Bhagya – Jharkhand Board Solution

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes History Chapter 5 When People Rebel 1857 and After

June 10, 2026June 9, 2026 by Bhagya

JAC Board Class 8th Social Science Notes History Chapter 5 When People Rebel 1857 and After

→ Policies and the People Nawabs lose their power

Since the mid-eighteenth century, nawabs and rajas had seen their power erode. They had gradually lost their authority and honour.
Many ruling families tried to negotiate with the Company to protect their interests. For example, Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi wanted the Company to recognise her adopted son as the heir to the kingdom after the death of her husband. Nana Saheb, the adopted son of Peshwa Baji Rao II, pleaded that he be given his father’s pension when the latter died.
Awadh was one of the last territories to be annexed. In 1801, a subsidiary alliance was imposed on Awadh and in 1856 it was taken over.
In 1849, Governor-General Dalhousie announced that after the death of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the family of the king would be shifted out of the Red Fort and given another place in Delhi to reside in.
In 1856, Governor-General Canning decided that Bahadur Shah Zafar would be the last Mughal king and after his death none of his descendants would be recognised as kings and they would just be called princes.

→ The peasants and the sepoys

Many peasants and zamindars failed to pay back their loans to the moneylenders and gradually lost the lands they had tilled for generations.
The Indian sepoys in the employ of the Company also had reasons for discontent. They were unhappy about their pay, allowances and conditions of service.
In 1824, the sepoys were told to go to Burma by the sea route to fight for the Company but they refused to follow the order, though they agreed to go by the land route. They were severely punished.
In 1856, the Company passed a new law which stated that every new person who took up employment in the Company’s army had to agree to serve overseas if required.

→ Responses to reforms

Laws were passed to stop the practice of sati and to encourage the remarriage of widows. English-language education was actively promoted.
In 1850, a new law was passed to make conversion to Christianity easier. This law allowed an Indian who had converted to Christianity to inherit the property of his ancestors.
Many Indians began to feel that the British were destroying their religion and their traditional way of life. There were of course other Indians who wanted to change existing social practices.

→ Through the Eyes of the People
Many common people wrote about their experiences about their life.

→ A Mutiny Becomes a Popular Rebellion

A large number of people begin to believe that they have a common enemy and rise up against the enemy at the same time. For such a situation to develop people have to organise, communicate, take initiative and display the confidence to turn the situation around.
In May 1857, the English East India Company faced a massive rebellion that started and threatened the Company’s very presence in India.
From Meerut, sepoys mutinied in several places and a large number of people from different sections of society rose up in rebellion.

→ From Meerut to Delhi

A young soldier, Mangal Pandey was hanged to death for attacking his officers in Barrackpore on 29 March 1857.
On 9 May 1857, eighty-five sepoys were dismissed from service and sentenced to ten years in jail for disobeying their officers.
On 10 May, the soldiers marched to the jail in Meerut and released the imprisoned sepoys.
They captured guns and ammunition and set fire to the buildings and properties of the British and declared war on the firangis.
The Meerut sepoys rode all night of 10 May to reach Delhi in the early hours next morning. As news of their arrival spread, the regiments stationed in Delhi also rose up in rebellion.
The emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar was not quite willing to challenge the mighty
British power but the soldiers persisted. They forced their way into the palace and proclaimed the emperor as their leader.
Bahadur Shah’s major step taken to write a letters to all the chiefs and rulers of the country to come forward and organise a confederacy of Indian states to fight the British had great implications.
The British had not expected this to happen. But Bahadur Shah Zafar’s decision to bless the rebellion changed the entire situation dramatically.

→ The rebellion spreads

Regiment after regiment mutinied and took off to join other troops at nodal points like Delhi, Kanpur and Lucknow.
The adopted son of the late Peshwa Baji Rao – Nana Saheb who lived near Kanpur gathered armed forces and expelled the British garrison from the city. He proclaimed himself Peshwa.
In Lucknow, Birjis Qadr, the son of the deposed Nawab Wajid Ali Shah was proclaimed the new Nawab.
Both of them declared that they were the governor under Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar.
In Jhansi, Rani Lakshmibai joined the rebel sepoys and fought the British along with Tantia Tope, the general of Nana Saheb.
In the Mandla region of Madhya Pradesh, Rani Avantibai Lodhi of Ramgarh raised and led an army of four thousand against the British who had taken over the administration of her state.
A situation of widespread popular rebellion developed in the region of Awadh.
On 6 August 1857, a telegram sent by Lieutenant Colonel Tytler to his Commander-in-Chief expressing the fear felt by the British: “Our men are cowed by the numbers opposed to them and the endless fighting. Every village is held against us, the zamindars have risen to oppose us.”
Many new leaders came up. One of them was Ahmadullah Shah, a maulvi from Faizabad, prophesied that the rule of the British would come to an end soon.
Bakht Khan, a soldier from Bareilly took charge of a large force of fighters who came to Delhi. He became a key military leader of the rebellion.
In Bihar, an old zamindar Kunwar Singh joined the rebel sepoys and battled with the British for many months.

→ The Company Fights Back

The Company reinforcements from England, passed new laws so that the rebels could be convicted with ease and then moved into the storm centres of the revolt.
In September 1857, Delhi was recaptured from the rebel forces.
Bahadur Shah Zafar and his wife Begum Zinat Mahal were sent to prison in Rangoon in October 1858. In November 1862, he died in the Rangoon jail.
The recapture of Delhi, however, did not mean that the rebellion died down after that. People continued to resist and battle the British. The British had to fight for two years to suppress the massive forces of popular rebellion.
In March 1858, Lucknow was taken. In June 1858, Rani Lakshmi bai was defeated and killed.
Rani Avantibai who after initial victory in Kheri chose to embrace death when surrounded by the British on all sides.
Tantia Tope escaped to the jungles of central India and continued to fight a guerrilla war with the support of many tribal and peasant leaders. In April 1859, he was captured and killed.
British announced rewards for loyal landholders would be allowed to continue to enjoy traditional rights over their lands.
Those who had rebelled were told that if they submitted to the British and not killed any white people, they would remain safe and their rights and claims to land would not be denied.

→ Aftermath

• By the end of 1859, the British had regained control of the country but they could not carry on ruling the land with the same policies any more.
The important changes that were introduced by the British were:
- The British Parliament passed a new Act in 1858 and transferred the powers of the East India Company to the British Crown.
- A member of the British Cabinet was appointed Secretary of State for India and made responsible for all matters related to the governance of India. He was given a council to advise him known as the India Council. The Governor-General of India was given the title of Viceroy.
- All ruling chiefs of the country were assured that their territory would never be annexed in future and were allowed to pass on their kingdoms to their heirs including adopted sons. But, they were made to acknowledge the British Queen as their Sovereign Paramount.
- It was decided that the ratio of Indian soldiers in the army would be reduced and the number of European soldiers would be increased. It was also decided that more soldiers would be recruited from among the Gurkhas, Sikhs and Pathans instead of recruiting soldiers from Awadh, Bihar, central India and south India.
- The land and property of Muslims was sized with authority on a large scale and they were treated with suspicion and hostility.
- The British decided to respect the customary religious and social practices of the people in India.
- Policies were made to protect landlords and zamindars and give them security of rights over their lands.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 10 Law and Social Justice

June 10, 2026June 9, 2026 by Bhagya

JAC Board Class 8th Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 10 Law and Social Justice

→ To protect people from any kind of exploitation, the government makes certain laws. These laws try to ensure that unfair practices are kept at a minimum in the markets.

Private companies, contractors, business persons normally want to make as much profit as they can.
To ensure that workers are not underpaid, or are paid fairly, there is a law on minimum wages.
The minimum wages are revised upwards eveiy few years.
There are also laws that protect the interests of producers and consumers in the market.
These help ensure that the relations between these three parties – the worker, consumer and producer – are governed in a manner that is not exploitative.
The government has to ensure that these laws are implemented. This means that the law must be enforced. Enforcement becomes even more important when the law seeks to protect the weak from the strong.
Many of these laws have their basis in the Fundamental Rights guaranteed by the Indian Constitution.

→ What is a Worker’s Worth?

One reason why foreign companies come to India is for cheap labour.
Wages that the companies pay to workers, say in the U.S.A., are far higher than what they have to pay to workers in poorer countries like India.
Cost cutting can also be done by other more dangerous means. Lower working conditions including lower safety measures are used as ways of cutting costs.
Making use of the workers’ vulnerability, employers ignore safety in workplaces.

