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Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya
Class -8
History
Chapter-4 Tribals, Dikus and the Vision of a Golden Age
Short Answer Type Questions: ( 6x3=18)
1. List the major occupations of the tribes of India before Colonial
rule.
Hunting and gathering
Animal rearing
Shifting agriculture
Settled Farming
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2. How did the Jhum cultivators practise it ?
I. They cut and burnt high branches of trees to allow sunlight fall
on the ground for crops to grow.
II. They spread the ash to make the soil fertile.
III. They used hoe to scratch the land and broadcast the seeds.
IV. They did not plough the land.
V. Once the harvest was over, they left the field as fallow and
moved to other areas.
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3. How did the colonial rule affect the tribal lives?
a. The Tribal chiefs lost their authority and control over the tribal
areas and tribal people. They were asked to discipline the
tribal people strictly by the Colonial Government.
b. As the British needed regular income as land tax, it was very
difficult for them to control the Jhum cultivators who very
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often changed their Cultivable areas. Now, Jhum cultivation
was discouraged and the Colonial government allotted strips
of lands to the Jhum cultivators. Those lands very often were
very dry and not even.
c. The tribals groaned under heavy taxation.
d. The new forest laws left many tribal people unemployed and
they had to become forced labourers for cheap wages.
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4. What were the problems faced by the tribes in the markets?
I. Their forest products were bought for very low prices and sold
fixing a very high profit. Ex. The Santhals could fetch Rs. 3/- or
Rs.4/- per thousand cocoons. But the Trading Agents sold
them at five times the price.
II. Owing to heavy taxation and less profit from their yield, the
money lenders lent money to the tribes but for high rate of
interest. To pay back the money, the tribes had to sell their
livestock or their land and became very poor.
III. Hence, many tribal groups saw the market and the traders as
their main enemies.
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5. Give the meaning of the following words:
a. Fallow b. Sleeper c. Bewar
a. Fallow: A field left uncultivated for a while so that the soil
recovers fertility
b. Sleeper: The horizontal planks of wood on which railway lines are
laid
c. Bewar: A term used in Madhya Pradesh for shifting cultivation
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6. What Tribal Rebellions could achieve?
1. The tribal rebellion under Birsa Munda forced the colonial
government to introduce laws so that the land of the tribals could
not be easily taken over by dikus.
2. It showed once again that the tribal people had the capacity to
protest against injustice and express their anger against colonial
rule.
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