Bhagya – Page 33 – Jharkhand Board Solution

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes Geography Chapter 2 Land, Soil, Water, Natural Vegetation and Wildlife Resources

August 30, 2024August 29, 2024 by Bhagya

JAC Board Class 8th Social Science Notes Geography Chapter 2 Land, Soil, Water, Natural Vegetation and Wildlife Resources

→ Mamba and Peter stay in two different parts of the world and lead very different lives. This difference is because of the differences in the quality of land, soil, water, natural vegetation, animals and the usage of technology. The availability of such resources is the main reason places differ from each other.

→ Land:

One of the most important natural resources is Land.
Land covers only about thirty per cent of the total area of the earth’s surface and all parts of this small area are not habitable.
Due to varied characteristics of land and climate there is uneven distribution of population in different parts of the world.
Plains and river valleys are suitable land for agriculture. Hence, these are the densely populated areas of the world.

→ Land Use:

Land is used for different causes and purposes such as agriculture, forestry, mining, building houses, roads and setting up of industries.
Certain physical factors such as topography, soil, climate, minerals and availability of water determines the use of land.
Other important determinants of land use pattern are human factors such as population and technology.
Land can be divided into two categories on the basis of ownership as – private land and community land.
Private land is owned by individuals and community land is owned by the community for common uses like collection of fodder, fruits, nuts or medicinal herbs. The community lands are also known as common property resources.
The major threats to the environment because of the expansion of agriculture and construction activities and proceedings are land degradation, landslides, soil erosion, and desertification.

→ Conservation of Land Resource:
The common methods used to conserve land resources are afforestation, land reclamation, regulated use of chemical pesticide and fertilisers and checks on overgrazing land.

→ Soil:

Soil is the thin layer of grainy substance covering the surface of the earth and it is very closely linked to land.
Category of soil is determined the landforms.
Organic matter, minerals and weathered rocks found on the earth forms the soil.
The right mix of minerals and organic matter make the soil fertile.

→ Factors of Soil Formation:
The nature of the parent rock and climatic factors are the major factors of soil formation. The topography, role of organic material and time taken for the composition of soil formation are the other factors. Though they all differ from place to place.

→ Degradation of Soil and Conservation Measures:

The major threats to soil are soil erosion and depletion.
Soil degradation happens due to deforestation, overgrazing, overuse of chemical feritilisers or pesticides, rain wash, landslides and floods.

→ Few methods of soil conservation are:

Mulching: The bare ground between plants is covered with a layer of organic matter like straw and it helps to retain soil moisture.
Contour barriers: Along contours, stones, grass, soil are used to build barriers. To collect water, trenches are made in front of the barriers.
Rock dam: Rocks are piled up to slow down the flow of water and it prevents gullies and further soil loss.
Terrace farming: Terraces or broad flat steps are made on the steep slopes so that flat surfaces are available to grow crops. This reduce the surface runoff and soil erosion.
Intercropping: Different types of crops are grown in alternate rows and are sown at different times to protect the soil from rain wash.
Contour ploughing: To form a natural barrier, ploughing is done parallel to the contours of a hill slope for water to flow down the slope.
Shelter belts: Mainly in the coastal and dry regions, rows of trees are planted to check the wind movement to protect soil cover.

→ Water:

Earth is also known as an ‘water planet’ because three-fourths of the earth’s surface is covered with water.
The ocean water is not fit for human consumption as it is saline.
Fresh water accounts for only about 2.7 per cent. In this 2.7 per cent, about 70 per cent of this occurs as ice sheets and glaciers in Antarctica, Greenland and mountain regions and these are inaccessible due to their locations.
Only 1 per cent of freshwater is available and fit for human use. It is found in the form of ground water, as surface water in rivers and lakes and as water vapour in the atmosphere.
The most precious substance on earth is fresh water. Its total volume remains constant.
Humans use huge amounts of water for drinking, washing but also in the process of production.
The main reasons leading to shortages in supply of fresh water is either due to drying up of water sources or water pollution.

→ Problems of Water Availability:

Scarcity of water is present in many regions of the world. Mostly countries located in climatic zones are most susceptible to droughts, face great problems of water scarcity.
Water shortage may be a result of variation in seasonal or annual precipitation or by over-exploitation and contamination of water sources.

