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Introduction

• The British in India wanted not only territorial conquest and control over revenues but also felt that they had a cultural mission and had to “civilise the natives”, change their customs and values.

How the British saw Education

The tradition of Orientalism

• In 1783, William Jones arrived in Calcutta who was a linguist.
→ He had studied Greek and Latin at Oxford, knew French and English, Arabic and Persian.
→ At Calcutta, he started learning Sanskrit language, grammar and poetry.
→ Soon he was studying ancient Indian texts on law, philosophy, religion, politics, morality, arithmetic, medicine and the other sciences.

• Englishmen like Henry Thomas Colebrooke and Nathaniel Halhed were also busy discovering the ancient Indian heritage, mastering Indian languages and translating Sanskrit and Persian works into English.

• Together with them, Jones set up the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and started a journal called Asiatick Researches.

• Jones and Colebrooke went about discovering ancient texts, understanding their meaning, translating them, and making their findings known to others.
→ They believed this project would help the British learn from Indian culture and also help Indians
rediscover their own heritage, and understand the lost glories of their past.
→ In this process, the British would become the guardians of Indian culture as well as its masters.

• Influenced by such ideas, many Company officials argued that the British ought to promote Indian rather than Western learning.

• They felt that institutions should be set up to encourage the study of ancient Indian texts and teach Sanskrit and Persian literature and poetry.

• In 1781, a madrasa was set up in Calcutta to promote the study of Arabic, Persian and Islamic law

• In 1791, the Hindu College was established in Benaras to encourage the study of ancient Sanskrit texts that would be useful for the administration of the country.

• Not all officials shared these views and many crticised the Orientalists.

“Grave errors of the East”

• From the early nineteenth century many British officials began to criticise the Orientalist vision of learning.

• According to them, knowledge of the East was full of errors and unscientific thought.

• James Mill was one of those who attacked the Orientalists and declared that the aim of education ought to be to teach what was useful and practical.
→ So, Indians should be made familiar with the scientific and technical advances that the West had made, rather than with the poetry and sacred literature of the Orient.

• By the 1830s the attack on the Orientalists became sharper.
→ Thomas Babington Macaulay saw India as an uncivilised country that needed to be civilised.
→ According to him, no branch of Eastern knowledge could be compared to what England had produced.

• Macaulay gave importance to the need to teach the English language.
• He felt that knowledge of English would allow Indians to read some of the finest literature the world had produced.
→ It would make them aware of the developments in Western science and philosophy.
→ Thus, it is a way of civilising people, changing their tastes, values and culture.

• The English Education Act of 1835 was introduced.
→ The decision was to make English the medium of instruction for higher education and to stop the promotion of Oriental institutions like the Calcutta Madrasa and Benaras Sanskrit College.

Education for commerce

• In 1854, the Court of Directors of the East India Company in London sent an educational despatch to the Governor-General in India come to be known as Wood’s Despatch which emphasised once again the practical benefits of a system of European learning, as opposed to Oriental knowledge.

• It said, European learning would enable Indians to recognise the advantages that flow from the expansion of trade and commerce, and make them see the importance of developing the resources of the country.

• Wood’s Despatch also argued that European learning would improve the moral character of Indians and would make them truthful and honest.

• Following the 1854 Despatch, education departments of the government were set up to extend control over all matters regarding education.

What Happened to the Local Schools?

The report of William Adam

• In the 1830s, William Adam, a Scottish missionary, toured the districts of Bengal and Bihar and asked by the Company to report on the progress of education in vernacular schools.

• Adam found that there were over 1 lakh pathshalas in Bengal and Bihar imparting education to over 20 lakh children.
→ These institutions were set up by wealthy people, or the local community.

• The system of education was flexible.
→ There were no fixed fee
→ There were no printed books
→ There were no separate school building
→ There were no benches or chairs
→ There were no blackboards
→ There were no system of separate classes
→ There were no roll-call registers
→ There were no annual examinations
→ There were no regular time-table.

• Adam discovered that this flexible system was suited to local needs.
→ For example, classes were not held during harvest time when rural children often worked in the
fields.

New routines, new rules

• Up to the mid-nineteenth century, the Company was concerned primarily with higher education.

• After 1854 the Company decided to improve the system of vernacular education.

• Each guru was asked to submit periodic reports and take classes according to a regular timetable.

• Teaching was now to be based on textbooks and learning was to be tested through a system of annual examination.

• Students were asked to pay a regular fee, attend regular classes, sit on fixed seats, and obey the new rules of discipline.

• Pathshalas which accepted the new rules were supported through government grants.

• The new rules and routines affected the children from poor peasant families negatively as new system demanded regular attendance, even during harvest time.

• Inability to attend school came to be seen as indiscipline, as evidence of the lack of desire to learn.

The Agenda for a National Education

• From the early nineteenth century, many thinkers from different parts of India began to talk of the need for a wider spread of education.

• Some Indians felt that Western education would help modernise India
→ They urged the British to open more schools, colleges and universities, and spend more money on education.

• There were other Indians who reacted against Western education. Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore were two such individuals.

“English education has enslaved us” (Mahatma Gandhi’s view on Indian Education)

• According to Mahatma Gandhi, the colonial education created a sense of inferiority in the minds of Indians.

• It made them see Western civilisation as superior, and destroyed the pride they had in their own culture.

• Mahatma Gandhi wanted an education that could help Indians recover their sense of dignity and self-respect.

• As per Mahatma Gandhi, western education focused on reading and writing rather than oral knowledge; it valued textbooks rather than lived experience and practical knowledge.

• He argued that education ought to develop a person’s mind and soul.

• Literacy – or simply learning to read and write – by itself did not count as education.

Tagore’s “abode of peace” (Rabindranath Tagore’s view on Indian Education)

• Rabindranath Tagore started the Santiniketan in 1901.

• Tagore felt that childhood ought to be a time of self-learning, outside the rigid and restricting discipline of the schooling system set up by the British.

• Teachers had to be imaginative, understand the child, and help the child develop her curiosity.

• According to Tagore, the existing schools killed the natural desire of the child to be creative, her sense of wonder.

