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    Class 7 History Chapter 1 Tracing Changes Through A Thousand Years

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    Annie Arora
    The document discusses questions and answers from a history textbook on medieval India. It covers topics like who was considered a foreigner, religious developments during this period, the arrival of Islam, and challenges historians face in interpreting original source materials from this era due to the lack of printing press and differences in copied manuscripts over time. The key takeaways are: 1) In medieval India, a foreigner referred to someone not from a given village or society, not necessarily someone who was non-Indian. 2) Major religious developments included the rise of bhakti movement in Hinduism and the arrival and spread of Islam through merchants and migrants beginning in the 7th century. 3) Historians studying

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    Class 7 History Chapter 1 Tracing Changes Through A Thousand Years

    Uploaded by

    Annie Arora
    247 views8 pages
    The document discusses questions and answers from a history textbook on medieval India. It covers topics like who was considered a foreigner, religious developments during this period, the arrival of Islam, and challenges historians face in interpreting original source materials from this era due to the lack of printing press and differences in copied manuscripts over time. The key takeaways are: 1) In medieval India, a foreigner referred to someone not from a given village or society, not necessarily someone who was non-Indian. 2) Major religious developments included the rise of bhakti movement in Hinduism and the arrival and spread of Islam through merchants and migrants beginning in the 7th century. 3) Historians studying

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    Chapter -1-Grade 7-History

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    The document discusses questions and answers from a history textbook on medieval India. It covers topics like who was considered a foreigner, religious developments during this period, the arrival of Islam, and challenges historians face in interpreting original source materials from this era due to the lack of printing press and differences in copied manuscripts over time. The key takeaways are: 1) In medieval India, a foreigner referred to someone not from a given village or society, not necessarily someone who was non-Indian. 2) Major religious developments included the rise of bhakti movement in Hinduism and the arrival and spread of Islam through merchants and migrants beginning in the 7th century. 3) Historians studying

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    247 views8 pages

    Class 7 History Chapter 1 Tracing Changes Through A Thousand Years

    Uploaded by

    Annie Arora
    The document discusses questions and answers from a history textbook on medieval India. It covers topics like who was considered a foreigner, religious developments during this period, the arrival of Islam, and challenges historians face in interpreting original source materials from this era due to the lack of printing press and differences in copied manuscripts over time. The key takeaways are: 1) In medieval India, a foreigner referred to someone not from a given village or society, not necessarily someone who was non-Indian. 2) Major religious developments included the rise of bhakti movement in Hinduism and the arrival and spread of Islam through merchants and migrants beginning in the 7th century. 3) Historians studying

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 8

    Class 7 History

    Chapter 1 Tracing Changes Through A


    Thousand Years
    Question. Who was considered a ‘foreigner’ in the past?
    Answer:

     The term ‘foreigner’ is used in the sense of a person who is


    not an Indian.
     In the medieval period it was applied to any stranger who
    appeared, say in a given village, someone who was not a part
    of that society or culture.
     In this sense a forest-dweller was a foreigner for a city-
    dweller.
     But two peasants living in the same village were not
    foreigners to each other, even though they may have had
    different religious or caste backgrounds.

    Question. List some of the technological changes associated with


    this period.
    Answer:
    Some of the technological changes associated with this period are:

     Persian wheel in irrigation.


     Spinning wheel.
     Fire-arms in combat.

    Question . What were some of the major religious developments


    during this period?
    Answer:  Major religious development during this period:

     Some of the major significant religious developments


    occurred in Hinduism.
     The worship of new deities, the construction of temples by
    royalty and growing importance of Brahmanas, the priests, as
    dominant groups in society were the new changes.
     Brahmanas’ importance grew due to their knowledge of
    Sanskrit language.
     They were patronized by the Emperors.
     The idea of bhakti emerged among people.
     The merchants and migrants brought with them the teachings
    of Quran, the holy book of Muslims.

