JAC Class 8 Social Women – Page 2 – Jharkhand Board Solution

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 8 Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 8 Confronting Marginalisation

November 16, 2024November 15, 2024 by Bhagya

JAC Board Class 8th Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 8 Confronting Marginalisation

→ Religious solace, armed struggle, self improvement and education, economic uplift – there appears to be no one way of doing things. Adivasis, Dalits, Muslims, women and other marginal groups argue that simply by being citizens of a democratic country, they possess equal rights that must be respected.

→ Invoking Fundamental Rights:

The marginalised have drawn on the rights in two ways: first, by insisting on their Fundamental Rights, they have forced the government to recognise the injustice done to them. Second, they have insisted that the government enforce these laws.
In some instances, the struggles of the marginalised have influenced the government to frame new laws in keeping with the spirit of the Fundamental Rights.
Article 17 of the Constitution states that untouchability has been abolished, this means that no one can henceforth prevent Dalits from educating themselves, entering temples, using public facilities, etc.
Untouchability is a punishable crime now.
Article 15 of the Constitution notes that no citizen of India shall be discriminated
against on the basis of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. This has been used by Dalits to seek equality where it has been denied to them.
Dalits can ‘invoke’ or ‘draw on’ a Fundamental Right (or Rights) in situations where they feel that they have been treated badly by some individual or community or even by the government.
By granting different forms of cultural rights, the Constitution tries to ensure cultural justice to such groups.
The Constitution does this so that the culture of these groups is not dominated nor wiped out by the culture of the majority community.

→ Laws for the Marginalised:

There are specific laws and policies for the marginalised in our country.
There are policies or schemes that emerge through other means like setting up a committee or by undertaking a survey, etc.

→ Promoting Social Justice:

As part of their effort to implement the Constitution, both state and central governments create specific schemes for implementation in tribal areas or in areas that have a high Dalit population.
One such law/policy is the reservation policy that today is both significant and highly contentious.
The laws which reserve seats in education and government employment for Dalits and Adivasis are based on an important argument.
Governments across India have their own list of Scheduled Castes (or Dalits), Scheduled Tribes and backward and most backward castes. The central government too has its list.
Students applying to educational institutions and those applying for posts in government are expected to furnish proof of their caste or tribe status, in the form of caste and tribe certificates.

→ Protecting the Rights of Dalits and Adivasis
In addition to policies our country also has specific law’s that guard against the discrimination and exploitation of marginalised communities.

→ The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989

In order to indicate to the government that untouchability was still being practised and in the most hideous manner, Dalit groups demanded new laws that would list the various sorts of violence against dalits and prescribe stringent punishment for those who indulge in them.
The Act contains a very long list of crimes some of which are too horrible even to contemplate.
The Act does not only describe terrible crimes but also lets people know what dreadful deeds human beings are capable of.
The Act distinguishes several levels of crimes. Firstly, it lists modes of humiliation that are both physically horrific and morally reprehensible and seeks to punish.
Secondly, it lists actions that dispossess Dalits and Adivasis of their meagre resources or which force them into performing slave labour.
At another level, the Act recognises that crimes against Dalit and tribal women are of a specific kind and, therefore, seeks to penalise anyone who assaults or uses force on any woman belonging to a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe with intent to dishonour her.

→ Adivasi Demands and the 1989 Act:

The 1989 Act is important for another reason – Adivasi activists refer to it to defend their right to occupy land that was traditionally theirs.
Activists have asked that those who have forcibly encroached upon tribal lands should be punished under this law.
C.K. Janu, an Adivasi activist, has also pointed out that one of the violators of Constitutional rights guaranteed to tribal people are governments in the various states of India.
She has also noted that in cases where tribals have already been evicted and cannot go back to their lands, they must be compensated.

→ Conclusion:

The existence of a right or a law or even a policy on paper does not mean that it exists in reality.
People have had to constantly work on or make efforts to translate these into principles that guide the actions of their fellow citizens or even their leaders.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 7 Understanding Marginalisation

November 16, 2024November 15, 2024 by Bhagya

JAC Board Class 8th Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 7 Understanding Marginalisation

→ What Does it Mean to be Socially Marginalised?