→ Enforcement of Safety Laws:

As the lawmaker and enforcer, the government is supposed to ensure that safety laws are implemented.
Instead of protecting the interests of the people, their safety was being disregarded both by the government and by private companies.
With more industries being set up both by local and foreign businesses in India, there is a great need for stronger laws protecting worker’s rights and better enforcement of these laws.

→ New Laws to Protect the Environment:

In 1984, there were veiy few laws protecting the environment in India, and there was hardly any enforcement of these laws.
The environment was treated as a ‘free’ entity and any industry could pollute the air and water without any restrictions.
In response to this pressure from environmental activists and others, in the years following the Bhopal gas tragedy, the Indian government introduced new laws on the environment.
In Subhash Kumar vs. State of Bihar (1991), the Supreme Court held that the Right to Life is a Fundamental Right under Article 21 of the Constitution and it includes the right to the enjoyment of pollution-free water and air for full enjoyment of life.
The government is responsible for setting up laws and procedures that can check pollution, clean rivers and introduce heavy fines for those who pollute.

→ Conclusion:

A major role of the government, is to control the activities of private companies by making, enforcing and upholding laws so as to prevent unfair practices and ensure social justice.
This means that the government has to make ‘appropriate laws’ and also has to enforce the laws.
Laws that are weak and poorly enforced can cause serious harm, as the Bhopal gas tragedy showed.
People must demand stronger laws protecting workers’ interests so that the Right to Life is achieved for all.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes History Chapter 4 Tribals, Dikus and the Vision of a Golden Age

June 10, 2026June 9, 2026 by Bhagya

JAC Board Class 8th Social Science Notes History Chapter 4 Tribals, Dikus and the Vision of a Golden Age

→ In 1895, a man named Birsa was seen roaming the forests and villages of Chottanagpur in Jharkhand.

Birsa himself declared that God had appointed him to save his people from trouble, free them from the slavery of dikus (outsiders).
Birsa was bom in a family of Mundas , a tribal group that lived in Chottanagpur. But his followers included other tribals of the region – Santhals and Oraons.

→ How Did Tribal Groups Live?
By the nineteenth century, tribal people in different parts of India were involved in a variety of activities.

→ Some were jhum cultivators

Jhum cultivation means shifting cultivation. This was done on small patches of land mostly in forests.
The cultivators cut the treetops to allow sunlight to reach the ground and burnt the vegetation on the land to clear it for cultivation. They spread the ash from the firing which contained potash to fertilise the soil.
Once the crop was ready and harvested, they moved to another field. A field that had been cultivated once was left fallow for several years.
Shifting cultivators were found in the hilly and forested tracts of north-east and central India. The lives of these tribal people depended on free movement within forests and on being able to use the land and forests for growing their crops.

→ Some were hunters and gatherers

In many regions tribal groups lived by hunting animals and gathering forest produce.
The Khonds were such a community living in the forests of Odisha. They regularly went out on collective hunts and then divided the meat amongst themselves.
They ate fruits and roots collected from the forest and cooked food with the oil they extracted from the seeds of the sal and mahua.
The local weavers and leather workers turned to the Khonds when they needed supplies of kusum and palash flowers to colour their clothes and leather.
At times they exchanged goods, getting what they needed in return for their valuable forest produce. At other times they bought goods with the small amount of earnings they had.
• When supplies of forest produce shrank, tribal people had to increasingly wander around in search of work as labourers. But many of them such as the Baigas of central India were reluctant to do work for others.
for the tribals, market and commerce often meant debt and poverty. They therefore came to see the moneylender and trader as evil outsiders and the cause of their misery.

→ Some herded animals

Many tribal groups lived by herding and rearing animals. They were pastoralists who moved with their herds of cattle or sheep according to the seasons.
The Van Gujjars of the Punjab hills and the Labadis of Andhra Pradesh were cattle herders, the Gaddis of Kulu were shepherds, and the Bakarwals of Kashmir reared goats.

→ Some took to settled cultivation

Even before the nineteenth century, many from within the tribal groups had begun settling down and cultivating their fields in one place year after year.
Most of the tribes had rights on the land • such as the Mundas of Chottanagpur had the
land which belonged to the clan as a whole. All members of the clan were regarded as descendants of the original settlers, who had first cleared the land.
Powerful men often rented out their land instead of cultivating it themselves.
British officials saw settled tribal groups such as the Gonds and Santhals as more civilised than hunter gatherers or shifting cultivators. Those who lived in the forests were considered to be wild and savage, they needed to be settled and civilised.

→ How Did Colonial Rule Affect Tribal Lives?
The lives of tribal groups changed during British rule.

→ What happened to tribal chiefs?

Before the arrival of the British, in many areas the tribal chiefs were important people. They enjoyed a certain amount of economic power and had the right to administer and control their territories.
Tribals, Dikus and the Vision of a Golden Age of the tribal chiefs changed considerably.
They also had to pay tribute to the British and discipline the tribal groups on behalf of the British. They lost the authority they had earlier enjoyed amongst their people and were unable to fulfil their traditional functions.

→ What happened to the shifting cultivators?

The British were uncomfortable with groups who moved about and did not have a fixed home. They wanted tribal groups to settle down and become peasant cultivators.
The British wanted a regular revenue source for the state. So, they introduced land settlements which means they measured the land, defined the rights of each individual to that land and fixed the revenue demand for the state.
The British effort to settle jhum cultivators was not very successful.
Jhum cultivators who took to plough cultivation often suffered since their fields did not produce good yields. So, the jhum cultivators in north-east India insisted on continuing with their traditional practice.

→ Forest laws and their impacts

Changes in forest laws had a considerable effect on tribal lives.
The British extended their control over all forests and declared that forests were state property.
Some forests were classified as Reserved Forests for they produced timber which the British wanted. In these forests people were not allowed to move freely, practice jhum cultivation.
Once the British stopped the tribal people from living inside forests, they faced a problem.
In many regions the Forest Department established forest villages to ensure a regular supply of cheap labour.
The Colonial Officials decided that they would give jhum cultivators small patches of land in the forests and allow them to cultivate these on the condition that those who lived in the villages would have to provide labour to the Forest Department and look after the forests.
Many tribal groups reacted against the colonial forest laws. The revolt of Songram Sangma in 1906 in Assam and the forest satyagraha of the 1930s in the Central Provinces took place.

→ The problem with trade

During the nineteenth century, tribal groups found that traders and moneylenders were coming into the forests more often wanting to buy forest produce offering cash loans and asking them to work for wages.
It took tribal groups some time to understand the consequences of what was happening.
Many tribal groups saw the market and the traders as their main enemies.

→ The search for work

The plight of the tribals who had to go far away from their homes in search of work was even worse.
Tribals were recruited in large numbers to work the tea plantations of Assam and the coal mines of Jharkhand.
They were recruited through contractors who paid them miserably low wages and prevented them from returning home.

→ A Closer Look

Through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, tribal groups in different parts of the country rebelled against the changes in laws, the restrictions on their practices, the new taxes they had to pay and the exploitation by traders and moneylenders.
The Kols rebelled in 1831-32, Santhals rose in revolt in 1855, the Bastar Rebellion in central India broke out in 1910 and the Warli Revolt in Maharashtra in 1940.

→ Birsa Munda

Birsa was bom in the mid-1870s. The son of a poor father, he grew up around the forests of Bohonda, grazing sheep, playing the flute, and dancing in the local akhara.
Birsa heard tales of the Munda uprisings of the past and saw the sirdars (leaders) of the community urging the people to revolt.
Birsa went to the local missionary school and listened to the sermons of missionaries. There too he heard it said that it was possible for the Mundas to attain the Kingdom of Heaven and regain their lost rights.
Birsa also spent some time in the company of a prominent Vaishnav preacher. He wore the sacred thread and began to value the importance of purity and piety.
His movement was aimed at reforming tribal society. He urged the Mundas to give up drinking liquor, clean their village and stop believing in witchcraft and sorcery. He also turned against missionaries and Hindu landlords.
In 1895, Birsa urged his followers to recover their glorious past. He talked of a golden age in the past, a satyug (the age of truth) where Mundas lived a good life, constructed embankments, tapped natural springs, planted trees and orchards, practised cultivation to earn their living.
British officials were worried most about the political aim of the Birsa movement. The movement identified all these forces as the cause of the misery the Mundas were suffering.
British arrested Birsa in 1895, convicted him on charges of rioting and jailed him for two years.
When Birsa was released in 1897 he began touring the villages to gather support. He used traditional symbols and language to rouse people, urging them to destroy “Ravana” (dikus and the Europeans) and establish a kingdom under his leadership.
Birsa’s followers raised the white flag as a symbol of Birsa Raj.
In 1900 Birsa died of cholera and the movement faded out.
The movement was significant in at least two ways. First – it forced the colonial government to introduce laws so that the land of the tribals could not be easily taken over by dikus. Second – it showed once again that the tribal people had the capacity to protest against injustice and express their anger against colonial rule.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes History Chapter 3 Ruling the Countryside

June 10, 2026June 9, 2026 by Bhagya

JAC Board Class 8th Social Science Notes History Chapter 3 Ruling the Countryside

→ The Company Becomes the Diwan

On 12 August 1765, the Mughal emperor appointed the East India Company as the Diwan of Bengal.
As Diwan, the Company became the chief financial administrator of the territory under its control. Now, it had to think of administering the land and organising its revenue resources.
Being an alien power, it needed to pacify those who in the past had ruled the countryside, and enjoyed authority and prestige.

