History: 2017: CBSE: [Delhi]: Set – I

Archaeologists generally use certain strategies to

find out whether there were social or economic

differences amongst people living within a particular

culture. These include studying burials.

In the Harappan sites, the dead were usually laid in pits. There were differences in the way burial pits were made. Sometimes, there weredifferences in the way the burial pit was made – insome instances; the hollowed-out spaces were linedwith bricks.

Some graves contain pottery and ornaments. Jewellery has been found in burialsof both men and women.

Bernier was against the idea of crown ownership of land in Mughal India because the absence of private property in land prevented the emergence of the class of “improving” landlords with a concern to maintain or improve the land. It had led to the uniform ruination of agriculture, excessive oppression of the peasantry and a continuous decline in the living standards of all sections of society, except the ruling aristocracy.

(i) Many Zamindaris were auctioned because the zamindars failed to pay the revenue demand on time. This was because the initial demands were very high.

(ii) Moreover this high demand was imposed at a time when prices of agricultural produce were depressed making it difficult for the peasants to pay their dues to the zamindar.

The rebel proclamations in 1857 repeatedly appealed to all sections of the population, irrespective of their caste and creed. Many of the proclamations were issued by Muslim princes or in their names but even these took care to address the sentiments of Hindus. The rebellion was seen as a war in which both Hindus and Muslims had equally to lose or gain. The ishtahars harked back to the pre-British Hindu-Muslim past and glorified the coexistence of different communities under the Mughal Empire. The proclamation that was issued under the name of Bahadur Shah appealed to the people to join the fight under the standards of both Muhammad and Mahavir. It was remarkable that during the uprising religious divisions between Hindus and Muslim were hardly noticeable despite British attempts to create such divisions.

The values that a loyal citizen of a democratic country should uphold are:

1. The citizen should be self-disciplined.

2. The citizen should not be selfish and think more about the welfare of his fellow citizens rather than of himself.

3. The citizen should be loyal towards his country.

4. The citizen should have an understanding of what is in the larger interest of the nation and the people, and he should try to work in that direction.

Several explanations havebeen put forwardto explain the collapse of the Harappan Civilization. These range fromclimatic change, deforestation,excessive floods, the shifting and/or drying up ofrivers, to overuse of the landscape. Some of these“causes” may hold for certain settlements, but theydo not explain the collapse of the entire civilisation.

Aryan Invasion Theory

The idea that the civilization was destroyed by the Aryan invaders was put forward by RamprasadChanda in 1926.It was later elaborated by Mortimer Wheeler in 1947.

This idea was supported by the references in the Rig veda to various kind of forts,attacks on walled cities,and the epithet  Purandara (destroyer of forts) given to the god Indra. He also identified a place called Hariyupiya in the Rig Veda with Harappa, where Aryan fought the battle.
It has been pointed out that in the late phases of occupation at Mohenjodaro there are evidences of a massacre. Human skeletons have been found lying on the streets.

Ecological Theory

Scholars like Fairservis tried to explain the decay of the Harappan civilization in terms of the problems of ecology.
According to him, the ecological balance of the semi-arid areas was being disturbed because the human and cattle population was fast depleting the scanty forests, food and fuel resources. The combined needs of the Harappan townsmen, peasants and pastoralists exceeded the limited production capacities of these areas. Thus, a growing population of men and animals confronted by scanty resources wore out the landscape.

With forests and grass cover gradually disappearing, there were more floods and droughts. This depletion of the subsistence base caused strain on the entire economy of the civilization. There seems to have been a gradual movement away to areas which offered better subsistence possibilities. That is why the Harappan communities moved towards Gujarat and the eastern areas, away from the Indus.

Historians have used a variety of sources to reconstruct the history of the Mauryan Empire. These include archaeological finds, especially sculpture. Also valuable are contemporary works, such as the account of Megasthenes , which survives in fragments. Another source that is often used is the Arthashastra, parts of which were probably composed by Kautilya or Chanakya. Besides, the Mauryas are mentioned in later Buddhist, Jaina and Puranic literature, as well as in Sanskrit literary works. While these are useful, the inscriptions of Asoka (c. 272/268-231 BCE) on rocks and pillars are often regarded as amongst the most valuable sources. Asoka was the first ruler who inscribed his messages to his subjects and officials on stone surfaces – natural rocks as well as polished pillars. He used the inscriptions to proclaim what he understood to be Dhamma.

Many poet-saints engaged in explicit and implicit dialogue with new socialsituations, ideas and institutions. Kabir was one of the most influential figures of that time. He is perhaps one of the most outstanding examples of a poet-saint whoemerged within this context.

Kabir’s mystical experiences are many to describe the Ultimate Reality. These include Islam: he described the Ultimate Reality as Allah,Khuda, Hazrat and Pir. He also used terms drawnfrom Vedantic traditions, alakh(the unseen), nirakar(formless), Brahman, Atman, etc. Other terms withmystical connotations such as shabda(sound) orshunya(emptiness) were drawn from yogic traditions.Diverse and sometimes conflicting ideas areexpressed in these poems. Some poems draw onIslamic ideas and use monotheism and iconoclasmto attack Hindu polytheism and idol worship; othersuse the Sufi concept of love to expressthe Hindu practice of Nam-simaran(remembranceof God’s name).

The nobility was recruited from diverse ethnic and religious groups. This ensured that no faction was large enough to challenge the authority of the state. The officer corps of the Mughals was described as a bouquet of flowers (guldasta) held together by loyalty to the emperor. In Akbar’s imperial service, Turani and Iranian nobles were present from the earliest phase of carving out a political dominion. The Mughal court was therefore very careful to recruit nobles from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds.

The refusal of moneylenders to extend loans enraged

theryots to a large extent. The ryotsgot deeper and deeper into debt and thatthey were utterly dependent on the moneylenders for survival. But moneylenders were beinginsensitive to their plight. The moneylenders wereviolating the customary norms of the countryside.

A variety of customary norms regulated therelationship between the moneylender and the ryot.

One general norm was that the interest charged

could not be more than the principal. This was meant

to limit the moneylender’s exactions and defined what

could be counted as “fair interest”. Under colonial

rule this norm broke down. In petition after petition,

ryotscomplained of the injustice of such exactions and

the violation of custom.

The ryotscame to see the moneylender as deviousand deceitful. They complained of moneylendersmanipulating laws and forging accounts. In 1859the British passed a Limitation Law that statedthat the loan bonds signed between moneylendersand ryotswould have validity for only three years.This law was meant to check the accumulation ofinterest over time.