→ Conservation of Water Resources:

World is facing a major problem in accessing the clean and adequate water sources.
To conserve this valuable resource, steps need to be taken.
The major contaminants in waterbodies are the discharge of untreated or partially treated sewage, agricultural chemicals and industrial effluents and pollute water with nitrates, metals and pesticides.
Water pollution can be controlled by treating these effluents suitably before releasing them in waterbodies.
Another method to save surface runoff is water harvesting.
Drip or trickle irrigation is very useful in dry regions with high rates of evaporation.

→ Natural Vegetation and Wildlife:

Natural vegetation and wildlife exist only in the narrow zone of contact between the lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere and that is known as biosphere.
The life supporting system is called as the ecosystem. Here, living beings are inter-related and interdependent on each other for survival.
There are innumerable uses of plants. They provide us with timber, give shelter to animals, produce oxygen, protects soils essentials for growing crops, help in storage of underground water, give us fruits, nuts, latex, turpentine oil, gum, medicinal plants and the paper.
Animals big or small, all are integral and essential in maintaining balance in the ecosystem.
A vital cleanser of the environment are the vultures and considered as scavengers because they have the ability to feed on dead livestock.
Animals provide us milk, meat, hides and wool.
Bees and birds have an important role to play as decomposers in the ecosystem.

→ Distribution of Natural Vegetation:

Temperature and moisture are the factors for the growth of vegetation.
The major vegetation types of the world are grouped as forests, grasslands, scrubs and tundra.
In regions where heavy rainfall occurs, huge trees may thrive.
In the regions of moderate rainfall, short stunted trees and grasses grow forming the grasslands of the world.
In the regions of low rainfall, thorny shrubs and scrubs grow.
Tundra vegetation of cold Polar Regions comprise of mosses and lichens.
Population is growing in rapid way and to feed the growing numbers, large regions of forests have been cleared to grow crops. Forests are vanishing rapidly. An urgent need has come up to protect from destruction this valuable resource.

→ Conservation of Natural Vegetation and Wildlife:

Many species have become endangered and some are on the verge of extinction.
Some of the human and natural factors which gives momentum to the process of extinction of these resources are deforestation, soil erosion, constructional activities, forest fires, tsunami and landslides.
Another major and important issue is poaching. The animals are poached for collection and illegal trade of hides, skins, nails, teeth, horns as well as feathers.
The animals which are poached are tiger, lion, elephant, deer, blackbuck, crocodile, rhinoceros, snow leopard, ostrich and peacock. We need to create awareness to conserve these animals.
To protect our natural vegetation and wildlife, national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, biosphere reserves are made.
Awareness programmes such as social forestry and Vanainohatasava should be encouraged at the regional and community level.
School children should also be encouraged to gain more knowledge about such awareness programs and try to conserve it.
Laws has been passed in many countries against the trade as well as killing of birds and animals. In India, killing lions, tigers, deer, great Indian bustards and peacocks is illegal.
Lists of several species of animals and birds in which trade is prohibited has been established by an international convention CITES.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes History Chapter 6 Weavers, Iron Smelters and Factory Owners

August 30, 2024August 29, 2024 by Bhagya

JAC Board Class 8th Social Science Notes History Chapter 6 Weavers, Iron Smelters and Factory Owners

→ Textiles and iron and steel industries were crucial for the industrial revolution in the modem world.

In the nineteenth century, mechanised production of cotton textiles made Britain the foremost industrial nation.
When Britain’s iron and steel industry started growing from the 1850s, Britain came to be known as the “workshop of the world”.
With the growth of industrial production, British industrialists began to see India as a vast and huge market for their industrial products and over time manufactured goods from Britain began flooding India.

→ Indian Textiles and the World Market
Indian textiles had long been renowned both for their fine quality and exquisite # craftsmanship. They were extensively traded in Southeast Asia (Java, Sumatra and Penang) and West and Central Asia.

→ Words tells us histories

European traders began referring to all finely woven textiles as “muslin” – a word that acquired wide currency. They first encountered these fine cotton cloths from India carried by Arab merchants in Mosul in present-day Iraq.
The cotton textiles which the Portuguese took back to Europe along with the spices came to be called “calico” (derived from Calicut) and hence, calico became the general name for all cotton textiles.
In The East India Company’s book, the order in 1730 was for 5,89,000 pieces of cloth.
In the order book, a list of 98 varieties of cotton and silk cloths were mentioned. These were known by their common name in the European trade as piece goods- usually woven cloth pieces that were 20 yards long and 1 yard wide.
Amongst the pieces ordered were printed cotton cloths called chintz, cossaes (or khassa) and bandanna. Chintz is derived from the Hindi word chhint, a cloth with small and colourful flowery designs.
Rich people of England including the Queen herself wore clothes of Indian fabric.
Now a days, the word bandanna refers to any brightly coloured and printed scarf for the neck or head. It originates from the word “bandhna” (Hindi for tying) and referred to a variety of brightly coloured cloth produced through a method of tying and dying.
There were other cloths in the order book that were noted by their place of origin such as Kasimbazar, Patna, Calcutta, Orissa, Charpoore.