→ Revenue for the Company

The Company had become the Diwan. but it still saw itself primarily as a trader.
Before 1865, the Company had purchased goods in India by importing gold and silver from Britain. Now the revenue collected in Bengal could finance the purchase of goods for export.
Artisans were deserting villages since they were being forced to sell their goods to the Company at low prices. Peasants were unable to pay the dues that were being demanded from them.
In 1770 a terrible famine killed ten million people in Bengal. About one-third of the population was wiped out.

→ The need to improve agriculture

Most Company officials began to feel that investment in land had to be encouraged and agriculture had to be improved.
In 1793, the Company introduced the Permanent Settlement.
By the terms of the settlement, the rajas and taluqdars were recognised as zamindars. They were asked to collect rent from the peasants and pay revenue to the Company.
The amount to be paid was fixed permanently. It was felt that this would ensure a regular flow of revenue into the Company’s coffers and at the same time encourage the zamindars to invest in improving the land.

→ The problem

The Permanent Settlement created problems. Company officials soon discovered that the zamindars were in fact not investing in the improvement of land. The revenue that had been fixed was so high that the zamindars found it difficult to pay. Anyone who failed to pay the revenue lost his zamindari.
The prices in the market rose and cultivation slowly expanded. Hence, there is an increment in the income of the zamindars but no gain for the Company since it could not increase a revenue demand that had been fixed permanently.
As long as the zamindars could give out the land to tenants and get rent, they were not interested in improving the land.
On the other hand, in the villages, the cultivator found the system extremely oppressive. The rent he paid to the zamindar was high and his right on the land was insecure.

→ A new system is devised

By the early nineteenth century many of the Company officials were convinced that the system of revenue had to be changed again.
An Englishman called Holt Mackenzie devised the new system which came into effect in 1822, in the North Western Provinces of the Bengal Presidency (most of this area is now in Uttar Pradesh).
The estimated revenue of each plot within a village was added up to calculate the revenue that each village (mahal) had to pay. This demand was to be revised periodically, not permanently fixed.
The charge of collecting the revenue and paying it to the Company was given to the village headman, rather than the zamindar. This system came to be known as the mahalwari settlement.

→ The Munro system

Down in south, the similar idea of permanent settlement moved away. The new system that was devised came to be known as the ryotwar or ryotwari.
It was tried on a small scale by Captain Alexander Read in some of the areas that were taken over by the Company after the wars with Tipu Sultan. Subsequently developed by Thomas Munro, this system was gradually extended all over south India.
Munro thought that the British should act as paternal father figures protecting the lyots under their charge.

→ All was not well
Driven by the desire to increase the income from land, revenue officials fixed too high a revenue demands. Peasants were unable to pay, ryots fled the countryside, and villages became deserted in many regions.

→ Crops for Europe

The British also realised that the countryside could not only yield revenue, it could also grow the crops that Europe required.
The British persuaded or forced cultivators in various parts of India to produce other crops: jute in Bengal, tea in Assam, sugarcane in the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh), wheat in Punjab, cotton in Maharashtra and Punjab, rice in Madras.

→ Does colour have a history?

A kalamkari print was created by weavers of Andhra Pradesh in India. On the other hand, a floral cotton print was designed and produced by William Morris, a famous poet and artist of nineteenth-century Britain.
There is one thing common in the two prints: both used a rich blue colour commonly called indigo.
The blue prints was produced from a plant called indigo.

→ Why the demand for Indian indigo?

The indigo plant grows primarily in the tropics. By the thirteenth century, Indian indigo was being used by cloth manufacturers in Italy, France and Britain to dye cloth.
Only small amounts of Indian indigo reached the European market and its price was very high. European cloth manufacturers therefore had to depend on another plant called woad to make violet and blue dyes.
However, cloth dyers preferred indigo as a dye. Indigo produced a rich blue colour, whereas the dye from woad was pale and dull.
By the seventeenth century, European cloth producers persuaded their governments to relax the ban on indigo import.
Indigo plantations also came up in many parts of North America.
The French began cultivating indigo in St Domingue in the Caribbean Islands, the Portuguese in Brazil, the English in Jamaica, and the Spanish in Venezuela.
By the end of the eighteenth century, the demand for Indian indigo grew further.
While the demand for indigo increased, its existing supplies from the West Indies and America collapsed for a variety of reasons.
Between 1783 and 1789 the production of indigo in the world fell by half.

→ Britain turns to India

From the last decades of the eighteenth-century indigo cultivation in Bengal expanded rapidly and Bengal indigo came to dominate the world market.
As the indigo trade grew, commercial agents and officials of the Company began investing in indigo production.

→ How was indigo cultivated?

There were two main systems of indigo cultivation nij and ryoti.
Within the system of nij cultivation, the planter produced indigo in lands that he directly controlled.

→ The problem with nij cultivation

The planters found it difficult to expand the area under nij cultivation.
Indigo could be cultivated only on fertile lands and these were all already densely populated.
They attempted to lease in the land around the indigo factory, and evict the peasants
from the area. But this always led to conflicts and tension.
Nor was labour easy to mobilise and large numbers of labours required. And labour was needed precisely at a time when peasants were usually busy with their rice cultivation.
Nij cultivation on a large scale also required many ploughs and bullocks.
One bigha of indigo cultivation required two ploughs.
Till the late nineteenth century, planters were therefore reluctant to expand the area under nij cultivation.
Less than 25 per cent of the land producing indigo was under this system.
The rest was under an alternative mode of cultivation i.e.; the ryoti system.

→ Indigo on the land of ryots

Under the ryoti system, the planters forced the ryots to sign a contract, an agreement (satta).
At times they pressurised the village headmen to sign the contract on behalf of the ryots.
The planter provided the seed and the drill, while the cultivators prepared the soil, sowed the seed and looked after the crop.
When the crop was delivered to the planter after the harvest, a new loan was given to the ryot, and the cycle started all over again.
The price peasants got for the indigo they produced was very low and the cycle of loans never ended.
The planters usually insisted that indigo be cultivated on the best soils in which peasants preferred to cultivate rice because indigo had deep roots and it exhausted the soil rapidly. After an indigo harvest the land could not be sown with rice.

→ The “Blue Rebellion” and After

In March 1859, thousands of ryots in Bengal refused to grow indigo.
As the rebellion spread, ryots refused to pay rents to the planters and attacked indigo factories armed with swords and spears, bows and arrows. Women turned up to fight with pots, pans and kitchen implements.
In many villages, headmen who had been forced to sign indigo contracts, mobilised the indigo peasants and fought pitched battles with the lathiyals.
In other places even the zamindars went around villages urging the ryots to resist the planters.
After the Revolt of 1857 the British government was particularly worried about the possibility of another popular rebellion.
When in Barasat, the magistrate Ashley Eden issued a notice stating that ryots would not be compelled to accept indigo contracts, word went around that Queen Victoria had declared that indigo need not be sown.
The intellectuals from Calcutta wrote about the misery of the ryots, the tyranny of the planters, and the horrors of the indigo system.
Worried by the rebellion, the government brought in the military to protect the planters from assault, and set up the Indigo Commission to enquire into the system of indigo production.
After the revolt, indigo production collapsed in Bengal. But the planters now shifted their operation to Bihar.
Mahatma Gandhi’s visit in 1917 marked the beginning of the Champaran movement against the indigo planters.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 9 Public Facilities

June 10, 2026June 9, 2026 by Bhagya

JAC Board Class 8th Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 9 Public Facilities

→ Water and the People of Chennai:
Different situations are mentioned about the water supply and the people of Chennai.