• Tagore was of the view that creative learning could be encouraged only within a natural environment.
→ So he set up santiniketan, 100 kilometres away from Calcutta in a natural setting, where living in harmony with nature, children could cultivate their natural creativity.

Difference in Gandhi and Tagore view about Indian Education

• Gandhiji was highly critical of Western civilisation and its worship of machines and technology. Tagore wanted to combine elements of modern Western civilisation with what
he saw as the best within Indian tradition.

• Gandhiji considered work with their hands, learn a craft, and know how different things operated as education while Tagore emphasised the need to teach science and technology at Santiniketan, along with art, music and dance.

Introduction

• The chapter tells the story of the crafts and industries of India during British rule by focusing on two industries:

→ Textiles 

→ Iron and steel.

Indian Textiles and the World Market

• Around 1750, India was by far the world’s largest producer of cotton textiles.

• Indian textiles had long been renowned both for their fine quality and exquisite craftsmanship.

• They were extensively traded in Southeast Asia and West and Central Asia.

• From the sixteenth century, European trading companies began buying Indian textiles for sale in Europe.

Words tell us histories

• European traders first encountered fine cotton cloth from India carried by Arab merchants in Mosul in present-day Iraq.
→ They began referring all finely woven textiles as “muslin” – a word that acquired wide currency.

• The cotton textiles which Portuguese took back to Europe, along with the spices, came to be called “calico” which became the general name for all cotton textiles.

• In 1730, English East India Company sent to its representatives in Calcutta to order a variety of cloth pieces in bulk.
→ Amongst the pieces ordered in bulk 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.
→ The word bandanna term is derived from the word “bandhna” refers to any brightly coloured and printed scarf for the neck or head.

• The printed cotton cloths called chintz, cossaes (or khassa) and bandanna.

• 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

• By the early eighteenth century, worried by the popularity of Indian textiles, wool and silk makers in England began protesting against the import of Indian cotton textiles.

• In 1720, the Calico Act was introduced in England which banned the use of printed cotton textiles – chintz.

• Competition with Indian textiles 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, steam engine was invented by Richard Arkwright which revolutionised cotton textile weaving.

• European trading companies – the Dutch, the French and the English – made large profits through textile trade with India.

• These companies purchased cotton and silk textiles in India by importing silver.

• When the English East India Company gained political power in Bengal, they used revenues from peasants and zamindars in India to buy Indian textiles.

Who were the weavers?

• Weavers often belonged to communities that specialised in weaving.

• Their skills were passed on from one generation to the next.

• Some communities famous for weaving:
→ tanti weavers of Bengal, the julahas or momin weavers of north India.
→ sale and kaikollar and devangs of south India.

• The first stage of production was spinning done mostly by women in which charkha and the takli were used.

• After weaving, spinning was done mostly by men.

• For coloured textiles, the thread was dyed by the dyer, known as rangrez.

• For printed cloth the weavers needed the help of specialist block printers known as chhipigars.

The decline of Indian textiles

• The development of cotton industries in Britain affected textile producers in India in several ways: → Indian textiles now 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.

• By the beginning of the nineteenth century, English-made cotton textiles successfully displaced Indian goods from their traditional markets in Africa, America and Europe.

• By the 1830s, British cotton cloth flooded Indian markets.

• Some types of cloths could not be supplied by machines thus handloom weaving did not completely die in India.

• Later, during the national movement, Mahatma Gandhi urged people to boycott imported textiles and use hand-spun and hand-woven cloth.
→ Khadi gradually became a symbol of nationalism.

• Many weavers became agricultural labourers.
→ Some migrated to cities in search of work, and others went out of the country to work in plantations in Africa and South America.
→ Some handloom weavers also found work in the new cotton mills that were established in Bombay, Ahmedabad, Sholapur, Nagpur and Kanpur.

Cotton mills come up

• The first cotton mill in India was set up as a spinning mill in Bombay in 1854.

• 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.

• Growth of cotton mills led to a demand for labour.
→ Thousands of poor peasants, artisans and agricultural labourers moved to the cities to work in the mills.

• The textile factory industry in India faced many problems.
→ It found it difficult to compete with the cheap textiles imported from Britain.

• The colonial government in India usually refused to protect the local industries.

• During the First World War, textile imports from Britain declined and Indian factories were called upon to produce cloth for military supplies which increased the development of cotton factory production in India.

The sword of Tipu Sultan and Wootz steel

• Tipu Sultan who ruled Mysore till 1799 had sword made up of a special type of high carbon steel called Wootz which was produced all over south India.

• Wootz steel when made into swords produced a very sharp edge with a flowing water pattern.

• Wootz steel was produced in many hundreds of smelting furnaces in Mysore.

• 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).

• The Wootz steel making process, which was so widely known in south India, was completely lost by the mid-nineteenth century.

• The swords and armour making industry died with the conquest of India by the British and imports
of iron and steel from England displaced the iron and steel produced by craftspeople in India.

Abandoned furnaces in villages

• Iron smelting in India was extremely common till the end of the nineteenth century.

• The furnaces were most often built of clay and sun-dried bricks. The smelting was done by men while women

• By the late nineteenth century, however, the craft of iron smelting was in decline.

This was because:

• New forest laws enacted by the colonial government prevented people from entering the reserved forests, which reduced the supply of charcoal.

• By the late nineteenth century iron and steel was being imported from Britain.
→ Ironsmiths in India began using the imported iron to manufacture utensils and implements.

• By the early twentieth century, the artisans producing iron and steel faced a new competition as new iron and steel factories come up in India.

Iron and steel factories come up in India

• In the year 1904, Charles Weld and Dorabji Tata explored the hill pointed out by the Agarias people and found one of the finest iron ores in the world.
→ Rajhara Hills had one of the finest ores in the world.

• A few years later a large area of forest was cleared on the banks of the river Subarnarekha to set up the factory and an industrial township – Jamshedpur.

• The Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO) that came up began producing steel in 1912.

• In 1914, when the First World War broke out imports of British steel into India declined dramatically and the Indian Railways turned to TISCO for supply of rails.

• 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.

What Happened to Cities Under Colonial Rule?