→ Indian textiles in European markets

In 1720, the British government enacted a legislation banning the use of printed cotton textiles, chintz in England. This Act was known as the Calico Act.
Competition with Indian textiles also led to a search for technological innovation in England.
In 1764, the spinning jenny was invented by John Kaye which increased the productivity of the traditional spindles.
In 1786, the invention of the steam engine by Richard Arkwright in revolutionised cotton textile weaving.
Cloth could now be woven in immense quantities and cheaply too.
Indian textiles continued to dominate world trade till the end of the eighteenth century.
European trading companies the Dutch, the French and the English made enormous profits out of this flourishing trade.

→ Who were the weavers?

Weavers belonged to communities that specialised in weaving.
The tanti weavers of Bengal, the julahas or momin weavers of north India, sale and kaikollar and devangs of south India are some of the communities famous for weaving.
The charkha and the takli were household spinning instruments. The thread was spun on the charkha and rolled on the takli.
The first stage of production was spinning mostly done by women.
In most communities weaving was a task done by men.
For coloured textiles, the thread was dyed by the dyer who are known as rangrez.
For printed cloth, the weavers needed the help of specialist block printers who are known as chhipigars.

→ The decline of indian textile

Indian textiles had to compete with British textiles in the European and American markets.
Exporting textiles to England also became increasingly difficult since very high duties were imposed on Indian textiles imported into Britain.
Thousands of weavers in India were now thrown out of employment. Bengal weavers were the worst hit.
English and European companies stopped buying Indian goods and their agents no longer gave out advances to weavers to secure supplies.
By the 1880s, two-thirds of all the cotton clothes worn by Indians were made of cloth produced in Britain.
Thousands of rural women who made a living by spinning cotton thread were rendered jobless.
Handloom weaving did not completely die in India because some types of cloths could not be supplied by machines.
Sholapur in western India and Madura in South India emerged as important new centres of weaving in the late nineteenth century.
Mahatma Gandhi urged people to boycott imported textiles and use hand-spun and handwoven cloth and hence khadi gradually became a symbol of nationalism.
In 1931, the Indian National Congress adopted the tricolour flag and the charkha was put at the centre of the flag to represent India.
Many weavers became agricultural labourers.
Some of these weavers also found work in the new cotton mills that were established in Bombay (now Mumbai), Ahmedabad, Sholapur, Nagpur and Kanpur.

→ Cotton mills come up:

In 1854, the first cotton mill in India was set up as a spinning mill in Bombay.
From the early nineteenth century, Bombay had grown as an important port for the export of raw cotton from India to England and China.
By 1900, over 84 mills started operating in Bombay.
The first mill in Ahmedabad was started in 1861. A year later a mill was established in Kanpur in the United Provinces.
In India, the first few decades of its existence, the textile factory industry faced many problems. It found it difficult to compete with the cheap textiles imported from Britain.
The first major spurt in the development of cotton factory production in India was during the First World War when textile imports from Britain declined and Indian factories were called upon to produce cloth for military supplies.

→ The Sword of Tipu Sultan and Wootz Steel:

Tipu’s legendary swords are now part of valuable collections in museums in England.
The sword had an incredibly hard and sharp edge that could easily rip through the opponent’s armour. This quality of the sword came from a special type of high carbon steel called Wootz which was produced all over south India.
A year after Tipu Sultan’s death, Francis Buchanan who toured through Mysore in 1800 has left us an account of the technique by which Wootz steel was produced in many hundreds of smelting furnaces in Mysore.
Wootz is an anglicised version of the Kannada word ukku, Telugu hukku and Tamil and Malayalam urukku which means steel.
Indian Wootz steel fascinated European scientists. Michael Faraday, the legendary scientist and discoverer of electricity and electromagnetism spent four years studying the properties of Indian Wootz (1818-22).