→ Water as Part of the Fundamental Right to Life:

Water is essential for life and for good health.
India has one of the largest number of cases of diseases such as diarrhoea, dysentery, cholera.
The Constitution of India recognises the right to water as being a part of the Right to Life under Article 21.
There should be universal access to water.
There have been several court cases in which both the High Courts and the Supreme Court have held that the right to safe drinking water is a Fundamental Right.

→ Public Facilities:

There are things like electricity, public transport, schools and colleges that are also necessary. These are known as public facilities.
The important characteristic of a public facility is that once it is provided, its benefits can be shared by many people.

→ The Government’s Role:

One of the most important functions of the government is to ensure that these public facilities are made available to everyone.
In most of the public facilities, there is no profit to be had.
Private companies provide public facilities but at a price that only some people can afford.
This facility is not available to all at an affordable rate.
Public facilities relate to people’s basic needs.
The Right to Life that the Constitution guarantees is for all persons living in this country. The responsibility to provide public facilities, therefore, must be that of the government.

→ Water Supply to Chennai: Is it Available to All?

While there is no doubt that public facilities should be made available to all, in reality we see that there is a great shortage of such facilities.
Water supply in Chennai is marked by shortages.
The burden of shortfalls in water supply falls mostly on the poor.
The middle class when faced with water shortages are able to cope through a variety
of private means such as digging borewells, buying water from tankers and using bottled water for drinking.
Apart from the availability of water, access to ‘safe’ drinking water is also available to some and this depends on what one can afford.
In reality, therefore, it seems that it is only people with money who have the right to water – a far cry from the goal of universal access to ‘sufficient and safe’ water.

→ In Search of Alternatives:

A similar scenario of shortages and acute crisis during the summer months is common to other cities of India.
The supply of water per person in an urban area in India should be about 135 litres per day (about seven buckets) – a standard set by the Urban Water Commission.
Whereas people in slums have to make do with less than 20 litres a day per person (one bucket), people living in luxury hotels may consume as much as 1,600 litres (80 buckets) of water per day.
A shortage of municipal water is often taken as a sign of failure of the government.
Within India, there are cases of success in government water departments, though these are few in number and limited to certain areas of their work.
It has also used the services of private companies for transporting and distributing water but the government water supply department decides the rate for water tankers and gives them permission to operate. Hence, they are called ‘on contract’.

→ Conclusion:

Public facilities relate to our basic needs and the Indian Constitution recognises the right to water, heath, education, etc., as being a part of the Right to Life.
One of the major roles of the government is to ensure adequate public facilities for everyone.
There is a shortage in supply and there are inequalities in distribution.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes History Chapter 2 From Trade to Territory: The Company Establishes Power

June 10, 2026June 9, 2026 by Bhagya

JAC Board Class 8th Social Science Notes History Chapter 2 From Trade to Territory: The Company Establishes Power

→ Aurangzeb was the last of the powerful Mughal rulers. He established control over a very large part of the territory that is now known as India.

After his death in 1707, many Mughal subadars (governors) and big zamindars began asserting their authority and establishing regional kingdoms.
By the second half of the eighteenth century, however, a new power was emerging on the political horizon – the British.

→ East India Company Comes East

The East India Company in 1600, acquired a charter from the ruler of England, Queen Elizabeth I, granting it the sole right to trade with the East.
Mercantile trading companies in those days made profit primarily by excluding competition, so that they could buy cheap and sell dear.
The royal charter, however, could not prevent other European powers from entering the Eastern markets.
The Portuguese had already established their presence in the western coast of India and had their base in Goa. It was Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese explorer, who had discovered this sea route to India in 1498.
In the early, seventeenth century, the Dutch arrived and soon after them the French came.
The problem was that all the companies were interested in buying the same things. The fine qualities of cotton and silk produced in India had a big market in Europe. Pepper, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon too were in great demand.
The only way the trading companies could flourish was by eliminating rival competitors. The urge to secure markets led to fierce battles between the trading companies.

→ East India Company begins trade in Bengal

The first English factory was set up on the banks of the river Hugh in 1651.
This was the base from which the Company’s traders known at that time as “factors” operated.
By 1696 it began building a fort around the settlement. Two years later it bribed Mughal officials into giving the Company zamindari rights over three villages.
It also persuaded the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb to issue a farman granting the Company the right to trade duty free.
One of the cities were Kalikata, presently known as Kolkata or Calcutta)earlier).

→ How trade led to battles

Through the early eighteenth century the conflict between the Company and the nawabs of Bengal intensified.
Murshid Quli Khan was followed by Alivardi Khan and then Sirajuddaulah as the Nawab of Bengal. Each one of them was a strong ruler. They refused to grant the Company concessions, demanded large tributes for the Company’s right to trade, denied it any right to mint coins and stopped it from extending its fortifications.
The Company on its part declared that the unjust demands of the local officials were ruining the trade of the Company, and trade could flourish only if the duties were removed.
The conflicts led to confrontations and finally culminated in the famous Battle of Plassey.

→ The Battle of Plassey

The Company was worried about the power of Sirajuddaulah became the nawab of Bengal and keen on a puppet ruler who would willingly give trade concessions and other privileges.
After negotiations failed, the Nawab marched with 30,000 soldiers to the English factory at Kassimbazar, captured the Company officials, locked the warehouse, disarmed all Englishmen, and blockaded English ships. Then he marched to Calcutta to establish control over the Company’s fort there.
In 1757, Robert Clive led the Company’s army against Sirajuddaulah at Plassey.
One of the main reasons for the defeat of the Nawab was that the forces led by Mir
Jafar who was one of Sirajuddaulah’s commanders, never fought the battle.
Clive had managed to secure his support by promising to make him nawab after crushing Sirajuddaulah.
The Battle of Plassey became famous because it was the first major victory the Company won in India.
After the defeat at Plassey, Sirajuddaulah was assassinated and Mir Jafar made the nawab. The Company was still unwilling to take over the responsibility of administration. Its prime objective was the expansion of trade.
When Mir Jafar protested, the Company deposed him and installed Mir Qasim in his place. When Mir Qasim complained, he in turn was defeated in a battle fought at Buxar in 1764 and driven out of Bengal, and Mir Jafar was reinstalled.
They wanted more territories and more revenue. By the time Mir Jafar died in 1765, the mood of the Company had changed. Having failed to work with puppet nawabs, Clive declared: “We must indeed become nawabs ourselves.”
Finally, in 1765 the Mughal emperor appointed the Company as the Diwan of the provinces of Bengal.
From the early eighteenth century its trade with India had expanded. But it had to buy most of the goods in India with gold and silver imported from Britain.
Revenues from India could finance Company expenses. These revenues could be used to purchase cotton and silk textiles in India, maintain Company troops, and meet the cost of building the Company fort and offices at Calcutta.

→ Company officials become ‘nabobs’

Each company servant began to have visions of living like nawabs.
After the Battle of Plassey the actual nawabs of Bengal were forced to give land and vast sums of money as personal gifts to Company officials.
Robert Clive was appointed Governor of Bengal in 1764, he was asked to remove corruption in Company administration but he was himself cross-examined in 1772 by the British Parliament.
The Company officials who managed to return with wealth led flashy lives and flaunted their riches. They were called “nabobs” means an anglicised version of the Indian word nawab.

→ Company Rule Expands

The Company used a variety of political, economic and diplomatic methods to extend its influence before annexing an Indian kingdom.
After the Battle of Buxar in 1764, the Company appointed Residents in Indian states. They were political or commercial agents and their job was to serve and Anther the interests of the Company.
When Richard Wellesley was Governor-General (1798-1805), the Nawab of Awadh was forced to give over half of his territory to the Company in 1801 as he failed to pay for the “subsidiary forces”.
Hyderabad was also forced to cede territories on similar grounds.

→ Tipu Sultan – ‘The Tiger of Mysore’

Mysore had grown in strength under the leadership of powerful rulers like Haidar Ali (ruled from 1761 to 1782) and his famous son Tipu Sultan (ruled from 1782 to 1799).
In 1785, Tipu Sultan stopped the export of sandalwood, pepper and cardamom through the ports of his kingdom, and disallowed local merchants from trading with the Company.
He also established a close relationship with the French in India, and modernized his army with their help.
Four wars were fought with Mysore (1767¬69, 1780-84, 1790-92 and 1799). Only in the last, the Battle of Seringapatam did the Company ultimately win a victory.