• The changes in the Indian cities differ under colonial rule as per their nature.

• Unlike Western Europe, Indian cities did not expand as rapidly in the nineteenth century.

• In the late eighteenth century, Calcutta, Bombay and Madras rose in importance as Presidency cities.

→ They became the centres of British power in the different regions of India.

• At the same time, smaller cities declined.

→ Old trading centres and ports could not survive when the flow of trade moved to new centres.

→ Cities such as Machlipatnam, Surat and Seringapatam were de-urbanised during the nineteenth century.

• By the early twentieth century, only 11 per cent of Indians were living in cities.

How many ‘Delhis’ before New Delhi?

• Delhi as a capital had varied area under different rulers.

• As many as 14 capital cities were founded in a small area of about 60 square miles on the left bank of the river Jamuna.

• The building of capital of Shah Jahan known as Shahjahanabad was begun in 1639 and consisted

of a fort-palace complex and the city adjoining it. 

→ Lal Qila or the Red Fort, made of red sandstone, contained the palace complex. 

→ To its west lay the Walled City with 14 gates. 

→ The main streets of Chandni Chowk and Faiz Bazaar were broad enough for royal processions to pass.

→ A canal ran down the centre of Chandni Chowk.

→ It had several dargahs, khanqahs and idgahs and open squares, winding lanes, quiet cul-de-sacs and water channels.

The Making of New Delhi

• After defeating the Marathas in 1803, the British gained control of Delhi.

• The city developed only when Delhi became the capital of British India in 1911.

Demolishing a past

• In Delhi, especially in the first half of the nineteenth century, the British lived along with the wealthier Indians in the Walled City.

• The establishment of the Delhi College in 1792 helped in the intellectual development of sciences as well as the humanities largely in the Urdu language.

→ Many refer to the period from 1830 to 1857 as a period of the Delhi renaissance (rebirth of art and

learning).

• During the Revolt of 1857, Delhi remained under rebel control for four months.

→ After 1857, everything in Delhi changed.

• The British wanted Delhi to forget its Mughal past therefore area around the Fort was completely cleared of gardens, pavilions and mosques.

• In the 1870s, the western walls of Shahjahanabad were broken to establish the railway and to allow the city to expand beyond the walls.

→ The British shifted to the sprawling Civil Lines area away from the Indians in the Walled City.

• The Delhi College was turned into a school, and shut down in 1877.

Planning a new capital

• In 1877, Viceroy Lytton organised a Durbar to acknowledge Queen Victoria as the Empress of India.

• To reduce the importance of Mughals in the minds of people, the British decided to celebrate British power with pomp and show in the city of Delhi.

• In 1911, when King George V was crowned in England, a Durbar was held in Delhi to celebrate the occasion.

→ The decision to shift the capital of India from Calcutta to Delhi was announced at this Durbar.

• Two architects, Edward Lutyens and Herbert Baker, were called on to design New Delhi and its buildings.

• New Delhi took nearly 20 years to build. 

• The idea was to build a city that was a stark contrast to Shahjahanabad where to be no crowded mohallas, no mazes of narrow bylanes. 

→ The new city also had to be a clean and healthy space.

Life in the time of Partition

• The Partition of India in 1947 led to a massive transfer of populations on both sides of the new border.

• A large number of Muslims left Delhi for Pakistan, their place was taken by equally large numbers of Sikh and Hindu refugees from Pakistan.

• Many of the Muslims who went to Pakistan were artisans, petty traders and labourers.

→ The new migrants coming to Delhi were rural landlords, lawyers, teachers, traders and small shopkeepers.

→ They had to take up new jobs as hawkers, vendors, carpenters and ironsmiths.

• The large migration from Punjab changed the social background of Delhi.

Inside the Old City

• At the end of the nineteenth century, the Shahjahani drains were closed and a new system of

open surface drains was introduced.

The decline of havelis

• The Mughal aristocracy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries lived in grand mansions called

havelis.

• A haveli housed many families which had open courtyard, surrounded by public rooms meant for

visitors and business, used exclusively by males.

• Many of the Mughal amirs were unable to maintain these large establishments under conditions of British rule. 

→ Havelis, therefore, began to be subdivided and sold.

• The street front of the havelis became shops or warehouses.

• The colonial bungalow was quite different from the haveli which meant for one nuclear family

→ It was a large single-storeyed structure with a pitched roof, and usually set in one or two acres of open ground. 

→ It had separate living and dining rooms and bedrooms, and a wide veranda.

→ Kitchens, stables and servants’ quarters were in a separate space from the main house.

The Municipality begins to plan

• The walled city was horribly crowded with as many as 90 persons per acre, while New Delhi had only about 3 persons per acre.

• In 1888 an extension scheme called the Lahore Gate Improvement Scheme was planned by Robert Clarke for the Walled City residents. 

→ The idea was to draw residents away from the Old City to a new type of market square, around which shops would be built.

• The Delhi Improvement Trust was set up 1936, and it built areas like Daryaganj South for wealthy Indians.

Policies and the People

Nawabs lose their power

• Since the mid-eighteenth century, nawabs and rajas gradually lost their authority and honour.

• Residents had been stationed in many courts, the freedom of the rulers reduced, their armed forces disbanded, and their revenues and territories taken away by stages.

• Many ruling families tried to negotiate with the Company to protect their interests however the Company, confident of its superiority and military powers, turned down these pleas.

• In 1801, a subsidiary alliance was imposed on Awadh, and in 1856 it was taken over in the name of British rule was needed to ensure proper administration.

• In 1856, Governor-General Canning decided that Bahadur Shah Zafar would be the last Mughal king.

The peasants and the sepoys

• In the countryside, peasants and zamindars annoyed with the high taxes and the rigid methods of revenue
collection.

• Many peassants failed to pay back their loans to the moneylenders and gradually lost the lands they had tilled for generations.

• The Indian sepoys were unhappy about their pay, allowances and conditions of service.
→ Also, some new rules violated their religious sensibilities and beliefs such as crossing the sea results in losing their religion and caste.

• Sepoys also reacted to what was happening in the countryside.
→ So the anger of the peasants quickly spread among the sepoys.