To be marginalised is to be forced to occupy the sides or fringes and thus not be at the centre of things.
In the social environment too, groups ‘ of people or communities may have the experience of being excluded. Their marginalisation can be because they speak a different language, follow different customs or belong to a different religious group from the majority community.
They may also feel marginalised because they are poor, considered to be of ‘low’ social status and viewed as being less human than others.
They experience a sense of disadvantage and powerlessness vis-a-vis more powerful and dominant sections of society who own land, are wealthy, better educated and politically powerful.
Economic, social, cultural and political factors work together to make certain groups in society feel marginalised.

→ Who are Adivasis?
Adivasis, the term literally means ‘original inhabitants’ are communities who lived and often continue to live in close association with forests.

Around 8 per cent of India’s population is Adivasi and many of India’s most important mining and industrial centres are located in Adivasi areas – Jamshedpur, Rourkela, Bokaro and Bhilai among others.
• There are over 500 different Adivasi groups in India.
Adivasis are particularly numerous in states like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and in the north-eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura.
Adivasi societies are also most distinctive because there is often very little hierarchy among them.
Adivasis practise a range of tribal religions that are different from Islam, Hinduism and Christianity.
It often involves the worship of ancestors, village and nature spirits, the last associated with and residing in various sites in the landscape – ‘mountain-spirits’, ‘river- spirits’, ‘animal-spirits’, etc.
Adivasis have always been influenced by different surrounding religions like Shakta, Buddhist, Vaishnav, Bhakti and Christianity.
Adivasis have their own languages (most of them radically different from and possibly as old as Sanskrit), which have often deeply influenced the formation of ‘mainstream’ Indian languages, like Bengali.
Santhali has the largest number of speakers and has a significant body of publications including magazines on the internet or in e-zines.

→ Adivasis and Stereotyping:

Often Adivasis are blamed for their lack of advancement as they are believed to be resistant to change or new ideas.
Adivasis are invariably portrayed in very stereotypical ways – in colourful costumes, headgear and through their dancing.
This often wrongly leads to people believing that they are exotic, primitive and backward.

→ Adivasis and Development:

Metal ores like iron and copper, and gold and silver, coal and diamonds, invaluable timber, most medicinal herbs and animal products (wax, lac, honey) and animals themselves (elephants, the mainstay of imperial armies), all came from the forests.
Forests covered the major part of our country till the nineteenth century and the Adivasis had a deep knowledge of, access to, as well as control over most of these vast tracts at least till the middle of the nineteenth century.
Often empires heavily depended on Adivasis for the crucial access to forest resources.
In the north-east, their lands remain highly militarised.
India has 104 national parks covering 40,501 sq km and 543 wildlife sanctuaries covering 1,18,918 sq km. These are areas where tribals originally lived but were evicted from.
When they continue to stay in these forests, they are termed encroachers.
Having gradually lost access to their traditional homelands, many Adivasis have migrated to cities in search of work where they are employed for very low wages in local industries or at building or construction sites.
45 per cent of tribal groups in rural areas and 35 per cent in urban areas live below the poverty line.
Many tribal children are malnourished. Literacy rates among tribals are also very low.
Destruction in one sphere naturally impacts the other. Often this process of dispossession and displacement can be painful and violent.

→ Minorities and Marginalisation

The term minority is most commonly used to refer to communities that are numerically small in relation to the rest of the population.
It encompasses issues of power, access to resources and has social and cultural dimensions.
Safeguards are needed to protect minority communities against the possibility of being culturally dominated by the majority. They also protect them against any discrimination and disadvantage that they may face.
The Constitution provides these safeguards because it is committed to protecting India’s
cultural diversity and promoting equality as well as justice.

→ Muslims and Marginalisation

Recognising that Muslims in India were lagging behind in terms of various development indicators, the government set up a high-level committee in 2005.
Chaired by Justice Rajindar Sachar, the committee examined the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community in India. The report discusses in detail the marginalisation of this community.
The social marginalisation of Muslims in some instances have led to them migrating from places where they have lived, often leading to the ghettoisation of the community. Sometimes, this prejudice leads to hatred and violence.
The experiences of all the groups point to the fact that marginalisation is a complex phenomenon requiring a variety of strategies, measures and safeguards to redress this situation.

