NCERT 9th Class (CBSE) Social Science: Peasants and Farmers

Question: Who was Captain Swing?

Answer: It was a mythic name used by the poor laborers to threaten the rich landlords who were replacing workers for machines.

Question: What was common land?

Answer: It was the land to which all villagers had an access.

Question: “For the poor, the common land was essential for survival”. Justify.

Answer: It supplemented their meagre income, sustained their cattle, and helped them tide over bad times when crops failed.

Question: “In some parts of England, the economy of open field and common lands had started changing from about 16th century”. Mention any two factors responsible for this change.

Answer:

1. Increase in the price of wool.
2. Increase in population.

Question: What was enclosure system?

Answer: Under the enclosure system, the common land which was the property of the whole village was being enclosed by rich landlords. The common land was enclosed by building hedges around the land to separate it from that of others.

Question: How did the industrialization encourage the enclosure system in England? Give two points.

Answer:

1. Industries needed more raw materials and were paying high price to the farmers for their produce. This encouraged the farmers to grow more, and to increase enclosures.
2. Men from rural areas migrated to towns in search of jobs. To survive, they had to buy food grains from the market. As the urban population grew, the market for the food grains expanded. This also encouraged the farmers for enclosures.

Question: How was American landscape of 18th century different from that of 20th century?

Answer: Most of the landscape was under the control of locals whereas in the 20th century the landscape was under the White Americans.

Question: What was the impact of White settler movement towards the west on the American Indians?

Answer:

1. They were driven away from their land.
2. They were massacred and many of their villages burnt.

Question: Name any two machines which were responsible for the dramatic wheat production in USA.

Answer: Reaper and walking plough.

Question: What was the importance of new machines for the big farmers?

Answer:

1. The new machines allowed these big farmers to rapidly clear large tracts, break up the soil, remove the grass and prepare the ground for cultivation.
2. The work could be done quickly and with a minimal number of hands.

Question: How was the introduction of machines responsible for the Great Depression of 1930’s?

Answer: Production had expanded so rapidly during the First World War and post-war years that that there was a large surplus. Unsold stocks piled up, storehouses overflowed with grain, and vast amounts of corn and wheat were turned into animal feed. Wheat prices fell and export markets collapsed. This created the grounds for the Great Agrarian Depression of the 1930s that ruined wheat farmers everywhere.

Question: What was the Dust Bowl tragedy?

Answer: It was a tragedy which occurred in the 1930s in USA. Due to over utilization of the Prairies black blizzards became a common phenomena.

Question: Name any two commercial crops which were grown by the Indian farmers in the early 19th century.

Answer: Indigo and opium.

Question: Name any two commercial crops which the English East Company was buying from China for sale in England.

Answer: Tea and silk.

Question: “The Confucian rulers of China were not willing to allow the entry of foreign goods in China”. Give reasons.

Answer:

1. The Confucian rulers of China were suspicious of all foreign merchants.
2. They feared that the merchants would meddle in the local politics, and disrupt their authority.

Question: What was the impact of opium trade on China?

Answer:

1. The traders started meddling in local politics.
2. The Chinese became an addict to opium. People of all classes started liking drugs.

Question: Which European country introduced opium into China? When was it introduced?

Answer: The Portuguese had introduced opium into China. It was introduced in the early 16th century.

Question: Why did the East India Company persuade the Indian farmers to grow opium?

Answer: So that the Company can export the opium to China.

Question: How were the unwilling cultivators’ made to produce opium?

Answer: The unwilling cultivators were made to produce opium through a system of advances.

Question: Name any two Indian states which were producing opium for the East India Company.

Answer: Bengal and Bihar produced opium for the East India Company.

Question: Mention the factors responsible for the Dust Bowl tragedy.

Answer:

1. Less rain than normal.
2. Over ploughing of the Prairies.

Question: Mention any two methods used by the Britishers to increase the land revenue.
Answer:

1. A regular system of land revenue was established.
2. Revenue rates were increased.