Responses to reforms

• The British passed laws to stop the practice of sati and to encourage the remarriage of widows.

• English-language education was promoted.

• The Company allowed Christian missionaries to function freely and even own land and property.

• In 1850, a new law was passed to make conversion to Christianity easier and allowed an Indian who had converted to Christianity to inherit the property of his ancestors.

Through the Eyes of the People

A Mutiny Becomes a Popular Rebellion

• A massive rebellion that started in May 1857 and threatened the Company’s presence in India.
→ Sepoys mutinied in several places beginning from Meerut
→ A large number of people from different sections of society rose up in rebellion.

From Meerut to Delhi

• On 29 March 1857, a young soldier, Mangal Pandey, was hanged to death for attacking his officers in Barrackpore.

• Some days later, some sepoys of the regiment at Meerut refused to do the army drill using the new cartridges, which were suspected of being coated with the fat of cows and pigs.

• 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 attacked and killed British officers, captured guns and ammunition and set fire to the buildings and properties of the British and declared war on the foreigners.

• On the morning of 11 May, sepoys of Meerut reached Delhi and the regiments stationed in Delhi also rose up in rebellion.

• The soldiers forced their way into the Red Fort and proclaimed Bahadur Shah Zafar as their leader.

• The ageing emperor accepted the demand and wrote letters to all the chiefs and rulers of the country to come forward and organise a confederacy of Indian states to fight the British.

The rebellion spreads

• After a week, regiment after regiment mutinied and took off to join other troops at nodal points like Delhi, Kanpur and Lucknow.

• After them, the people of the towns and villages also rose up in rebellion and rallied around local leaders, zamindars and chiefs.

• Many famous leaders lead troops at different places:
→ Nana Saheb in Kanpur
→ Birjis Qadr in Lucknow
→ Rani Lakshmibai Jhansi
→ Kunwar Singh in Bihar
→ Bakht Khan in Bareilly

• The British were greatly outnumbered by the rebel forces and were defeated in a number of battles.

The Company Fights Back

• The company brought 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 was tried in court and sentenced to life imprisonment alongwith his wife Begum Zinat Mahal in Rangoon in October 1858.
→ Bahadur Shah Zafar died in the Rangoon jail in November 1862.

• Lucknow was taken in March 1858.

• Rani Lakshmibai was defeated and killed in June 1858.

• Tantia Tope was captured, tried and killed in April 1859.

• The British also tried their best to win back the loyalty of the people.
→ They announced rewards for loyal landholders would be allowed to continue to enjoy traditional rights over their lands.

• Hundreds of sepoys, rebels, nawabs and rajas were tried and hanged.

Aftermath

• By the end of 1859, the British had regained control of the country.

Important changes introduced by the British after 1858:

• 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.

• All ruling chiefs of the country were assured that their territory would never be annexed in future.
→ They were allowed to pass on their kingdoms to their heirs, including adopted sons.
→ The Indian rulers were to hold their kingdoms as subordinates of the British Crown.

• The proportion of Indian soldiers in the army would be reduced and the number of European soldiers would be increased.

• The land and property of Muslims was confiscated 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.

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 is another name of shifting cultivation.

• 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.

• They broadcast the seeds, that is, scattered the seeds on the field instead of ploughing the land
and sowing the seeds.

• After harvesting crop on one field, they moved to another.
→ Cultivated one was left fallow for several years.

• These cultivators were found in the hilly and forested tracts of north-east and central India.

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 Orissa.
→ 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.
→ They used many forest shrubs and herbs for medicinal purposes, and sold forest produce in the local markets.

• Tribal groups often needed to buy and sell in order to be able to get the goods that were not produced within the locality.

• This was done through traders and moneylenders.

• Traders came around with things for sale, and sold the goods at high prices.
→ Moneylenders gave loans to met their cash needs but the interest charged on the loans was usually very high.

• So for the tribals, market and commerce often meant debt and poverty.
→ Therefore came to see the moneylender and traders as evil outsiders and the cause of their misery.

Some herded animals

• Many tribal groups lived by herding and rearing animals.

• 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

• Before the nineteenth century, many from within the tribal groups had begun settling down, and cultivating their fields in one place year after year, instead of moving from place to place.

• They began to use the plough, and gradually got rights over the land they lived on.

• In the Mundas of Chottanagpur, the land belonged to the clan as a whole.

• All of them had rights on the land.
→ But some people within the clan acquired more power than others, some became chiefs and others followers.

• British officials saw settled tribal groups like the Gonds and Santhals as more civilised than hunter-gatherers or shifting cultivators.

How Did Colonial Rule Affect Tribal Lives?

What happened to tribal chiefs?

• Before the arrival of the British, in many areas the tribal chiefs enjoyed a certain amount of economic power and had the right to administer and control their territories.

• Under British rule, the functions and powers of the tribal chiefs changed largely.
→ They were allowed to keep their land titles and rent out lands, but they lost much of their administrative power and were forced to follow laws made by British officials in India.
→ They also had to discipline the tribal groups on behalf of the British.

What happened to the shifting cultivators?

• The British wanted tribal groups to settle down and become peasant cultivators.

• The British also wanted a regular revenue source for the state.

• The British introduced land settlements – that is, they measured the land, defined the rights of each individual to that land, and fixed the revenue demand for the state.

• Some peasants were declared landowners, others tenants.

• The British effort to settle jhum cultivators was not very successful.

• Settled plough cultivation is not easy in areas where water is scarce and the soil is dry.

• Facing widespread protests, the British had to ultimately allow them the right to carry on shifting cultivation in some parts of the forest.

Forest laws and their impact

• Forest laws classified some forests as Reserved Forests for they produced timber which the British wanted.
→ In these forests people were not allowed to move freely, practise  jhum cultivation, collect fruits,
or hunt animals.

• Many shifting cultivators, therefore, forced to move to other areas in search of work and livelihood.
→ This poses problem of laborers for the Britishers to cut trees for railway sleepers and to transport logs.

• Thus, the Britishers 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 rose in open rebellion.
→ Such was the revolt of Songram Sangma in 1906 in Assam, and the forest satyagraha of the 1930s in the Central Provinces.

