to calculate taxes. Therefore, the government decided to ban shifting cultivation. As a result, many communities were forcibly displaced from their homes in the forests. Some had to change occupations, while some resisted through large and small rebellions:
Question 26.
Write short notes on the following:
(i) Dutch Scientific Forestry.
(ii) Sarnin’s challenge.
Answer:
(i) Du tch Scientific Forestry:
In the nineteenth century, when it became important to control territory and not just people, the Dutch enacted forest laws in Java, restricting villagers’ access to forests. Now wood could only be cut for specified purposes like making river boats or constructing houses, and only from specific forests under close supervision. Villagers were punished for grazing cattle in young stands, transporting wood without a permit, or traveling on forest roads with horse carts or cattle.
(ii) Samin’s challenge:
Around 1890, Surontiko, Samin of Randbulafung vilage, a teak forest village, began questioning state ownership of tine forest. He argued that the state had not created the wind, water, early, and wood, so it could not own it. Soon a widespread movement developed. Amongst those who helped organize it were Samin’s sons-in-law. By 1907, 3,000 families were following his ideas. Some of the Saminists protested by lying down on their land when the Dutch came to survey it, while others refused to pay taxes or fines or perform labor.
Objective Type Questions
Question 1.
Select correct (✓) or wrong (✗) from the following:
(i) Banana Republics belong to regions such as Central America.
(ii) Railway tracks required, at one point of time, wooden sleepers.
(iii) Brandis was an English forest expert.
(iv) Indian Forest Service was set up in 1865.
(v) George Yule killed 400 tigers.
Answer:
(i) (✓)
(ii) (✓)
(iii) (✗)
(iv) (✗)
(v) (✓)
Question 2.
Select the correct word from the four alternatives given herein:
(i) Bastar is bordered by the following:
(a) Orissa
(b) Tamil Nadu
(c) Karnataka
(d) Rajasthan
Answer:
(a) Orissa
(ii) Gunda Dhur belonged to the following village:
(a) Bastar
(b) Jagdalpur
(c) Nethanar
(d) Palam
Answer:
(c) Nethanar
(iii) Java is a place in:
(a) Thailand
(b) Singapore
(c) Indonesia
(d) Myanmar
Answer:
(c) Indonesia
(iv) The Imperial Forest Research Institute was set up at:
(a) Hard war
(b) Dehradun
(c) Kashipur
(d) Badali
Answer:
(b) Dehradun
(v) The forest act, first, was passed in:
(a)1864
(b) 1S66
(c) 1865
(d) 1867
Answer:
(c) 1865
Question 3.
Fill in the blanks with the words given in the brackets:
(i) In the Madras Presidency, as early as 1850s, about 35000 trees were cut ………….. (annually, six-monthly)
(ii) Brandis was a …………. forest expert. (German, Brazilian)
(iii) The Imperial Forest Research Institute was set up at Dehradun in ………… (1905,1906)
(iv) George Yule was a …………. administrator. (German, Dutch)
Answer:
(i) annually
(ii) German
(iii) 1906
(iv) British.