→ Conclusion:

Marginalisation is linked to experiencing disadvantage, prejudice and powerlessness.
Marginalisation results in having a low social status and not having equal access to education and other resources.
Marginalised communities want to maintain their cultural distinctiveness while having access to rights, development and other opportunities.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 4 Understanding Laws

November 15, 2024November 14, 2024 by Bhagya

JAC Board Class 8th Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 4 Understanding Laws

→ Do Laws Apply to All?

Members instituted several provisions in the Constitution that would establish the rule of law.
The most important of these was that all persons in independent India are equal before the law.
The law cannot discriminate between persons on the basis of their religion, caste or gender.
What the rule of law means is that all laws apply equally to all citizens of the country and no one can be above the law7.
Any crime or violation of law has a specific punishment as well as a process through which the guilt of the person has to be established.
In ancient India, there were innumerable and often overlapping local laws.
Different communities enjoyed different degrees of autonomy in administering these laws among their own.
The British colonialists introduced the rule of law in India.

→ Historians have disputed this claim on several grounds, two of which include:

first that colonial law was arbitrary, and
second that the Indian nationalists played a prominent role in the development of the legal sphere in British India.

→ The Sedition Act of 1870 – The idea of sedition was very broadly understood within this Act. Any person protesting or criticising the British government could be arrested without due trial.

Indian nationalists also began fighting for greater equality and wanted to change the idea of law from a set of rules that they were forced to obey, to law as including ideas of justice.
By the end of the nineteenth century, the Indian legal profession also began emerging and demanded respect in colonial courts.
There w7ere several ways in which Indians played a major role in the evolution of the rule of law during the colonial period.
Every year our representatives pass several new laws as well as amend existing ones.

→ How Do New Laws Come About?

The Parliament has an important role in making laws.
An important role of Parliament is to be sensitive to the problems faced by people.
The role of citizens is crucial in helping Parliament frame different concerns that people might have into laws.
The voice of citizen can be heard through TV reports, newspaper editorials, radio broadcasts, local meetings, all of which help in making the work that Parliament does more accessible and transparent to the people.

→ Unpopular and Controversial Laws:

Sometimes a law can be constitutionally valid and hence legal, but it can continue to be unpopular and unacceptable to people because they feel that the intention behind it is unfair and harmful.
In a democracy like ours, citizens can express their unwillingness to accept repressive laws framed by the Parliament.
When a large number of people begin to feel that a wrong law has been passed, then there is pressure on the Parliament to change this.
If the law favours one group and disregards the other it will be controversial and lead to conflict.
People who think that the law is not fair can approach the court to decide on the issue.
The court has the power to modify or cancel laws if it finds that they don’t adhere to the Constitution.
We should bear in mind that it is the extent, involvement and enthusiasm of the people that helps Parliament perform its representative functions properly.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 5 Judiciary

November 15, 2024November 14, 2024 by Bhagya

JAC Board Class 8th Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 5 Judiciary

→ As an organ of government, the judiciary plays a crucial role in the functioning of India’s democracy. It can play this role only because it is independent.

→ What is the Role of the Judiciary?

Courts take decisions on a very large number of issues.
The work that the judiciary does can be divided into the following:
Dispute Resolution: The judicial system provides a mechanism for resolving disputes between citizens, etc.
Judicial Review: As the final interpreter of the Constitution, the judiciary also has the power to strike down particular laws passed by the Parliament if it believes that these are a violation of the basic structure of the Constitution. This is called judicial review.
Upholding the Law and Enforcing Fundamental Rights: Every citizen of India can approach the Supreme Court or the High Court if they believe that their Fundamental Rights have been violated.

→ What is an Independent Judiciary?

Rich and powerful people in India sometimes try to influence the judicial
process, the Indian Constitution protects against this kind of situation by providing for the independence of the judiciary.
One aspect of this independence is the ‘separation of powers’.
The other branches of government, the legislature and the executive cannot interfere in the work of the judiciaiy. The courts are not under the government and do not act on their behalf.
It is the independence of the judiciary that allows the courts to play a central role in ensuring that there is no misuse of power by the legislature and the executive.
It also plays a crucial role in protecting the Fundamental Rights of citizens because anyone can approach the courts if they believe that their rights have been violated.

