Class XII – History Sample Paper – 1

Ans. c. Restoration of Caliphate of Turkey

Ans. d. Giving due right to the princely states

Ans. c. Gotami-puta Siri- Satakarni

Ans. c. Terracota figure depicting a scene from Mahabaratha (West Bengal)

Ans. d. Lumbini.

Ans. b. Only (i) and (ii) are correct.

Ans. c. A is true, but R is false

Ans. b. Nageshwar and Balakot

Ans. b. Al- Biruni

Ans. c. Magadha became the most powerful Mahajanapada between 6 th and 4 th BCE.

Ans. c. Ajmer

Ans. c. India

Ans. c. 3, 4, 1, 2.

Ans. c. Kunwar Singh

Ans. b. Jama and Hasil

Ans. c. Abdur Razzak

Ans. b. Akbar

Ans. d. Mahanavami Dibba.

Ans. a. Different groups had different demands regarding rights.

Ans. a. Ibn Battuta

Ans. c. Kheda Satyagraha

Ans. · Burial sites in Harappa were not so elaborate, generally they were laid in pits.

· Sometimes there were hollowed out spaces lined with bricks.

· Some graves contained pottery and ornaments perhaps indicating life after death.

Findings in the Harappan burial site concludes that archaeologists could not trace enormous quantities of wealth buried along with the dead.

Any three points to be described

Ans. The Great Bath was a large rectangular tank in a courtyard surrounded by a corridor on all four sides.

· There were two flights of steps on the north and south leading into the tank, which was made watertight by setting bricks on edge. and using a mortar of gypsum.

· There were rooms on three sides, in one of which was a large well. Water from the tank flowed into a huge drain.

· Across a lane to the north lay a smaller building with eight bathrooms, four on each side of a corridor, with drains from each. bathroom connecting to a drain that ran along the corridor.

· The uniqueness of the structure has led scholars to suggest that it was meant for a special ritual bath.

Any three points to be described

Ans. · Although several thousand inscriptions have been discovered, not all have been deciphered, published and translated.

· Many more inscriptions must have existed, which have not survived the ravages of time.

· The content of inscriptions almost invariably projects the perspective of the person(s) who, commissioned them.

· Routine agricultural practices and the joys and sorrows of daily existence find no mention in inscriptions.

· From the mid-twentieth century onwards, issues such as economic change, and the ways in which different social groups emerged have assumed far more importance for the historians which led to fresh investigations of old sources, and the development of new strategies of analysis.

· Thus, the inscriptions had limitations in interpreting the political and economic history of India.

Any three points to be examined

Ans. · Ibn Battuta was amazed by the efficiency of the Communication system present in the Fourteenth century in India.

· He described that the postal system which allowed merchants to not only send information and remit credit across long distances, but also to dispatch goods required at short notice.

· According to him the India the postal system is of two kinds. The horse post, called uluq, is run by royal horses stationed at a short distance of every four miles, and the other was the foot-post which has three stations per mile; it is called dawa.

· The postal system was so efficient that while it took fifty days to reach Delhi from Sind, the news reports of spies would reach the Sultan through the postal system in just five days.

· At every third mile outside a village were three pavilions in which men used to sit with girded loins ready to start. Each of them carries a rod, two cubits in length, with copper bells at the top. When the courier starts from the city, the man holds the letter in one hand and the rod with its bells on the other; and he runs as fast as he can. When the men in the pavilion hear the ringing of the bell, they get ready. As soon as the courier reaches them, one of them takes the letter from his hand and runs at top speed shaking the rod all the while until he reaches the next dawa, the same process continues till the letter reaches its destination. This foot-post is quicker than the horse-post.

Any three points to be examined

Ans. · The Amara-nayaka system was a major political innovation of the Vijayanagar Empire. It is likely that many features of this system were derived from the iqta system of the Delhi Sultanate.

· The Amara-nayakas were military commanders who were given territories to govern by the raya.

· They collected taxes and other dues from peasants, crafts persons and traders in the area. They retained part of the revenue for personal use and for maintaining a stipulated contingent of horses and elephants.

· These contingents provided the Vijayanagara kings with an effective fighting force with which they brought the entire southern peninsula under their control. Some of the revenue was also used for the maintenance of temples and irrigation works.

· The Amara-nayakas sent tribute to the king annually and personally appeared in the royal court with gifts to express their loyalty. Kings occasionally asserted their control over them by transferring them from one place to another to prove their control over the Amara nayakas.

Any three points to be described

Ans. · The East India Company had fixed the revenue that each zamindar in their territories in India had to pay.

· The estates of those who failed to pay the revenue, were auctioned. Raja of Burdwan had failed to pay the revenue. His estates had been put up for auction.