→ War with the Marathas

With the defeat in the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761, the Marathas’ dream of ruling from Delhi was shattered.
They were divided into many states under different chiefs (sardars) belonging to dynasties such as Sindhia, Holkar, Gaikwad and Bhonsle.
These chiefs were held together in a confederacy under a Peshwa (Principal Minister) who became its effective military and administrative head based in Pune.
Mahadji Sindhia and Nana Phadnis were two famous Maratha soldiers and statesmen of the late eighteenth century.
In the first war that ended in 1782 with the Treaty of Salbai, there was no clear victor. The Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803-05) was fought on different fronts, resulting in the British gaining Orissa and the territories north of the Yamuna river including Agra and Delhi. Finally, the Third Anglo-Maratha War of 1817-19 crushed Maratha power.

→ The claim to paramountcy

Under Lord Hastings (Governor-General from 1813 to 1823), a new policy of “paramountcy” was initiated. Now the Company claimed that its authority was paramount or supreme, hence its power was greater than that of Indian states.
When the British tried to annex the small state of Kitoor (in Karnataka today), Rani Channamma took to arms and led an anti- British resistance movement. She was arrested in 1824 and died in prison in 1829.
But Rayanna, a poor chowkidar of Sangoli in Kitoor, carried on the resistance. With popular support he destroyed many British camps and records. He was caught and hanged by the British in 1830.
British fought a prolonged war with Afghanistan between 1838 and 1842 and established indirect Company rule there. Sind was taken over in 1843.
But the presence of Maharaja Ranjit Singh held back the Company. After his death in 1839, two prolonged wars were fought with the Sikh kingdom. Ultimately, in 1849, Punjab was annexed.

→ The Doctrine of Lapse

Lord Dalhousie was the Governor-General from 1848 to 1856. He devised a policy that came to be known as the Doctrine of Lapse.
The doctrine declared that if an Indian ruler died without a male heir his kingdom would “lapse”, and become part of Company territory. One kingdom after another was annexed simply by applying this doctrine – Satara (1848), Sambalpur (1850), Udaipur (1852), Nagpur (1853) and Jhansi (1854).
Enraged by the humiliating way in which the Nawab of Awadh was deposed, the people of Awadh joined the great revolt that broke out in 1857.

→ Setting up a New Administration

Warren Hastings (Governor-General from 1773 to 1785) was one of the many important figures who played a significant role in the expansion of Company power.
British territories were broadly divided into administrative units called Presidencies. There were three Presidencies: Bengal, Madras and Bombay.
Each was ruled by a Governor. The supreme head of the administration was the Governor-General.
Each district was to have two courts – a criminal court (faujdari adalat) and a civil court (diwani adalat).
The criminal courts were still under a qazi and a mufti but under the supervision of the collectors.
A major problem was that the Brahman pandits gave different interpretations of local laws based on different schools of the dharmashastra.
In 1775, eleven pandits were asked to compile a digest of Hindu laws. N.B. Halhed translated this digest into English.
By 1778, a code of Muslim laws was also compiled for the benefit of European judges.
The principal figure in an Indian district was the Collector. As the title suggests, his main job was to collect revenue and taxes and maintain law and order in his district with the help of judges, police officers and darogas.

→ The Company army

The Mughal army was mainly composed of cavalry (sawars – trained soldiers on horseback) and infantry, paidal (foot) soldiers. They were given training in archery (teer-andazi) and the use of the sword.
The East India Company adopted the method of recruiting peasants when it began recruitment for its own army, which came to be known as the sepoy army.
As warfare technology changed from the 1820s, the cavalry requirements of the Company’s army declined because the British empire was fighting in Burma, Afghanistan and Egypt where soldiers were armed with muskets and matchlocks.
In the early nineteenth century the British began to develop a uniform military culture.

→ Conclusion

Thus, the East India Company was transformed from a trading company to a territorial colonial power.
Steamships reduced the journey time to three weeks enabling more Britishers and their families to come to a far-off country like India.
By 1857, the Company came to exercise direct rule over about 63 per cent of the territory and 78 per cent of the population of the Indian subcontinent.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes Geography Chapter 6 Human Resource

June 10, 2026June 9, 2026 by Bhagya

JAC Board Class 8th Social Science Notes Geography Chapter 6 Human Resource

→ Human resource is the ultimate resource. Healthy, educated and motivated people develop resources as per their requirements.

→ Distribution of Population:

The pattern of population distribution is the way in which people are spread across the earth surface.
The distribution of population in the world is extremely uneven.
Almost three-quarters of the world’s people live in two continents Asia and Africa.
In just 10 countries, sixty per cent of the world’s people stay. All of them have more than a 100 million people.

→ Density of Population:
The number of people living in a unit area of the earth’s surface is called population density. It is normally expressed as per square km.

→ Factors Affecting Distribution of Population Geographical factors:

Topography: People always prefer to live on plains rather than mountains and plateaus because these areas are suitable for farming, manufacturing and service activities.
Climate: People usually avoid extreme climates that are very hot or very cold such as Sahara desert, polar regions of Russia, Canada and Antarctica.
Soil: Fertile soils provide suitable land for agriculture. Fertile plains are densely populated.
Water: The river valleys of the world are densely populated while deserts have spare population.
Minerals: Areas with mineral deposits are more populated.
Social Cultural and Economic Factors
Social: Areas of better housing, education and health facilities are more densely populated.
Cultural: Places with religion or cultural significance attract people.
Economic: Industrial areas provide employment opportunities.

→ Population Change:

Population change refers to change in the number of people during a specific time.
The world population has not been stable. This is actually due to changes in the number of births and deaths.
The main reason for the growth of population was that with better food supplies and medicine, deaths were reducing, while the number of births still remained fairly high.
Births are usually measured using the birth rate, i.e., the number of live births per 1,000 people.
Deaths are usually measured using the death rate, i.e., the number of deaths per 1,000 people.
Migrations is the movement of people in and out of an area.
The difference between the birth rate and the death rate of a country is called the natural growth rate. It is one of the reasons for population increase.
Migration is another way by which population size changes.
The general trend of international migrations is from the less developed nations to the more developed nations in search of better employment opportunities.

→ Patterns of Population Change:
Rates of population growth vary across the world. Although, the world’s total population is rising rapidly, not all countries are experiencing this growth.

→ Population Composition:

Population composition refers to the structure of the population.
The composition of population helps us to know how many are males or females, which age group they belong to, how educated they are and what type of occupations they are employed in, what their income levels and health conditions are and many more things.
The shape of the population pyramid tells the story of the people living in that particular country.
The population pyramid also tells us how many dependents there are in a country.
Skilled, spirited and hopeful young people endowed with a positive outlook are the future of any nation.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes Geography Chapter 5 Industries

June 10, 2026June 9, 2026 by Bhagya

JAC Board Class 8th Social Science Notes Geography Chapter 5 Industries

→ Secondary activities or manufacturing change raw materials into products of more value to people. Industry is an economic activity that is concerned with production of goods, extraction of minerals or the provision of services.

→ Classification of Industries:
On the basis of raw materials, size and ownership, industries are classified.

→ Raw Materials:

Depending upon the type of raw materials used, they are classified accordingly. Industries may be agro-based, mineral based, marine based and forest based.
Plant and animal based products are used as their raw materials in Agro-based industries.
The primary industries that use mineral ores as their raw materials in Mineral based industries.
Marine based industries use products from the sea and oceans as raw materials.
Forest based industries utilise forest produce as raw materials.

→ Size:

Size depicts the amount of capital invested, number of people employed and the volume of production.
Industries can be classified into small scale and large scale industries based on its size.
In a small scale industry, the products are manufactured by hand, by the artisans.
In large scale industries, investment of capital is higher and the technology used is superior.

→ Ownership:

Industries can be classified into private sector, public sector or state owned, joint sector and cooperative sector.
Private-sector industries are owned and operated by individuals or a group of individuals.
The public sector industries are owned and operated by the government.
Joint sector industries are owned and operated by the state and individuals or a group of individuals.
Co-operative sector industries are owned and operated by the producers or suppliers of raw materials, workers or both.

→ Factors Affecting Location of Industries:

The factors affecting the location of industries are the availability of raw material, land, water, labour, power, capital, transport and market.
Industrialisation often leads to development and growth of towns and cities.

