CBSE Class 12 History HOTs Rebels And The Raj

Very Short Answer type Questions

Question. Which Governor-General introduced the Subsidiary Alliance? Name the four major powers accepting it.
Answer : Subsidiary alliance was introduced by Lord Wellesley. Hyderabad, Awadh, Mysore, Tanjore, Surat, etc were the four major powers who accepted it.

Question. Who was the last Nawab of Awadh? Where was he sent on Pension?
Answer : Wajid Ali Shah was last Nawab of Awadh. He was sent to Calcutta on pension.

Question. Which English lady defended herself bravely against the Indian rebels in Kanpur? 2
Answer : Miss Wheeler defended herself bravely against the Indian rebels in Kanpur.

Short Answer type Questions

Question. What were the policies and administrative causes of the Revolt of 1857?
Answer : (a) Imperialist policy of the British administrators.
(b) Doctrine of Lapse
(c) Abolition of pensions and Titles.
(d) Disrespect to the Mughal Emperor.
(e) Annexation of Awadh
(f) Misuse of Subsidiary alliance.

Question. Who were the Leaders and Participants in the Revolt of 1857?
Answer : I. To fight the British, leadership and organization were required ,for this they turned towards the Mughal ruler Bahadur Shah who agreed to be the normal leader of the rebellion .
II. In Kanpur, the sepoys and the people of the town agreed to support Nana Sahib .
III. In Jansi the rani was forced to assume the leadership of the uprising
IV. Kunwar Singh a local Zamindar in Arrah in Bihar.
V. The local leaders emerged, urging peasants, zamindars and tribals to revolt eg- Shah Mal mobilized the villagers of pargene, Baroutin uttar Pradesh, Gonooa tribal cultivator of Singhbhum in Chotanagpur.

Question. Discuess the nature of revolt of 1857.
Answer : (a) Only a Sepoy mutiny –
(i) The main ground for the uprising had been prepared by the soldiers.
(ii) Important and immediate causes of the revolt was the use of greased cartridges.
(iii) The revolt did not spread throughout the country.
(iv) The revolt did not enjoy the cooperation and support of the common people.
(b) First war of Independence - Lakhs of artisans, farmers and soldiers struggled united against the British rule.
(c) Hindu and Muslim took actively part in the movement.
(d) The masses took active part in the struggle against the British at almost all centres of uprisings.
(e) It had country wide presence.

Question. Why was Awadh one of the main centres of the Revolt of 1857?
Answer : A whole complex of emotions and issues, traditions and loyalties worked themselves out in the revolt of 1857.The annexation of Awadh not only displaced the Nawab but also dispossessed the taluqdars of the region.The British were unwilling to tolerate the power of the taluqdars and they were disarmed and their forts destroyed.The British revenue policy further undermined their position and authority After annexation, the first British revenue settlement, known as the Summary Settlement of 1856, that proceeded to remove the taluqdars wherever possible.Both the taluqdars and peasants were unhappy with the annexation.The peasant was severely affected with the over assessment of revenue and inflexible methods of collection. In Awadh the fighting was carried out by taluqdars and their peasants as many of these taluqdars were loyal to the Nawab of Awadh.They joined Begum Hazrat Mahal (the wife of the Nawab) in Lucknow to fight the British.The grievances of the peasants were carried over into the sepoy lines since a vast majority of the sepoys were recruited from the villages of Awadh.

Question. What were the causes of the failure of the 1857 Revolt?
Answer : (a) Breaking out before of the fixed date.
(b) Co-operation of the native states to the British.
(c) Lack of co-operation from the Elite.
(d) Limited resources of the Rebels.
(e)Absence of a common ideal.
(f) Diplomacy of the British.