→ Abundant furnaces in villages

In Bihar and Central India, in particular every district had smelters that used local deposits of ore to produce iron which was widely used for the manufacture of implements and tools of daily use.
The furnaces were most often built of clay and sun-dried bricks. The smelting was done by men while women worked the bellows, pumping air that kept the charcoal burning.
By the late nineteenth century, however, the craft of iron smelting was in decline.
Many gave up their craft and looked for other means of livelihood.
The iron smelters had to pay a very high tax to the forest department for every furnace they used and hence their income reduced.
Ironsmiths in India began using the imported iron to manufacture utensils and implements. This inevitably lowered the demand for iron produced by local smelters.

→ Iron and steel factories come up in India

In 1904, in the hot month of April, Charles Weld, an American geologist and Dorabji Tata, the eldest son of Jamsetji Tata, were travelling in Chhattisgarh in search of iron ore deposits.
One day after travelling for many hours in the forests, Weld and Dorabji came upon a small village and found a group of men and women carrying basket loads of iron ore. These people were the Agarias.
Rajhara Hills had one of the finest ores in the world.
The Agarias helped in the discovery of a source of iron ore that would later supply the Bhilai Steel Plant.
A few years later a large area of forest was cleared on the banks of the river Subamarekha to set up the factory and an industrial township known as Jamshedpur. Here there was water near iron ore deposits.
In 1912, the Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO) that came up began producing steel.
TISCO was set up at an opportune time. British experts in the Indian Railways were unwilling to believe that good quality steel could be produced in India.
By 1919, the colonial government was buying 90 per cent of the steel manufactured by TISCO. Over time TISCO became the biggest steel industry within the British empire.
As the nationalist movement developed and the industrial class became stronger, the demand for government protection became louder.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes Geography Chapter 1 Resources

August 30, 2024August 29, 2024 by Bhagya

JAC Board Class 8th Social Science Notes Geography Chapter 1 Resources

→ Any object, substance or material that has utility or usability makes a resource.

The substances which have certain values becomes a resource.
The two important factors that can change substances into resources are time and technology.
Time and technology are related to the needs of the people.
Human beings themselves are the most important resource. It is their ideas, recommendations, knowledge, inventions and discoveries that lead to the creation of more resources in the world.

→ Types of Resources
These are mainly divided into three categories:

Natural resources
Human made resources
Human resources

→ Natural Resources

Natural resources are the resources that are drawn from Nature and used without much alterations.
The natural resources are the air which we inhale, the rivers and lakes, the soils, minerals. These resources are presents of nature to living things and can be used directly.
Sometimes technology may be needed to use a natural resource in the finest manner.
Natural resources can be divided into:
- Renewable resources
- Non-renewable resources

→ Renewable Resources

These are the resources which get renewed or refilled quickly.
Solar energy and wind energy are some of the resources which are unlimited and are unaffected by human activities.
But some renewable resources such as water, soil and forest can affect the living things. In many parts of the world now a days, a major problem has come up. There is a shortage and drying up of natural water.

→ Non-renewable Resources

These are the resources which are present in fixed amount.
These are found inside the earth and take millions of years to form.
Fossil fuels, oil, natural gas, and coal and nuclear energy are some of the non-renewable resources.
In current scenario, around 84% of the total amount of energy used globally comes from fossil fuels.

→ Certain physical factors such as terrain, climate and altitude lead to the distribution of natural resources. Due to the unequal distribution of resources, these factors differ a lot over the earth.

→ Human Made Resources:

Human made resources are those natural resources whose original form has been changed to some other form.
Human beings use natural resources for their needs such as buildings, bridges, roads, etc.
Technology is also one of the forms of this resource.

→ Human Resources:

Knowledge, skill and technology help people to create more resources when they need to do so. Hence, human beings are a special human resource.
Human beings become a valuable resource due to education and health.
Human Resource Development is to enhance and improve the quality and attributes of person’s skills so that they are able to create and generate more resources.

→ Conserving Resources:

Resource conservation means utilising resources veiy carefully and giving them time to get renewed and restore.
Sustainable development means to balance the need to use resources and also preserve them for the future.
Many ways are there to conserve resources such as reducing consumption, recycling and reusing thing.
It is our responsibility and task to ensure that:
- Sustainable use of renewable resources.
- On the earth, the varied range of life is conserved.
- Minimise the damage to natural environmental system.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes

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

August 30, 2024August 29, 2024 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

August 30, 2024August 29, 2024 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

August 30, 2024August 29, 2024 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

August 30, 2024August 29, 2024 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

August 30, 2024August 29, 2024 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

August 30, 2024August 29, 2024 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

August 30, 2024August 29, 2024 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

August 30, 2024August 29, 2024 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.