· Numerous purchasers came to the auction and the estates were sold to the highest bidder. But the Collector soon discovered a strange twist to the tale.

· A British collector had soon discovered that many of the purchasers were servants and agents of Raja who had bought the land on behalf of their master.

· Over 95 per cent of the sales at the auction was fictitious.

· The Raja’s estates had been publicly sold, but he remained in control of his zamindari. This incident was a strange twist in the auction of estates of Raja of Burdwan

Any three relevant points to be explained.

Ans. · The relationship of the sepoys with their superior white officers underwent a significant change in the years preceding the uprising of 1857.

· In the 1820s, white officers made it a point to maintain friendly relations with the sepoys. They would take part in their leisure activities – they wrestled with them, fenced with them and went out hawking with them. Many of them were fluent in Hindustani and were familiar with the customs and culture of the country. These officers were disciplinarian and father figure rolled into one.

· In the 1840s, this began to change. The officers developed a sense of superiority and started treating the sepoys as their racial inferiors, riding roughshod over their sensibilities.

· Abuse and physical violence became common and thus the distance between sepoys and officers grew.

· Trust was replaced by suspicion. 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.

Any three points to be explained.

Ans. · 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 stages.

· The Subsidiary Alliance had been imposed on Awadh in 1801.

· As per the terms of this alliance the Nawab had to disband his military force allowed the British to position their troops within the kingdom and act in accordance with the advice of the British Resident.

· Deprived of his armed forces the Nawab became increasingly dependent on the British to maintain law and order within the kingdom, Nawab Wajid Ali Shah was dethroned and exiled to Calcutta on the plea that the region was being misgoverned.

Ans. · Mahabharata a dynamic epic-contains vivid descriptions of battles, forests, palaces & settlements.

· Its growth was not hindered by its language.

· Over the centuries it has been written in many languages of the world.

· It depicts an on-going dialogue between the people & communities on the one hand and the authors on the other hand.

· It incorporated many stories that originated in different regions.

· Main story of the epic was often retold in different ways.

· Many episodes of this text had been depicted in sculptures and paintings.

· They also provide a wide range of themes & performing arts like plays, dances, and narratives. Any eight points to be explained.

Ans. · Historians often use textual traditions or content of text to understand the processes. Some texts lay down. Norms of social behaviour; others describe and occasionally comment on a wide range of social situations and practices.

· They can also catch a glimpse of some social actors from the inscriptions. As each text and inscription was written from the perspective of specific social categories, we need to keep in mind who composed what and for whom and when (the authors, the time and period).

· They also need to consider the language used, and the ways in which the text circulated. Used carefully, texts allow us to piece together attitudes and practices that shaped social histories.

· Two things became apparent: there were several common elements in the Sanskrit versions of the story, evident in manuscripts found all over the subcontinent, also evident were enormous regional variations in the ways in which the text had been transmitted over the centuries. These variations were documented in footnotes and appendices to the main text.

· The understanding of these processes is derived primarily from texts written in Sanskrit.

· When issues of social history were explored for the first time by historians in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, they tended to take these texts at face value – believing that everything that was laid down in these texts was practised. Subsequently, scholars began. studying other traditions, from works in Pali, Prakrit and Tamil.

· These studies indicated that the ideas contained in normative Sanskrit texts were overall recognised as authoritative and important. These elements were considered by historians while examining the text for reconstructing the social histories. Any other relevant points

Ans. · Revenue from the land was the economic mainstay of the Mughal Empire. It was therefore vital for the state to create an administrative apparatus to ensure control over agricultural production, and to fix and collect revenue from across the length and breadth of the rapidly expanding empire.

· This apparatus included the office (daftar) of the diwan who was responsible for supervising the fiscal system of the empire.

· Revenue officials and record keepers penetrated the agricultural domain and became a decisive agent in shaping agrarian relations.

· The Mughal state tried to first acquire specific information about the extent of the agricultural lands in the empire and what these lands produced before fixing the burden of taxes on people.

· The land revenue arrangements consisted of two stages – first, assessment and then actual collection. The jama was the amount assessed, as opposed to hasil, the amount collected.

· Akbar decreed that while he should strive to make cultivators pay in cash, the option of payment in kind was also to be kept open. While fixing revenue, the attempt of the state was to maximise its claims.

· Both cultivated and cultivable lands were measured in each province. The Ain compiled the aggregates of such lands during Akbar’s rule.

· Aurangzeb expressly instructed his revenue officials to prepare annual records of the number of cultivators in each village. Yet not all areas were measured successfully.

Any eight points to be analysed

Ans. · The zamindars who were landed proprietors who also enjoyed certain social and economic privileges by virtue of their superior status in rural society.

· Caste was one factor that accounted for the elevated status of zamindars, another factor was that they performed certain services (khidmat) for the state.