The problem with trade

• During the nineteenth century, traders and money-lenders started coming to more often in forests wanting to buy forest produce, offering cash loans, and asking tribal groups to work for wages.

• Hazaribagh was an area where the Santhals reared cocoons.
→ The traders dealing in silk sent in their agents who gave loans to the tribal people and collected the cocoons.
→ These cocoons were then exported to Gaya, where they were sold at five times the price.
→ The middlemen who arranged deals between the exporters and silk growers made huge profits.
→ The silk growers earned very little.

The search for work

• The condition of tribals who had to go far away from their homes in search of work was even worse.

• From the late nineteenth century, tea plantations started coming up and mining became an important industry.
→ Tribals were recruited in large numbers to work the tea plantations of Assam and the coal mines of Jharkhand and were paid 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

• The Warli Revolt in Maharashtra in 1940

• The movement of Birsa.

Birsa Munda

• Birsa was born in the mid-1870s

• He was the son of a poor father, grew up around the forests of Bohonda, grazing sheep, playing the flute, and dancing in the local akhara.

• Birsa 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.

• In 1895, Birsa urged his followers to recover their glorious past when Mundas lived a good life, constructed embankments, tapped natural springs, planted trees and orchards, practised cultivation to earn their living.

• The political aim of the Birsa movement was to drive out missionaries, moneylenders, Hindu landlords, and the government and set up a Munda Raj with Birsa at its head.

• As the movement spread the British officials decided to act.
→ They 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.

• His followers attacked police stations and churches, and raided the property of moneylenders and
zamindars.

• They raised the white flag as a symbol of Birsa Raj.

• In 1900 Birsa died of cholera and the movement faded out.

• The significance of Birsa movement:
→ It forced the colonial government to introduce laws so that the land of the tribals could not be easily taken over by dikus (outsider like moneylenders, traders).
→ It showed once again that the tribal people had the capacity to protest against injustice and express their anger against colonial rule.

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.

Revenue for the Company

• The company made effort was to increase the revenue as much as it could and buy fine cotton and silk cloth as cheaply as possible.

• Within five years the value of goods bought by the Company in Bengal doubled.
→ Now the revenue collected in Bengal could finance the purchase of goods for export.

• Bengal economy was facing a deep crisis because artisans were deserting villages since they were being forced to sell their goods to the Company at low prices.
→ Agricultural cultivation showed signs of collapse.

• In 1770 a terrible famine killed ten million people in Bengal.

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 finally 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 which was fixed permanently.

• This would ensure a regular flow of revenue to the Company’and at the same time encourage
the zamindars to invest in improving the land.

The problem

• The zamindars were not investing in improving the quality of land.

• The revenue fixed was too high for the zamindars.

• As long as the zamindars could earn by giving out their land to tenants, they were not interested in
improving the land.

• On the other hand, in the villages, the cultivator found the system extremely oppressive.

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 to meet the growing expenses.

Mahalwari settlement

• The collectors went from village to village to estimate the land revenue that each village (mahal) had to pay.

• 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

• 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.

• It was subsequently developed by Thomas Munro, which was gradually extended all over south India.

Ryotwari system and its problem

• The settlement had to be made directly with the cultivators ( ryots ) who had tilled the land for generations.

• British should act as paternal father figures protecting the ryots under their charge.

• To increase the income from land, revenue officials fixed too high a revenue demand.

• Peasants were unable to pay, ryots fled the countryside, and villages became deserted in many regions.

Crops for Europe

• The British persuaded or forced cultivators in various parts of India to produce other commercial 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.

• The British used a variety of methods for increasing cultivation of crops that they needed.

• One such crop was Indigo, which had a great worldwide demand.

Why the demand for Indian indigo?

• By the thirteenth century, Indian indigo was being used by cloth manufacturers in Italy, France and Britain to dye cloth.
→ But the price of indigo was very high.

• European cloth manufacturers, therefore, had to depend on another plant called woad to make violet and blue dyes which were pale and dull.
→ Therefore, cloth dyers, however, preferred indigo as a dye.

• 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.

• Between 1783 and 1789 the production of indigo in the world fell by half.

• Cloth dyers in Britain started looking for new sources of indigo supply.

Britain turns to India

• The Company in India looked for ways to expand the area under indigo cultivation.

• By 1810, 95 percent of the indigo imported into Britain was from India.

• Many Company officials left their jobs and numerous Scotsmen and Englishmen came to India and became planters attracted by the prospect of high profits.

How was indigo cultivated?

• There were two main systems of indigo cultivation –  nij and ryoti.

Nij cultivation and problems

• The planter produced indigo in lands that he directly controlled.

• The planters found it difficult to expand the area under nij cultivation.

• Indigo could be cultivated only on fertile lands which were all already densely populated.

• A large plantation required large number of labour at a time when peasants were
usually busy with their rice cultivation.

• It also required many ploughs and bullocks.

• Till the late nineteenth century, planters were therefore reluctant to expand the area under  nij cultivation.

Indigo on the land of ryots

• Under the ryoti system, the planters pressurised the village headmen to sign the contract on behalf of the ryots.
→ Those who signed the contract got cash advances from the planters at low rates of interest to produce indigo.
→ But the ryot to had to cultivate indigo on at least 25 percent of the area under his holding.

• 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 provided to the peasants for the indigo they produced was very low and the cycle of loans never ended.

• Indigo also exhaust the soil rapidly.
→ After an indigo harvest the land could not be sown with rice.

The “Blue Rebellion” and After

• In 1859, the indigo ryots felt that they had the support of the local zamindars and village headmen in their rebellion against the planters.

• As the rebellion spread, intellectuals rushed to the indigo districts and wrote of the misery of the ryots, the tyranny of the planters, and the horrors of the indigo system.

• The government set up the Indigo Commission to enquire into the system of indigo production.
→ The Commission held the planters guilty, and criticised them for the coercive methods they used with indigo cultivators.

• After the revolt, indigo production now shifted their operation to Bihar.

• Mahatma Gandhi’s visit in 1917 marked the beginning of the Champaran movement against the indigo planters.

