Question answers how when and where chapter

Question – 1 - State whether true or false:
James Mill divided Indian history into three periods – Hindu, Muslim, Christian.
Official documents help us understand what the people of the country think.
The British thought surveys were important for effective administration.
Answer: (a) True, (b) False, (c) True
Question – 2 - What is the problem with the periodisation of Indian history that James Mill offers?
Answer: Although Hinduism is the religion of most of the Indians; the Muslim period did not begin one fine day. Muslims had been living in India from much earlier than beginning of the Islamic rule in India. Even during the peak of the Mughal Empire, there were many territories which were ruled by Hindu kings. Moreover, the British projected the so called Hindu and Muslim periods as the dark ages. They thought that the British rule would take India towards enlightenment. This was also a wrong notion.
Question – 3 - Why did the British preserve official documents?
Answer: Official records of the British administration serve as important source of history of this period. The British rulers believed that every instruction, plan, policy, decision, agreement, investigation should be clearly written up. This was necessary for proper study and debate about an issue. Hence, they carefully preserved all official records and created several archives for the purpose.
Question – 4 - How will the information historians get from old newspapers be different from that found in police reports?
Answer: A police report may give a version which was suited to the rulers of that time. A newspaper may project a different story. Projection in newspaper depends on the leaning of the newspaper towards a particular powerful group in the contemporary period.

  Additional Questions

Q1. Why did the British preserve official documents?

Answer:  They preserved the documents to maintain a permanent record of the official documents. They carefully preserved them.

Q2. How will the information historians get from old newspapers be different from that found in police reports?

Answer: The Police reports were not very trustworthy and are different from the information published in newspapers because the police was merely a puppet of the colonial government. They wrote the things in government’s favour only and hid the true facts.

Q3: Who was the first Governor-General of India?
Answer: Warren Hastings became the first Governor-General of India in 1773.

Q4: Why do we try and divide history into different periods?

Answer: 

1.                  It is an attempt to capture the characteristics of a time, its central features as they appear to us.

2.                  To demarcate the difference between periods which become important.

3.                  To reflect our ideas about the past. They show how we see the significance of the change from one period to the next.

Q5: What do you mean by the term 'colonisation'?

Answer: The subjugation of one country by another leads to these kinds of political, economic, social and cultural changes is called colonisation. 

Q6: When was The National Archives of India set up?

Answer: 1920 at the time when New Delhi was built by the British.

Q7: Why did Surveys become a common practice under the colonial administration in India?
Answer: The practice of surveying became common practice under the colonial administration because The British believed that a country had to be properly known before it could be effectively administered.

Q8: What types of surveys were conducted by colonial administration in India?

Answer: 
By the early nineteenth century detailed surveys were being carried out to map the entire country.

1.                  In the villages, revenue surveys were conducted. The effort was to know the topography, the soil quality, the flora, the fauna, the local histories, and the cropping pattern.

2.                  The objective was to record all the facts seen as necessary to know about to administer the region.

3.                  By the end of the nineteenth century, Census operations were held every ten years. These prepared detailed records of the number of people in all the provinces of India, noting information on castes, religions and occupation. 

4.                  There were many other surveys – botanical surveys, zoological surveys, archaeological surveys, anthropological surveys, forest surveys. 

Q9: Who produce the first map of India under British colonial period? Who asked for it?

Answer: James Rennel in 1782. Rennel was asked by Robert Clive to produce maps of Hindustan.

Q10. Where The British preserved all important documents and letters?

Answer; They set up record rooms attached to all administrative institutions. The village tahsildar’s office, the collectorate, the commissioner’s office, the provincial secretariats, the lawcourts.