    Question -Which new religion came to India during the period between 700
    and 1750 A.D.?
    Answer:
    The period between 700 and 1750 A.D. was the period when new
    religions appeared in the subcontinent.


    Merchants and migrants first brought the teachings of
    the holy Quran to India in the seventh century. Many
    rulers were patrons of Islam, Jurists and theologians.
     Muslims regard the Quran as their holy book.
     They accept the sovereignty of the one God or Allah.
     Islam was interpreted in a variety of ways by its followers:
     Shia Muslims believed that the prophet’s son-in-law, Ali, was
    the legitimate leader of the Muslim community.
     Sunni Muslims accepted the authority of the early leaders
    (Khalifas) of the community, and the succeeding Khalifas.
     There were other important differences between the various
    schools of law and in theology and mystic traditions.
     The schools of law are Hanafi and Shafi’i, mainly in India.

    Question. In what ways has the meaning of the term ‘Hindustan’


    charged over the centuries?
    Answer:
    The meaning of the term ‘Hindustan’ has changed over the
    centuries in the following manner:

     In the thirteenth century Minhaj-i-Siraj used the term


    ‘Hindustan’. He meant areas of Punjab, Haryana and the lands
    between Ganga and Yamuna. He used this term in a political
    sense that were a part of the dominions of the Delhi Sultanate.
    The term never included South India.
     In the sixteenth century poet Babur used the term ‘Hindustan’
    to describe the geography, the fauna and the culture of the
    inhabitants of the subcontinent.
     In fourteenth-century poet Amir Khusrau used the term ‘Hind’
    in the same sense as Babur did in the sixteenth century.
     ‘Hindustan’ did not carry the political and national meanings
    as the term ‘India’ does today.

    Question. How were the affairs of jatis regulated?


    Answer:
    The affairs of jatis were regulated in the following way:

     Jatis formed their own rules and regulations.


     There was an assembly of elders called jati panchayat.
     It enforced the rules and regulations.
     Jatis were also directed to follow the rules of the village.
     Several villages were governed by a chieftain.

    Question. What does the term pan-regional empire mean?


    Answer:  The term ‘pan-regional’ was used in the sense of the
    areas of empires spanning diverge regions.

     The dynasties like Cholas, Khaljis, Tughluqs, and Mughals


    extended their empires pan-regional.
     Though, not all these empires were equally stable or
    successful. But pan-regional rule altered the character of the
    regions.
     Most of the regions across the subcontinent were left with the
    legacies of the big and small states that had ruled over them.
     The emergence of many distinct and shared traditions in
    governance the economy elite cultures and languages were
    some of the prominent factors that took place as a result of
    pan-regional rules.

    Question. What are the difficulties historians face in using


    manuscripts?
    Answer:
    Historians faced a lot of difficulties while using manuscripts
    because:

     There was no printing press in the 13th and 14th centuries.


    Scribes in those days made manuscripts by hand.
     To copy was not an easy exercise. Scribes could not read the
    handwriting of the other writers.
     They were forced to guess. So there were small but
    significant differences in the copy of the scribed.
     These small words or sentences here and there grew over
    centuries of copying.
     The manuscripts of the same text became a great extent
    different from the original.

    Question. What is the continuity and change seen in the sources


    used to study Medieval Period?

    Answer:
    Historians divide the past into periods on the basis of continuity.
    Some of the continuity in the sources used to study this period is
    further based on:

    1. Coins
    2. Inscriptions
    3. Architecture
    4. Textual records

    The change that we see are.

    1. Textual records increased tremendously as paper


    became cheaper.
    2. Therefore a number of records such as manuscripts,
    letters , diaries from the period are available.

    Question -How do historians divide the history of India into three periods?
    What are the drawbacks of this division?
    Answer:

     The study of time is made somewhat easier by dividing the


    past into large segments. They are called periods. The
    periods possess shared characteristics.
     In the middle of the nineteenth century British historians
    divided the history of India into three periods.
     They are ‘Hindu’, ‘Muslim’ and ‘British’.
     This division was based on the idea that the religion of rulers
    was the only important historical change, and that there were
    no other significant developments in result of the economy,
    society or culture.
     Such a division also ignored the rich diversity of the
    subcontinent. Few historians follow this periodisation today.
    Most look to economic and social factors to characterise the
    major elements of different moments of the past.