End of Mughal Empire

• Aurangzeb was the last of the powerful Mughal rulers.

• In 1707, after his death, many Mughal governors (subadars) and big zamindars established regional kingdoms.

East India Company Comes East

• Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese explorer, who had discovered this sea route to India in 1498.

• The Portuguese were the first Europeans who came to India. 

• They established their presence in the western coast of India, and had their base in Goa.

• In 1600, the East India Company acquired a charter from the ruler of England.

• By early seventeenth century, the Dutch and the French also arrived on the scene.

• All the companies were interested in buying the same things such as cotton and silk, pepper, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon which created competition and ultimately reduced the profits that could be earned.

• To secure markets, therefore, 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 Hugli in 1651.

• As trade expanded, the Company persuaded merchants and traders to come and settle near the factory. 

• By 1696 it began building a fort around the settlement. 

• Two years later, the Company gained zamindari rights over three villages.

→ One of the villages was Kalikata

(later came to be known as Kolkata).

How trade led to battles

• After the death of Aurangzeb, the Bengal nawabs asserted their power and autonomy.

The Battle of Plassey

• In 1756, Sirajuddaulah became the nawab of Bengal after the death of Alivardi Khan.

• The Company was keen on a puppet ruler so it help one of Sirajuddaulah’s rivals become the nawab without success. 

• Angry Sirajuddaulah asked the Company to stop interfering in the political affairs of his dominion, stop fortification, and pay the revenues.

• 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. 

→ He then marched to Calcutta to establish his control over the Company’s fort.

• As the news of the fall of Calcutta reached, Company officials in Madras sent forces under the command of Robert Clive.

• In 1757, the Robert Clive-led Company’s army marched against Sirajuddaula at Plassey.

• The Nawab was defeated, as the forces led by Mir Jafar, one of Sirajuddaulah’s commanders, never fought the battle. 

• After the defeat at Plassey, Sirajuddaulah was assassinated and Mir Jafar made the nawab.

• Mir Jafar died in 1765 the mood of the Company had changed. 

• Finally, in 1765 the Mughal emperor appointed the Company as the Diwan of the provinces of Bengal.

• The outflow of gold from Britain entirely stopped after the assumption of Diwani as now revenues from India could finance Company expenses.

Company officials become “nabobs”

• 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.

• Many company officials like Clive made vast wealth however, not all Company officials succeeded in making money. 

• Those who managed to return Britain with wealth led flashy lives and flaunted their riches. They were called “nabobs” – an anglicised version of the Indian word nawab.

Company Rule Expands

• After the Battle of Buxar (1764), the Company appointed Residents in Indian states.

• Through the Residents, the Company officials began interfering in the internal affairs of Indian states. 

• Sometimes the Company forced the states into a “subsidiary alliance”. 

→ According to the terms of this alliance, Indian rulers were not allowed to have their independent armed forces.

→ They were to be protected by the Company though they had to pay huge amounts for this

protection. 

→ If Indian rulers failed to make these payments, a part of their territory was to be taken away by the Company.

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 established close relationship with the French in India, and modernised his army with their help.

• Four wars were fought with Mysore (1767-69, 1780-84, 1790-92 and 1799). 

→ In the last – the Battle of Seringapatam – did the Company ultimately win a victory. 

• Tipu Sultan was killed defending his capital Seringapatam, Mysore 

• The former ruling dynasty of the Wodeyars placed and a subsidiary alliance was imposed on the state.

War with the Marathas

• After the defeat in the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761, 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).

• Anglo-Marathas war were fought between these and the company.

→ The first war that ended in 1782 with the Treaty of Salbai, there was no clear victor. 

→ The Second Anglo- Maratha War (1803-05) resulting in the British gaining Orissa and the

territories north of the Yamuna river including Agra and Delhi. 

→ The Third Anglo-Maratha War of 1817-19 crushed Maratha power, the Peshwa was removed and Company now had complete control over the territories south of the Vindhyas.

The claim to paramountcy

• Under Lord Hastings (Governor- General from 1813 to 1823) a new policy of “paramountcy” was initiated which claimed its power was greater than that of Indian states. 

→ In order to protect its interests it was justified in annexing or threatening to annex any Indian kingdom.

• In the late 1830s the East India Company became worried about Russia as Russia might expand

across Asia and enter India from the north-west.

• They fought a prolonged war with Afghanistan between 1838 and 1842 and established indirect Company rule there. 

• Sind was taken over in 1843. 

• After the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1839, two prolonged wars were fought with the Sikh

kingdom and in 1849, Punjab was annexed.

The Doctrine of Lapse

• Lord Dalhousie, the Governor-General from 1848 to 1856 devised a policy that came to be known

as the Doctrine of Lapse.

→ It declared that if an Indian ruler died without a male heir his kingdom would “lapse”, that is, become part of Company territory. 

• Many kingdoms were annexed under this rule:

→ Satara in 1848

→ Sambalpur in 1850

→ Udaipur in 1852

→ Nagpur in 1853

→ Jhansi in 1854

→ Awadh in 1856

Setting up a New Administration

• Warren Hastings (Governor-General from 1773 to 1785) 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

→ Bombay. 

• Each was ruled by a  Governor and the supreme head of the administration was the Governor-General.

• From 1772 a new system of justice was established. 

• Each district was to have two courts 

→ a criminal court (faujdari adalat) 

→ a civil court (diwani adalat)

• In Civil courts, Maulvis and Hindu pandits interpreted Indian laws for the European district collectors.

• The criminal courts were still under a qazi and a mufti but under the supervision of the collectors.

• The collector 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

• 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.

• The soldiers were given European-style training and were subjected to drill and discipline.

Conclusion

• The East India Company was transformed from a trading company to a territorial colonial power.

• By 1857 the Company came to exercise direct rule over about 63 percent of the territory and 78 percent of the population of the Indian subcontinent.

How Important are Dates?

• Earlier, history was synonymous with dates.

• History is about finding out how things were in the past and how things have changed.