→ Industrial System:

An industrial system consists of inputs, processes and outputs.
The inputs are the raw materials, labour and costs of land, transport, power and other infrastructure.
The processes include a wide range of activities that convert the raw material into finished products.
The outputs are the end product and the income earned from it.

→ Industrial Regions:

Industrial regions emerge when a number of industries locate close to each other and share the benefits of their closeness.
Major industrial regions of the world are eastern North America, western and central Europe, eastern Europe and eastern Asia.
India has several industrial regions such as Mumbai-Pune cluster, Bangalore-Tamil Nadu region, Hugh region, Ahmedabad- Baroda region, Chhota Nagpur industrial belt, Vishakhapatnam-Guntur belt, Gurgaon-Delhi-Meerut region and the Kollam-Thiruvananthapuram industrial cluster.

→ Distribution of Major Industries:

The world’s major industries are the iron and steel industry, the textile industry and the information technology industry.
The countries in which iron and steel industry is located are Germany, USA, China, Japan and Russia.
Textile industry is mainly concentrated in India, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.
The major hubs of information technology industry is the Silicon Valley of Central California and the Bangalore region of India.

→ Iron and Steel Industry:

Iron and steel industry is a feeder industry whose products are used as raw material for other industries.
Steel is tough and it can easily be shaped, cut, or made into wire.
Alloys give steel unusual hardness, toughness, or ability to resist rust.
Steel is often called the backbone of modem industry.
Most of the things we use is either made of iron or steel or has been made with tools and machinery of these metals.
Before 1800 A.D. iron and steel industry was located where raw materials, power supply and running water were easily available. Later the ideal location for the industry was near coal fields and close to canals and railways. After 1950, iron and steel industry began to be located on large areas of flat land near sea ports.
In India, iron and steel industry has developed taking advantage of raw materials, cheap labour, transport and market.
All the important steel producing centres such as Bhilai, Durgapur, Bumpur, Jamshedpur, Rourkela, Bokaro are situated in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh. Bhadravati and Vijay Nagar in Karnataka, Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Salem in Tamil Nadu.

→ Jamshedpur:

Before 1947, there was only one iron and steel plant in the country – Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited (TISCO) and it was privately owned.
After independence, the government took the initiative and set up several iron and steel plants.
Jamshedpur is the most conveniently situated iron and steel centre in the country.
In Jamshedpur, several other industrial plants were set up after TISCO. They produce chemicals, locomotive parts, agricultural equipment, machinery, tinplate, cable and wire.
Almost all sectors of the Indian industry depend heavily on the iron and steel industry for their basic infrastructure. It opened the doors to rapid industrial development in India.

→ Pittsburgh:

It is an important steel city of the United States of America. The steel industry at Pittsburgh enjoys locational advantages.
The Pittsburgh area has many factories other than steel mills. These use steel as their raw material to make many different products such as railroad equipment, heavy machinery and rails.
Today, very few of the large steel mills are in Pittsburgh itself.

→ Cotton Textile Industry:

Cotton, wool, silk, jute, flax have been used for making cloth and weaving cloth from yam is an ancient art.
Fibres are the raw material of textile industry. Fibres can be natural or man-made.
Natural fibres are obtained from wool, silk, cotton, linen and jute. Man-made fibres include nylon, polyester, acrylic and rayon.
The cotton textile industry is one of the oldest industries in the world.
In 18th century power looms facilitated the development of cotton textile industry, first in Britain and later in other parts of the world.
The important producers of cotton textiles are India, China, Japan and the USA.
Before the British rule, Indian hand-spun and handwoven cloth already had a wide market.
The Muslins of Dhaka, Chintzes of Masulipatnam, Calicos of Calicut and Gold-wrought cotton of
Burhanpur, Surat and Vadodara were known worldwide for their quality and design.
The production of handwoven cotton textile was expensive and time consuming.
The first successful mechanised textile mill was established in Mumbai in 1854.
Initially this industry flourished in the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat because of favourable humid climate.
Nowadays, it can be created artificially, and some of the other important centres are Coimbatore, Kanpur, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Kolkata, Ludhiana, Puducherry and Panipat.

→ Ahmedabad:

The first mill was established in 1859.
It soon became the second largest textile city of India, after Mumbai.
Ahmedabad was often referred to as the ‘Manchester of India’.
Ahmedabad is situated very close to cotton growing area.
The densely populated states of Gujarat and Maharashtra provide both skilled and semi-skilled labour.
In the recent years, Ahmedabad textile mills have been having facing some problems. This is due to the emergence of new textile centres in the country as well as non- upgradation of machines and technology in the mills of Ahmedabad.

→ Osaka:

It is an important textile centre of Japan and also known as the ‘Manchester of Japan’.
The textile industry at Osaka depends completely upon imported raw materials.
Cotton is imported from Egypt, India, China and USA.
The finished product is mostly exported and has a good market due to good quality and low price.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes Geography Chapter 3 Mineral and Power Resources

November 16, 2024November 15, 2024 by Bhagya

JAC Board Class 8th Social Science Notes Geography Chapter 3 Mineral and Power Resources

→ A mineral is a naturally occurring substance that has a definite chemical composition.

Minerals are not evenly distributed over the areas. They are concentrated in a particular area or rock formations.
Some minerals are found in regions which are not easily accessible such as the Arctic ocean bed and Antarctica.
Minerals are created by natural processes without any human interference. On the basis of their physical properties such as colour, density, hardness and chemical property such as solubility, they are classified and identified.

→ Types of Minerals:

On earth, there are over three thousand different minerals.
On the basis of composition, minerals are categorised as:
- Metallic minerals
- non-metallic minerals.
Metals in raw form are present in metallic minerals.
The hard substances that conduct heat and electricity and have a characteristic lustre or shine are known as metals. Iron ore, bauxite, manganese ore are some examples.

→ Metallic minerals are of two types:

Ferrous minerals are such as iron ore, manganese and chromites contain iron.
A non-ferrous mineral does not contain iron but may contain some other metal such as gold, silver, copper or lead.

→ Non-metallic minerals do not contain metals.

Limestone, mica and gypsum are non- metallic minerals.
The mineral fuels like coal and petroleum are also non-metallic minerals.
Minerals can be extracted by mining, drilling or quarrying.
Mining is the process of taking out minerals from rocks buried under the earth’s surface.

→ Mining is categorised into two:

Open cast mining
Shaft mining

→ In open-cast mining, minerals that lie at shallow depths are taken out by removing the surface layer.

In shaft mining, deep bores known as shafts, have to be made to reach mineral deposits that lie at great depths.
Petroleum and natural gas occur deep below the earth’s surface. Drilling is done to take them out and deep wells are bored.
Quarrying is the method in which minerals that lie near the surface are simply dug out.

→ Distribution of Minerals:

Metallic minerals are found in igneous and metamorphic rock formations that form large plateaus.
Iron-ore in north Sweden, copper and nickel deposits in Ontario, Canada, iron, nickel, chromites and platinum in South Africa are some of the examples of minerals found in these rocks.
Non-metallic minerals are found in sedimentary rock formations of plains and young fold mountains contain such as limestone.
Limestone deposits of Caucasus region of France, manganese deposits of Georgia and Ukraine and phosphate beds of Algeria are some examples. Coal and petroleum, the mineral fuels are also found in the sedimentary strata.

→ Asia:

China and India have large iron ore deposits. The continent produces more than half of the world’s tin.
The world’s leading tin producers are China, Malaysia and Indonesia.
China is in the leading position in production of lead, antimony and tungsten.
Asia also has deposits of manganese, bauxite, nickel, zinc and copper.

→ Europe:

Europe is the leading producer of iron-ore in the world.
Russia, Ukraine, Sweden and France have the large deposits of iron ore.
In eastern Europe and European Russia, minerals found are copper, lead, zinc, manganese and nickel.

→ North America:

The mineral deposits are situated in three zones:
- the Canadian region north of the Great Lakes,
- the Appalachian region and
- the mountain ranges of the west.
In the Canadian Shield Region, iron ore, nickel, gold, uranium and copper are found.
In the Appalachians region, coal is found.
In Western Cordilleras, vast deposits of copper, lead, zinc, gold and silver are found.

→ South America:

The largest producer of high grade iron-ore in the world is Brazil.
The leading producers of copper are Chile and Peru.
Among the world’s largest producers of tin are Brazil and Bolivia.
In Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Columbia, mineral oil is found.