    Question-What precautions historians should follow while reading the maps?


    Answer:
    Historians reading the maps, documents or texts from the past
    should be sensitive about the contends. They should keep in mind
    the different historical background. Equally important is the fact
    that the science of cartography differ from period to period.

    Question-What was the result of easy availability of paper in the 14th


    century?
    Answer:

     People used paper to write holy texts, chronicles of


    rulers, letters and teachings of saints, petitions and
    judicial records and in preparing accounts and taxes.
     Manuscripts were collected by wealthy people, rulers,
    monasteries and temples.
     They were placed in libraries and archives.
     They provided a lot of detailed information to historians.
     Manuscripts were difficult to use.

    Question-What was the result of non-availability of printing press in the 13th


    and 14th centuries?
    Answer:
    Historians faced a lot of difficulties while using manuscripts because:

     There was no printing press in the 13th and 14th


    centuries. Scribes in those days made manuscripts by
    hand.
     To copy was not an easy exercise. Scribes could not read
    the handwriting of the other writers.
     They were forced to guess. So there were small but
    significant differences in the copy of the scribed.
     These small words or sentences here and there grew
    over centuries of copying.
     The manuscripts of the same text became a great extent
    different from the original.

    Question -Describe the problem of dearth of original manuscripts of the


    authors.
    Answer:
    There is a serious problem because we rarely find the original manuscripts of
    the authors today.

     We are totally dependent upon the copies made by later


    scribes.
     The result is that historians have to read different
    manuscript versions of the same text to guess what the
    author had originally written.
     On several occasions authors revised their chronicles at
    different times.
     The fourteenth century chronicler Ziyauddin Barani wrote
    his chronicle first in 1356 and another version came two
    years later.
     The two versions differ from each other.
     Historians did not know about the existence of the first
    version until 1960s.
     It remained lost in large library collections.

    Question-What is the contribution of the medieval period to the Indian


    history?
    Answer:
    Medieval period (due to its contribution) is considered very important in the
    Indian history. We can mention its contribution in following points:

     Many modem languages, which we speak nowadays in


    India, developed at this time.
     Some of the food items we eat and the clothes we wear
    became popular during this age.
     The history of many of our current religious faiths (such
    as Islam, Sikhism, etc.) can be traced back to this period.
    Question-What did the decline of the Mughal Empire lead to in the 18th
    century?
    Answer:

     When the Mughal Empire declined in the eighteenth


    century, it led to the re-emergence of regional states.
     Years of imperial, pan-regional rule had altered the
    character of the regions.
     Across most of the subcontinent the regions were left
    with the legacies of the big and small states that ruled
    over them.
     This was clear in the emergence of many distinct and
    shared traditions: in the way of governance, the
    management of the economy, elite cultures, and
    language.
     They felt the impact of larger pan-regional forces of
    integration without losing their own character.

    Question-What led to the increased stratification among peasants in the


    Medieval Period?

    Answer:
     With the expansion of agriculture, many people’s
    habitats began to change, for example, people who
    earlier lived in forests now migrated as forests were
    cleared for agricultural use.
     New peasant groups came into being. They were
    required to pay taxes and became a part of a larger
    complex social structure.
     As a result, significant economic and social differences
    emerged amongst peasants.
     Some possessed more productive land, others also kept
    cattle, and some combined artisanal work with
    agricultural activity during the lean season.

    Question-How did social organization change in the Medieval Period?


    Answer:
     Society became more differentiated during the medieval
    period.
     People were grouped into jatis and ranked on the basis of
    their backgrounds and occupations.
     Ranks were not fixed permanently and varied according to the
    power, influence and resources controlled by members of the
    jati.
     The status of the same jati could vary from area to area.

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