Question. How discontent among the sepoys a major factor in the outbreak of the Revolt of 1857?
Answer : In the 1820s, white officers were friendly with the sepoys and maintained a good rapport.But after 1840s, this began to change. The officers developed a sense of superiority and started treating the sepoys as their racial inferiors Abuse and physical violence became common and thus the distance between sepoys and officers grew. Trust was replaced by suspicion.The episode of the greased cartridges was a classic example of this.At the same time there was a close link existed between the sepoys and the rural world . The large majority of the sepoys of the Bengal Army were recruited from the villages of Awadh and eastern Uttar Pradesh. Many of them were Brahmins or from the “upper” castes. Awadh was called the “nursery of the Bengal Army’’.In turn, the fears of the sepoys about the new cartridge, their grievances about leave, their grouse about the increasing misbehaviour and racial abuse on the part of their white officers were communicated back to the villages.When the sepoys defied their superior officers and took up arms they were joined very swiftly by their brethren in the villages

Question. Trace the steps by which Awadh was annexed.
Answer : In 1851 Governor General Lord Dalhousie described the kingdom of Awadh as “a cherry that will drop into our mouth one day”.Five years later in 1856, the kingdom was formally annexed to the British Empire.The conquest happened in several stages. The Subsidiary Alliance had been imposed on Awadh in 1801. By the terms of this alliance the Nawab had to disband his military force and allow the British to position their troops within the kingdom and act with the advice of the British
Resident Gradually the Nawab became dependent on the British to maintain law and order .In the meantime the British increasingly interested in acquiring the territory of Awadh.
They felt that the soil there was good for producing indigo and cotton, and the region was ideally located to be developed into a principal market of Upper India.In 1856 Awadh was annexed

Question. Why did the people believe in rumours?
Answer : I. The British adopted policies aimed at reforming Indian societyby introducing Western education ,western ideas and western institutions .
II. With the cooperation of sections of Indian society they set up English medium schools ,colleges and universities which taught Western sciences and the liberal arts .
III. The british established laws to abolished customs like sati (1629) and to permit the remarriage of Hindu widows .
IV. The British introduced their own system of administration, their own laws and their own methods of land settlements and land revenue collection.
III. The proclamations expressed the widespread fear that the British were bent on destroying the caste and religions of Hindus and Muslims and converting them to Christianity.
IV. People urged to come together and fight to save their livelihood ,their faith, their honour, their identity . On the other hand, nationalist imageries of the revolt helped shape the nationalist miagination.

Question. What were the repressive measures adopted by the British to put the rebellion under control?
Answer : Before sending out troops to reconquer North India, the British passed a series of laws
They were passed in May and June 1857. The whole of North India was put under martial law but military officers were given the power to try and punish Indians suspected of rebellion.Only death punishment was given for the rebellion.The british mounted two attacks to capture Delhi. One force moved from Calcutta into North India and the other from the Punjab – which was largely peaceful – to reconquer Delhi. The fighting and losses on both sides were heavy.
In the Ganegtic plain too the progress of British reconquest was slow. The forces had to reconquer the area village by village.Awadh was brought under control only in March 1858 after protracted fighting.In large parts of present-day Uttar Pradesh, where big landholders and peasants had offered united resistance, the British tried to break up the unity by promising to give back to the big landholders their estates.Rebel landholders were dispossessed and the loyal rewarded. Many landholders died in fighting the British or they escaped into Nepal where they died of illness or starvation

Long Answer type Questions

Question. How nationalist imageries emerged through the revolt?
Answer : The national movement in the twentieth century drew its inspiration from the events of 1857.
A whole world of nationalist imagination was woven around the revolt. It was celebrated as the First War of Independence in which all sections of the people of India came together to fight against imperial rule.Art and literature, as much as the writing of history, have helped in keeping alive the memory of 1857.The leaders of the revolt were presented as heroic figures .Heroic poems were written about the valour of the queen who, with a sword in one hand and the reins of her horse in the other, fought for the freedom of her motherland.Rani of Jhansi was represented as a masculine figure chasing the enemy, slaying British soldiers and valiantly fighting till her last. Through the paintings and cartoons we know about the public that looked at the paintings, appreciated or
criticised the images, and bought copies and reproductions to put up in their homes.They also shaped sensibilities.