• Previously, history was an account of battles and big events such as:
→ The year a king was crowned.
→ The year he was married and had a child.
→ The year he fought a particular war or battle.
→ The year he died.
→ The year the next ruler succeeded to the throne.

• Now, historians look more towards why and how things happen and not on when things happened.

Which dates?

• The dates we select become vital because we focus on a particular set of events as important.

• If the focus of study changes, a new set of dates will appear significant.

How do we periodise?

• We divide history into different periods in an attempt to capture the characteristics of a time, its central features as they appear to us.

British classification of Indian History

• In 1817, James Mill, a Scottish economist and political philosopher, in his book ‘A History of British India’ divided Indian history into three periods:

→ Hindu
→ Muslim
→ British

• According to Mill, all Asian societies were at a lower level of civilisation than Europe.

Another Classification of Indian history

• Historians have usually divided Indian history into ‘ancient’, ‘medieval’ and ‘modern’.

• This division too has its problems.

→ Because this periodisation is borrowed from the West where the modern period was associated with the growth of all the forces of modernity – science, reason, democracy, liberty and equality.

→ Medieval was a term used to describe a society where these features of modern society did not exist.

• Many historians refers British rule period as ‘colonial’ because in this rule:

→ People did not have equality, freedom or liberty.
→ No economic growth and progress took place.

What is colonial?

• The British came to conquer the country and establish their rule, subjugating local nawabs and rajas.

• British established control over the economy and society, collected revenue to meet all their expenses, bought the goods they wanted at low prices, produced crops they needed for export

• British rule brought about in values and tastes, customs and practices.

• When the subjugation of one country by another leads to these kinds of political, economic, social and cultural changes, we refer to the process as colonisation.

How do We Know?

• Historians used various sources in writing about the modern history of India or last 250 years of Indian history.

Administration produces records

• The official records of the British administration are one of the important sources.

• Every instruction, plan, policy decision, agreement, investigation was written as British believed that the act of writing was important.

• British set up record rooms attached to all administrative institutions as they felt that all important documents and letters needed to be carefully preserved.

Surveys become important

• The British believed that a country had to be properly known before it could be effectively administered, therefore, practice of surveying became common under the colonial administration.

• By the early nineteenth century detailed surveys were being carried out to map the entire country.

• In the villages, revenue surveys were conducted to know the topography, the soil quality, the flora, the fauna, the local histories, and the cropping pattern.

• From the end of the nineteenth century, Census operations were held every ten years which provide
detailed records of the number of people in all the provinces of India, noting information on castes,
religions and occupation.

• Other surveys such as botanical surveys, zoological surveys, archaeological surveys, anthropological surveys, forest surveys also done.

What official records do not tell

• Official records do not tell what other people in the country felt, and what lay behind their actions.

• We need to look these things in unofficial records which are more difficult to get than official records.

• Sources of Unofficial records:
→ Diaries of people
→ Accounts of pilgrims and travellers
→ Autobiographies of important personalities
→ Popular booklets in the local bazaars
→ Newspapers
→ Written ideas of  Leaders and reformers
→ Written records of poets and novelists.

Limitation of Unofficial records

• They were produced by those who were literate.

• From these, we can’t understand how history was experienced and lived by the tribals and the peasants, the workers in the mines or the poor on the streets.

Introduction

→ The layer of air present around the earth is called atmosphere.

→ Atmosphere is composed of 78% of nitrogen, 21% of oxygen, and 1% percent other gases such as carbon dioxide, ozone, water vapour, methane, etc.

Air pollution

→ The phenomenon of contamination of air with unwanted substances so that it becomes harmful for living organisms and non-living substances is known as air pollution.

→ The substances, which cause air pollution, are called air pollutants.

Sources of air pollution

(i) Power plants
(ii) Factories
(iii) Automobiles
(iv) Burning of firewood

Types of air pollutants

(i) Carbon monoxide

→ It is a colourless poisonous gas.

→ It is produced from incomplete burning of fossil fuels.

(ii) Smog

→ It is made up of smoke and fog.

(iii) Sulphur dioxide

→ It is produced from combustion of fuels.

(iv) Nitrogen dioxide

→ It is produced from incomplete burning of fuels.

(v) Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)

→ They are released from refrigerators, air conditioners, and aerosol sprays.

→ They cause damage to the ozone layer resulting in the formation of ozone hole.

(vi) Suspended particulate matter

→ It comprises of tiny particles, which remain suspended in air for a long time.

→ They are produced during burning of fossil fuels in power plants, mining, steel making, and other industrial processes.

→ They reduce visibility and cause haze.

→ They cause respiratory diseases on inhalation.

→ Soot released from Mathura refinery has caused yellowing of the marble of Taj Mahal.

Prevention of air pollution

→ Use of clear fuels such as CNG, LPG, and unleaded petrol in public and private transport.

→ Use of renewable sources of energy such as solar, wind, and hydel energy.

→ Planting more and more trees to prevent pollution.

→ Prevent burning of dry leaves and use them in composting.

→ Kyoto protocol is an agreement between various countries for reducing green house emission.

Acid rain

→ It is formed when sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide present in air react with water droplets to form nitric and sulphuric acid.

→ When it rains, it brings these acids along with it, which causes damage to plants, animals, and monuments.

→ Acid rain has caused corrosion of the marble of Taj Mahal

Water pollution

→ The addition of harmful substances to water, as a result of which its physical, chemical, and
biological properties get altered, is called water pollution.

→ Substances that pollute water are called water pollutants.

Sources of water pollution in Ganga river

→ Untreated discharges from textile, paper and sugar mills, and oil refineries.

→ Disposal of agricultural discharge from near-by fields, which are rich in pesticides and weedicides, into the river.

→ Flow of untreated domestic sewage into the river.

→ Cremation of dead bodies into the river.

→ Immersion of idols of gods and goddesses, flowers, garbage, and polythene bags into the river.

→ Ganga Action Plan aimed to reduce the pollution levels in the river.

Types of water pollutants

→ Domestic sewage

→ It is composed of food wastes, detergents, and disease-causing pathogens.

→ The bacteria present in faecal matter of mammals indicate the pollution levels in a river and if such water is consumed, it may cause various diseases.