→ Africa:

The world’s largest producer of diamonds, gold and platinum is Africa.
A major portion of the world’s gold is produced by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zaire.
Copper, iron ore, chromium, uranium, cobalt and bauxite are found here.
In Nigeria, Libya and Angola, oil is found.

→ Australia:

The largest producer of bauxite in the world is Australia.
The largest deposits of gold is found in Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie areas of western Australia.
It is a leading producer of gold, diamond, iron ore, tin and nickel.

→ Antarctica:

Iron ore, gold, silver and oil are present in commercial quantities.
Sufficient and significant amount of deposits of coal in the Transantarctic Mountains and iron near the Prince Charles Mountains of East Antarctica is predicted.

→ Uses of Minerals:

Minerals are used in many industries in different forms.
Minerals which are used for gems and jewellery are usually hard. These are later processed.
Copper is used in almost everything from coins to pipes.
Silicon is used in the computer industry and is obtained from quartz.
Aluminum obtained from its ore.
In automobiles, airplanes, bottling industry, buildings and even in kitchen cookware, bauxite is used.

→ Conservation of Minerals:

Minerals are a non-renewable resource.
In the process of mining, it is necessary to reduce the wastage.
Another way in which the mineral resources can be conserved is recycling of metals.

→ Power Resources:

We need power or energy for industry, agriculture, transport, communication and defense.
Power resources may be broadly categorised as:
- conventional resources
- non-conventional resources.

→ Conventional Sources:

Those energy which have been in common use for a long time are known as the conventional energy.
The two main conventional energy sources are:
- Firewood
- Fossil fuels

→ Firewood:

More than fifty per cent of the energy used by villagers comes from firewood in our country.
It is mainly used for cooking and heating.

→ Fossil Fuel:

Fossil fuels are the fuel which are formed by the natural processes.
For millions of years, remains of plants and animals which were buried under the earth got converted by the heat and pressure into fossil fuels.
Fossil fuel such as coal, petroleum and natural gas are the main sources of conventional energy.

→ Coal:

Electricity from coal is known as thermal power.
Coal is also known as Buried Sunshine because the coal which we are using today was formed millions of years ago when giant ferns and swamps got buried under the layers of earth.
In India, the coal producing areas are Raniganj, Jharia, Dhanbad and Bokaro in Jharkhand.
The leading coal producers of the world are China, USA, Germany, Russia, South Africa and France.

→ Petroleum:

A thick black liquid is known as Petroleum. Since they are very valuable, petroleum and its derivatives are called Black Gold.
Petroleum is found between the layers of rocks and is drilled from oil fields which is located in off-shore and coastal areas. Then sent to refineries which process the crude oil and produce a variety of products such as diesel, petrol, kerosene, wax, plastics and lubricants.
The chief petroleum producing countries are Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
The leading producers in India are Digboi in Assam, Bombay High in Mumbai and the deltas of Krishna and Godavari rivers.

→ Natural Gas:

Natural gas is found with petroleum deposits and is released when crude oil is brought to the surface. Very few countries in the world have sufficient amount of natural gas reserves of their own.
Russia, Norway, UK and the Netherlands are the major producers of natural gas. In India, Jaisalmer, Krishna Godavari delta, Tripura and some areas off shore in Mumbai have natural gas resources.
The consumption of fossil fuels has increased which led to their depletion at an alarming rate. The toxic and poisonous pollutants released from burning these fuels are major cause for concern.

→ Hydel Power:

Rainwater or river water stored in dams produce electricity by a specific method. This electricity is known as Hydro electricity.
The water discharged after the generation of electricity is used for irrigation. The world’s electricity is produced by hydel power is one fourth.
Paraguay, Norway, Brazil, and China are the leading producers of hydroelectricity.
In India, some important hydel power stations are Bhakra Nangal, Gandhi Sagar, Nagarjun Sagar and Damodar valley projects.

→ Non-Conventional Sources of Energy:
There is need for using non-conventional sources such as solar energy, wind energy, tidal energy which are renewable because the increasing use of fossil fuels is leading to its shortage.

→ Solar Energy:

Solar energy trapped from the sun can be used in solar cells to produce electricity. Many of these cells are joined into solar panels to generate power for heating and lighting purpose.
Solar energy is also used in solar heaters, solar cookers, solar dryers and traffic signals.

→ Wind Energy:

Wind mills have been used for grinding grain and lifting water since ancient times. In modem time, the wind mills with high speed winds rotate the wind mill which is connected to a generator to produce electricity.
Windfarms are found in Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, UK, USA and Spain which are known for their wind energy production.

→ Nuclear Power:

Nuclear power is obtained from energy stored in the nuclei of atoms of naturally occurring radioactive elements such as uranium and thorium.
Rajasthan and Jharkhand have large deposits of Uranium. Thorium is found in large quantities in the Monozite sands of Kerala.
In India, the nuclear power stations are situated in Kalpakkam in Tamilnadu, Tarapur in Maharashtra, Ranapratap Sagar near Kota in Rajasthan, Narora in Uttar Pradesh and Kaiga in Karnataka.

→ Geothermal Energy:

Geothermal energy is the heat energy which is obtained from the earth. This heat energy can be used to generate power.
USA has the world’s largest geothermal power plants followed by New Zealand, Iceland, Philippines and Central America. In India, geothermal plants are situated in Manikaran in Himachal Pradesh and Puga Valley in Ladakh.

→ Tidal Energy:

Tidal energy is the energy generated from tides.
Electricity is produced during high tide the energy of the tides is used to turn the turbine installed in the dam.
Russia, France and the Gulf of Kachchh in India have huge tidal mill farms.

→ Biogas:

Biogas is a gaseous fuel made of organic waste such as dead plant and animal material, animal dung and kitchen waste. These wastes are converted into the gaseous fuel.
The organic waste is decomposed by bacteria in biogas digesters to emit biogas which is a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes

JAC Class 7 Social Science Notes Geography Chapter 4 Air

November 16, 2024November 15, 2024 by Bhagya

JAC Board Class 7 Social Science Notes Geography Chapter 4 Air

→ Earth is surrounded by a huge layer of air known as atmosphere.

On the earth all the living creatures depend on the atmosphere for their survival.
With the absence of this layer of protection, we would have been baked by the scorching heat of the sun at daytime and frozen at night time. Hence, the temperature of the earth is liveable due to this layer of air.

→ Composition of the Atmosphere:

The two main gases which make the most of the atmosphere are nitrogen and oxygen. Carbon dioxide, helium, ozone, argon and hydrogen are found in less quantities.
Tiny and minute dust particles are also present in the atmosphere apart from these gases.
We take some amount of nitrogen when we inhale into our lungs and exhale it.
Plants take nitrogen from soil and roots of the plant which is brought by the bacterias and change its form so that plants can use it as they cannot take nitrogen directly.
The second most abundant gas found is the oxygen. Green plants produces oxygen during photosynthesis and humans and animals use oxygen to breathe.
The balance gets disturbed if we cut down the forests in large numbers.
The other important gas is carbon dioxide. Plants use carbon dioxide to make their food and release oxygen. Humans and animals release carbon dioxide.
The balance gets disturbed by burning of fuels like oils, coal. Hence, the earth’s climate and weather gets affected by the increased volume of carbon dioxide.

→ Structure of the Atmosphere:

Starting from the earth’s surface, the atmosphere has been divided into five layers – Troposphere, Stratosphere, Mesosphere, Thermosphere and Exosphere.
Troposphere – Themost important layer of the atmosphere is Troposphere and its average height is 13 km. The air we breathe exists here. Most of the weather incidences such as rainfall, fog and hailstorm occur in this layer.
Stratosphere – Stratosphere lies above the troposphere and it extends up to a height of 50 km. This layer is almost free from clouds and related weather incidences are making ideal conditions for flying aeroplanes. One of the important features is that it contains a layer of ozone gas.
Mesosphere – The third layer of the atmosphere is mesosphere. Above the stratosphere it is situated and extends up to the height of 80 km. On entering from the space, meteorites bum up in this layer.
Thermosphere – Temperature rises very rapidly and fast with increasing height in thermosphere.
Ionosphere is a part of this layer and it extends between 80^100 km. Radio transmission happens in this layer. In fact, radio waves transmitted from the earth are reflected back to the earth by this layer.
Exosphere- It is the upper most layer of the atmosphere. It has very thin air. Light gases are present such as helium and hydrogen float into the space from here.

→ Weather and Climate:
Weather is the hour-to-hour, day to day condition of the atmosphere. But, the average weather condition or phenomena of a place for a longer period of time is called as the climate of a place.