Question. What were the social, economical religious and military causes of 1857 revolt?
Answer : Economic Causes :- (a) Drain of wealth
(b) Destruction of Indian industries, trade & commerce.
(c) Exorbitant rate of land revenue.
(d) Resumption of Inami or rent-free lands.
(e) Unemployment and poverty among the masses. Social Causes :-
(a) Maltreatment of the IndiAnswer :
(b) Interference in the social life of IndiAnswer :
(c) Spread of Western Education.
(d) propagation of Christianity.
Military Causes :-
(a) Unrest among the Indian soldiers.
(b) Increase ratio of Indian soldiers.
(c) faulty distribution of troops.
(d) General Service Enlistment Act.
(e) Greased cartridges.

Question. How was the lives of forest dwellers transformed in the 16th-17th centuries.
Answer : 1.The business encouraged forest clearance zamindars and jotedars turned uninitiated lands in to rice fields to the British, extension of settled agriculture why necessary to enlarge the sources of land revenue. produce crops for export and establish the basis of a settled, ordered society.
2. The British saw forest people as savage impurely and primitive and difficult to govern, so they felt that the forest had to be leaped settled agriculture established and forest people dammed civilized and persuaded to give up hunting and take to plough agriculture.
3.in the 1770s the British embarked on a brutal policy to extermination, hunting the Paharias down and killing them then by 1780s,augustas Cleveland the collector of Bhagalpur purposed a policy of polification. The Paharias chief were given an annual allowance and made responsible for the proper conduct of their man
4.Some Paharia chief refused the complains continued, the Paharias withdraw deep intothe mountains insulting themselves from Lositle forces and carrying on a war with the outbiddersso when Buchanan travelled through the region in the winter of 1880/1881,the Paharia naturally viewed him with suspicion and distrust.
5.The Santhals themselves were powering into area, cleaning forest, cutting down timber, ploughing land and growing rice and cotton,this leades why Sindhus Manjhi.

Source based Questions :-

Read the following passage and answer the following questions given below:
We get significant information from Azamgarh proclmattion.
25 Aug,1857 as to what the rebels wanted.
Section III. Regarding Public servants
It is not a secret things, that under the British Government, native employed in the civil and military service have little respect, low pay and no manner of influence; and all he post of dignity and emolument in both the departments are exclusively bestowed on Englishmen …. Therefore, all the native in the British service ought to be alive to their religion and interest, and adjuring their loyalty to the English side with the Badshahi Government and obtain salaries of 200 and 300 rupees for the present, and be entitled to high post in the future……
Section IV - Regarding ArtisAnswer : It is entitled that the Europeans, by the introduction of English articles into India, have thrown the weavers, the cotton dressers, the carpenters, the blacksmiths, and the shoemakers, etc., out of employ, and have engrossed their occupations, so 60 that every description of native artisan has been reduced to beggary. But under the Badshahi Government the native artisans will exclusively be employed in the service of the kings, the rajas, and the rich; and this will no doubt ensure their prosperity therefore, these artisans ought to renounce the English Service.

Question. How did the introduction of English affect the artisans?
Answer : The Artisans were deprived of their employment. The cheap machine-made goods of Britain captured the Indian markets. Consequently, the every description of native artisan was reduced to beggary.

Question. How would the condition of the artisan improve under the Badshahi Government?
Answer : Under the Badshahi Government, the native artisans will exclusively be employed in the service of the kings, the rajas and the rich.

Question. Why were the public servants dissatisfied with the British Government? .
Answer : Under the British government, natives employed in the civil and military service had no respect. Their salaries were low and they had no power or influence.

Question. What did the rebel proclamation repeatedly appeal for?
Answer : The rebel proclamation repeatedly appealed that the Indians should take care of their religion and interests and they should take care of their religion and interests and they should side with the Badshah