· The zamindars held extensive personal lands termed milkiyat, meaning property. Milkiyat lands were cultivated for the private use of zamindars, often with the help of hired or servile labour.

· The zamindars could sell, bequeath, or mortgage these lands at will. Zamindars also derived their power from the fact that they could often collect revenue on behalf of the state, a service for which they were compensated financially. Control over military resources was another source of power. Most zamindars had fortresses (qilachas) as well as an armed contingent comprising units of cavalry, artillery, and infantry.

· if we visualise social relations in the Mughal countryside as a pyramid, zamindars clearly constituted its very narrow apex. Abu’l Fazl’s account indicates that an “upper-caste”, Brahmana-Rajput combine had already established firm control over rural society. It also reflects a fairly large representation from the so-called intermediate castes, as well as a liberal sprinkling of Muslim zamindaris.

· Contemporary documents give the impression that conquest may have been the source of the origin of some zamindaris. The dispossession of weaker people by a powerful military chieftain was quite often a way of expanding a zamindari.

· It is, however, unlikely that the state would have allowed such a show of aggression by a zamindar unless he had been confirmed by an imperial order (sanad).

· More important were the slow processes of zamindari consolidation, which are also documented in sources. This involved colonisation of new lands, by transfer of rights, by order of the state and by purchase. These were the processes which perhaps permitted people belonging to the relatively “lower” castes to enter the rank of zamindars as zamindaris were bought and sold quite briskly in this period.

(Any eight points)

Ans. After the failure of the Cripps Mission, Mahatma Gandhi decided to launch his third major movement against British rule. “Quit India” was genuinely a mass movement, bringing into its ambit hundreds of thousands of ordinary Indians. It especially energised the young who, in very large numbers, left their colleges to go to jail.

· Failure of Cripps Mission led to the launch of Quit India movement in August 1942 for the liquidation of British imperialism.

· Dissatisfaction from the Govt. of India act 1935.

· Gandhi ji and other important leaders were arrested and jailed.

· The mass movement was left to the young people of India.

· Younger activists organised strikes and acts of sabotage.

· Brought into the movement hundreds of Indians.

· Socialist members like Jayaprakash Narayan were very active in the underground resistance.

· ‘Independent’ govt. Was proclaimed in many districts like Satara, Medinipur, etc.

· British used force to suppress the movement but failed.

· Thousands of ordinary citizens joined the Movement.

· Young people participated in large numbers.

· Muslim League was working on expanding its base.

· In 1944, Gandhi was released from jail.

Elaborate the points given above.

Any eight points

Ans. In the history of nationalism, a single individual is often identified with the making of a nation. Mahatma Gandhi has been regarded as the ‘Father’ of the Indian nation. In so far as Gandhiji was the most influential and revered of all the leaders who participated in the freedom struggle. Mahatma Gandhi’s political career was shaped and constrained by the society in which he lived.

There are many kinds of sources from which we can reconstruct the political career of Gandhiji and the history of the nationalist movement. The Sources to know about mahatma Gandhi and nationalist role are—

· Public voice and private scripts

· Speeches of Gandhiji and his contemporaries on his political role.

· Personnel and private letters on political & private thoughts about the country.

· Journals published by the govt etc.

· Autobiographies retrospective account

· Records written by policemen & officials.

· Newspapers on the conversion of political movement into mass movement.

· Records prepared by home ministry department.

· Information from the localities and common people.

· Pictures of Gandhi reveal how he was perceived by the people.

· Fortnightly reports of various provinces.

Elaborate the points given above.

Any eight points

Ans. The queen Kamalavati persuaded the king to renounce the world.

Ans. Dhamma refers to “the truth”, that can save one, nothing else. The disciple was following the preaching’s of Mahavira.

Ans. One who has left the worldly pleasures, will flow like a wind and fly like a bird without any worries. He wanted people to Detach from everything, let go of what gives pleasures and creates desire.

Ans. Karaikal Ammaiyar personified beauty as “Pey” or Demoness”

Ans. The poet was mad as she was shouting and wailing in the devotion of Lord Shiva and she was desperately searching for him in Alankadu and hence her appearance has become “Bulging veins, protruding eyes, white teeth and shrunken stomach.”

Ans. The Phrase infers Lord shiva dancing in Alankadu where in, his matted hair was thrown in all eight directions while dancing with his limbs freely moving in the air.

Ans. The British

Ans. The British did not want Indians to be united, they applied divide and rule policy, for their easy administration and they created a division which had affected the life of the people/ entire nation and hence the need to get out of it was insisted.

Ans. He was urging the people of our country not to adopt the legacy left behind by the British called ‘separation”/divide and rule policy.

Ans. A- Amritsar

B- Champaran