→ What is the structure of Court in India?

There are three different levels of courts in our country.
The courts that most people interact with are called subordinate or district courts. These are usually at the district or Tehsil level or in towns and they hear many kinds of cases.
Each state is divided into districts that are presided over by a District Judge.
Each state has a High Court which is the highest court of that state.
At the top is the Supreme Court which is located in New Delhi and is presided over by the Chief Justice of India.
In India, we have an integrated judicial system, meaning that the decisions made by higher courts are binding on the lower courts.
A person can appeal to a higher court if they believe that the judgment passed by the lower court is not just.

→ What are the Different Branches of the Legal System?
In addition to criminal law, the legal system also deals with civil law cases.

→ Does Everyone Have Access to the Courts?

In principle, all citizens of India can access the courts in this country. This implies that every citizen has a right to justice through the courts.
While the courts are available for all, in reality access to courts has always been difficult for a vast majority of the poor in India.
Legal procedures involve a lot of money and paper work as well as take up a lot of time.
The Supreme Court in the early 1980s devised a mechanism of Public Interest Litigation or PIL to increase access to justice.
The legal process was greatly simplified and even a letter or telegram addressed to the Supreme Court or the High Court could be treated as a PIL.
For the common person, access to courts is access to justice.
The courts exercise a crucial role in interpreting the Fundamental Rights of citizens and the courts interpreted Article 21 of the Constitution on the Right to Life to include the Right to Food.
There are also court judgments that people believe work against the best interests of the common person.
Another issue that affects the common person’s access to justice is the inordinately long number of years that courts take to hear a case.
The members of the Constituent Assembly had quite correctly envisioned a system of courts with an independent judiciary as a key feature of our democracy.

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes

JAC Class 8 Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 6 Understanding Our Criminal Justice System

November 15, 2024November 14, 2024 by Bhagya

JAC Board Class 8th Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 6 Understanding Our Criminal Justice System

→ After a person is arrested, it is a court of law that decides whether the accused person is guilty or not.

According to the Constitution, every individual charged of a crime has to be given a fair trial.
According to Article 22 of the Constitution, ‘ every person has a Fundamental Right to be
defended by a lawyer.
Article 39A of the Constitution places a duty upon the State to provide a lawyer to any citizen who is unable to engage one due to poverty or other disability.

→ What is the Role of the Police in Investigating a Crime?

One important function of the police is to investigate any complaint about the commission of a crime.
An investigation includes recording statements of witnesses and collecting different kinds of evidence.
Police investigations always have to be conducted in accordance with law and with full respect for human rights.

→ Article 22 of the Constitution and criminal law guarantee to every arrested person the following Fundamental Rights:

The Right to be informed at the time of arrest of the offence for which the person is being arrested.
The Right to be presented before a magistrate within 24 hours of arrest.
The Right not to be ill-treated or tortured during arrest or in custody.
Confessions made in police custody cannot be used as evidence against the accused.
A boy under 15 years of age and women cannot be called to the police station only for questioning.

→ What is the Role of the Public Prosecutor?

A criminal offence is regarded as a public wrong.
What is meant by this is that it is considered to have been committed not only against the affected victims but against society as a whole.
In court, it is the Public Prosecutor who represents the interests of the State.
As an officer of the court, it is his/ her duty to act impartially and present the full and material facts, witnesses and evidence before the court to enable the court to decide the case.

→ What is the Role of the Judge?

The judge decides whether the accused person is guilty or innocent on the basis of the evidence presented and in accordance with the law.
If the accused is convicted, then the judge pronounces the sentence.

→ What is a Fair Trial?

A fair trial ensures that Article 21 of the Constitution is upheld.
For a trial to be fair, several different procedures have to be observed. Article 21 of the Constitution that guarantees the Right to Life states that a person’s life or liberty can be taken away only by following a reasonable and just legal procedure.
It is significant that the judge decided the matter only on the basis of the evidence before the court.
All need to work to ensure that every citizen, irrespective of their class, caste, gender, religious and ideological backgrounds get a fair trial when accused.
The rule of law which says that everyone is equal before the law would not make much sense if every citizen were not guaranteed a fair trial by the Constitution.