Industrial waste

→ It is rich in toxic chemicals such as arsenic, fluorides, and lead.

→ It causes toxicity in plants and animals.

→ It affects the soil by causing changes in acidity and growth of worms.

Agricultural waste

→ It is rich in agricultural pesticides and weedicides.

→ It causes ground water pollution.

→ It causes an increase in the population of algae in water.

→ When these algae die, they are acted upon by decomposers, which use lots of oxygen dissolved in water for this purpose.

→ This results in the death of fishes and other aquatic organisms.

Release of Superheated Water

→ The release of superheated water from some industries and nuclear power plants causes thermal pollution of the water bodies.

→ The abrupt change in the temperature of water body can kill the fish and other organisms adapted to particular temperature range.

Methods of preventing water pollution

→ Industrial waste must be chemically treated to remove harmful substances before dumping into the water bodies.

→ Disposal of human and animal excreta into water should be avoided.

→ Sewage water must be treated before releasing into the rivers.

Conservation of water

→ Reusing the waste water from the kitchen (water that has been used to wash vegetables, etc.) to water the plants in the garden.

→ Turning the tap off while brushing or shaving.

→ Checking for leaky taps and fixing them up.

Rainwater harvesting

→ Using improved farming and irrigation techniques

→ Preventing pollution of water

→ Conserving and replenishing ground water

→ Proper removal of silt from water bodies

→ Preventing cutting of trees

→ Prevention of water pollution

→ Proper treatment of industrial waste and domestic waste before their disposal into rivers.

→ Strict implementation of environmental laws in industrial units.

→ Reusing water used in kitchens (such as to wash vegetables) for watering plants.

→ Getting the leaky taps checked and preventing wastage of water.

Potable water

→ Water that is fit for drinking is called potable water.

Methods of obtaining potable water

(i) Physical methods

→ Boiling of water
→ Use of domestic filters such as candle type filter

(ii) Chemical method

→ Use of chlorine tablets

Greenhouse effect

→ Trapping of heat by gases (CO₂ ) in the atmosphere.

→ Gases that cause the greenhouse effect are responsible for increasing the temperature of the Earth and thus contributing to the phenomenon called global warming.

Causes of Green house effect

→ A part of solar radiations cause warming of the earth’s surface.

→ A part of solar radiation is reflected back, which is trapped by the earth’s atmosphere.

→ This phenomenon is called green house effect.

Green house gases

→ These are the gases, which trap the solar radiations, and in this way, are responsible for the increase in the temperature of Earth.

→ The examples include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and water vapours.

Global warming

→ The CO₂ level in atmosphere is increasing due to various human activities such as deforestation and burning of fossil fuels.

→ Build up of CO₂ in the atmosphere will result in a rise in the average temperature of earth’s atmosphere, leading to global warming.

→ Global warming will lead to melting of glaciers and increase in the sea level.

Introduction

→ The moon is the brightest object in the night sky.

→ All natural objects like the stars, the planets, the moon and many other objects in the sky are celestial objects.

The Moon

→ The various shapes of the bright part of the moon as seen during a month are called phases of the moon.

• New Moon day → when moon is not visible
• Full Moon day → when full moon is visible

→ Gap between consecutive new moon day and full moon day is of 15 days.

→ Rotational period and revolution period of moon are the same (almost 29 days).

Moon’s surface

→ Because of lack of atmosphere, one cannot hear any sound on moon.

→ Moon is visible due to reflected sunlight

The Stars

→ All stars emit their own light. They appear small because of large distances from the earth.

→ The sun appears bigger because it is nearer than any other stars on the space.

→ In day time, stars are not visible because of bright sunlight.

→ Stars appear to move from east to west because of earth’s rotation from west to east.

→ Pole star does not appear to move because it is very nearly situated on earth’s rotational axis over the North pole.

Constellations

→ The stars forming a group that has a recognizable shape is called a constellation.

→ Ursa Major also known as the Big Dipper, the Great Bear or the Saptarshi is one of the most famous constellations during summer time.

→ Orion also called the Hunter is another well-known constellation that can be seen during winter in the late evenings.

Solar System

→ The Sun and the celestial bodies which revolve around it form the solar system.

→ Sun is the nearest star from the earth.

→ It consists of large number of bodies such as planets, comets, asteroids and meteors.

→ The gravitational attraction between the Sun and these objects keeps them revolving around it.

Planets

→ Stars twinkle in the night sky, but planets do not.

→ Planets revolve around the sun along definite paths, called orbits.

→ Time taken by a planet to complete one revolution of its orbit is called revolution period.

→ Time taken by a planet to rotate about its axis is called period of rotation.

→ Satellites revolve around planets.

Inner planets

• Mercury

→ Nearest planet to the sun

→ It is seen just before sunrise and just after sunset near horizon. It has no satellite.

• Venus

→ Nearest planet to the earth

→ Brightest planet in the night sky

→ Seen in the eastern sky before sunrise and in the western sky after sunset

→ Also known as morning or evening star

→ Has no satellite and rotates from east to west (sun rises in the west of Venus).

• Earth

→ From space, it appears blue because of 75% water content.

• Mars

→ It appears reddish and therefore, is known as red planet.

Outer planets

• Jupiter

→ Largest planet in the solar system

→ Rotates very fast about its axis and has large numbers of satellites

• Saturn

→ Has prominent ring system and large numbers of satellites

→ Its density is less than water and is the least among the planets

• Uranus and Neptune

→ Both have ring system.

→ Uranus has a tilted rotational axis and appears to roll on its side.

→ Uranus rotates from east to west similar to Venus.

Other members of Solar System

Asteroids

→ Small rocky objects found in large numbers between Mars and Jupiter

Comets

→ Highly elliptical objects

→ Have a bright head and long gaseous tail.

→ Tail is always directed away from the sun.

→ Halley’s comet appears after every 76 years.

Meteors & Meteorites

→ Objects that enter the earth’s atmosphere and burn because of friction with the atmosphere

→ Large meteors that reach earth’s surface are called meteorites.

Artificial satellite

→ Revolves around the earth

→ Used for weather forecasting, remote sensing, communication system, etc.