→ Temperature:

The degree or level of hotness and coldness of the air is called as the temperature.
The atmosphere’s temperature changes not only between day and night but also from season to season as well.
The incoming solar energy intercepted by the earth is called the insolation. It is one of the important factors that influence the distribution of temperature.
Towards the poles, the amount of insolation decreases from the equator hence the temperature also decreases.
Temperature in cities is much higher than that of villages because of the concrete and metals in buildings and the asphalt of roads get heated up during the day and this is released during the night.

→ Air Pressure

From all directions, the air presses us and our body exerts a counter pressure.
The pressure exerted by the weight of air on the earth’s surface is called the air pressure. It is highest at sea level and decreases with height.
Low pressure is related to cloudy skies and wet weather. A low-pressure is created in areas where temperature is high and the air gets heated and rises.
High pressure is related to clear and sunny skies. Heavy air sinks and creates a high pressure area and the air always moves from high pressure areas to low pressure areas.

→ Wind

Wind is the movement of air from high pressure area to low pressure areas.
It is divided into three parts:
- Permanent winds
- Seasonal winds
- Local winds
Permanent winds are the trade winds, westerlies and easterlies. They blow constantly throughout the year in a particular direction.
Seasonal winds are the winds which change their direction in different seasons such as monsoons in India.
Local winds are the winds which blow only during a particular period of the day or year in a small area such as land and sea breeze. The hot and dry local wind of northern planes of India is called loo.

→ Moisture

We know that when water evaporates from land and different water bodies, it becomes water vapour. Humidity is the moisture in the air at any time. When the air is full of water vapour then it is called as a humid day.
Clouds are just masses of water droplets. The water vapour condenses which cause the formation of these droplets of water.
Precipitation happens when these droplets of water become too heavy to float in air and then they come down.
Rain is the precipitation that comes down to the earth in liquid form.
The three types of rainfall are the convectional rainfall, the orographic rainfall and the cyclonic rainfall.
For the survival of plants and animals, rainfall is very important as it brings fresh water to the earth’s surface. If rainfall is less then water scarcity and drought occur and if it is more, then floods take place.

JAC Class 7 Social Science Notes

JAC Class 7 Social Science Notes History Chapter 6 Towns, Traders and Craftspersons

November 16, 2024November 15, 2024 by Bhagya

JAC Board Class 7 Social Science Notes History Chapter 6 Towns, Traders and Craftspersons

→ In medieval period, many towns combined several functions such as there were temple towns, administrative centres, also centres for commercial activities and craft production.

→ Administrative Centres:

The capital of Cholas, Thanjavur, and near to it the river Kaveri flows emerged as a temple town as well as an administrative centre.
There were palaces with mandapas or pavilions where the kings hold court in these mandapas, issuing orders to their subordinates. There were also barracks for the army, besides the temple. Temples were built to show their devotion and power.
The towns were bustling with different markets. At Svamimalai, the sthapatis or sculptors were making exquisite bronze idols and tall, ornamental bell metal lamps. The Saliya weavers of Thanjavur and the nearby town of Uraiyur were busy producing cloth for king, masses and temples.

→ Temple Towns and Pilgrimage Centres

Temple towns represent a major role in urbanisation, the process by which cities develop. Temples were often central part to the economy and society. Thanjavur is an example of temple.
Rulers gifted and provided temples with grants of land and money to carry out elaborate rituals, feed pilgrims and priests and celebrate festivals. Pilgrims also made donations.
It provides an excellent instance of religious coexistence. Ajmer was the capital of the Chauhan kings in the twelfth century and under the Mughals it became the suba headquarters.
Some of the temple towns are Bhillasvamin (Bhilsa or Vidisha) in Madhya Pradesh, Somnath in Gujarat, Kanchipuram and Madurai in Tamil Nadu, and Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. Pilgrimage centres also slowly developed into townships such as Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh and Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu.

→ A Network of Small-Towns

Eighth century onwards, from large villages, small towns emerged. They had a mandapika (or mandi of later times) to which from nearby villagers brought their produce to sell. They also had hatta (haat of later times) means market streets lined with shops.
In later times, a samanta or a zamindar built a fortified palace in or near these towns. They levied taxes on traders, artisans and articles of trade.

→ Traders Big and Small

Many types of traders were there. They usually travelled in caravans and to protect their interests they formed guild.
Eighth century onwards, there were such type of guilds in south India, some of the famous were Manigramam and Nanadesi.
There were some communities who went on to become the principal trading groups of the country like the Chettiars and the Marwari Oswal. Gujarati traders include Hindu Baniyas and Muslim Bohras traded extensively with the ports of the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, East Africa, Southeast Asia and China.
Spices grown in tropical climates such as pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, dried ginger, etc., became an important part of European cooking and cotton cloth was very attractive. These things eventually drew European traders to India.

→ Crafts in Towns:

The decorated and inlay work in copper and silver came to called as Bidri. Bidar’s craftspersons were famous for it.
The Panchalas or Vishwakarma community which consists of goldsmiths, bronzesmiths, blacksmiths, masons and carpenters were veiy important people. They played an important role in the construction of palaces, big buildings, tanks and reservoirs.
In the same manner, weavers such as the Saliyar or Kaikkolars emerged as prosperous and important communities making donations to temples.

→ A Closer Look: Hampi, Masulipatnam and Surat The Architectural Splendour of Hampi

In 1336, Hampi was founded by the Vijayanagara Empire. Hampi was located in the Krishna-Tungabhadra basin. The glorious detritus at Hampi reveal a well- fortified city. In the construction of the walls, no mortar or cementing agent was used and the technique followed was to wedge them together by interlocking.
The architecture of Hampi was extra-ordinary. The buildings in the royal areas had splendid arches, domes and pillared halls with niches for holding sculptures as well as they had well-planned orchards and pleasure gardens with sculptural motifs such as the lotus and corbels.
In the fifteenth-sixteenth centuries, Hampi bustled with commercial and cultural activities.
Temples were the hub of cultural activities and devadasis (temple dancers) performed before the deity, royalty and masses in the many-pillared halls in the Virupaksha (a form of Shiva) temple. One of the most important festival of Hampi was Mahanavami.
In 1565, Hampi fell into ruin following the defeat of Vijayanagara by the Deccani Sultans — the rulers of Golconda, Bijapur, Ahmadnagar, Berar and Bidar.

→ A Gateway to the West: Surat

Many pilgrim ships set sail from Surat, hence it was known as the Gate to Mecca. It was also the gateway for trade with West Asia via the Gulf of Ormuz.
People of all castes and creeds lived in Surat hence, it was a cosmopolitan city.
Surat was famous for its textiles with their gold lace borders (zari) and had a market in West Asia, Europe and Africa.
Surat hundis were honoured and recognised in the far-off markets of Cairo in Egypt, Basra in Iraq and Antwerp in Belgium.
Towards the end of the seventeenth century, the trade in Surat began to decline because of the loss of markets and productivity and other factors.

→ Fishingin Troubled Waters: Masulipatnam

In seventeenth century, the town Masulipatnam or Machlipatnam was a centre of intense activity. It lay on the delta of Krishna river.
It became the most important port on the Andhra coast as the Dutch and English East India Companies attempted to control Masulipatnam.
The Qutb Shahi rulers of Golconda enforced royal monopolies on the sale of textiles, spices and other items to prevent the trade passing completely into the hands of the various East India Companies. This led to fierce competition among various trading groups—the Golconda nobles, Persian merchants, Telugu Komati Chettis, and European traders which made the city prosperous and populous.
The European companies started to look for alternatives. They moved to other .cities such as Bombay, Calcutta, Madras and hence, Masulipatnam lost both its merchants and prosperity and declined in the course of the eighteenth century.

→ New Towns and Traders

In order to expand the commercial activities in the east, the English, Dutch and French formed East India Companies.
The English emerged as the most successful commercial and political power in the subcontinent, since the European Companies used their naval power to gain control of the sea trade and forced Indian traders to work as their agents.
This period also saw the decline of the independence of craftspersons because now they had to weave cloth which was already promised to European agents.
In eighteenth century, Bombay (now Mumbai), Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Madras (now Chennai) became the important cities.
The “blacks” or native traders and craftspersons were moved into the Black Towns established by the European companies within these new cities.
The “white” rulers occupied the superior residencies of Fort St George in Madras or Fort St William in Calcutta.

JAC Class 7 Social Science Notes

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