CLASS IX -MCQ AND OTHER IMPORTANT QUESTIONS WITH ANSWERS OF FOREST SOCIETY AND COLONIALISM

MCQ AND OTHER IMPORTANT QUESTIONS WITH ANSWERS OF FOREST SOCIETY AND COLONIALISM

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

Q.1. Who were the colonial power in Indonesia?

(a) British (b) Dutch (c) French (d) Portuguese

Q.2.Which place is now famous as a rice-producing island in Indonesia?

(a) Java (b) Sumatra (c) Borneo (d) Kalimantan

Q.3. Where did the Dutch start forest management in Indonesia?

(a) Java (b) Sumatra (c) Bali (d) None of the above

Q.4. Who were ‘Kalangs’ of Java?

(a) Dynasty of rulers (b) Skilled forest cutters and shifting cultivators

(c) A community of moneylenders (d) none of the above

Q.5 The Kalangs resisted the Dutch in

(a) 1700 (b) 1750 (c) 1770 (d) 1800

Q.6. According to the forest laws enacted by the Dutch in Java,

(a) Villagers’ access to forest was restricted

(b) Wood could be cut only for specified purposes like making river boats or constructing houses

(c) Villagers were punished for grazing cattle

(d) All the above

Q.7.What was the system of ‘blandongdiensten’?

(a) A system of education (b) Industrialisation

(c) First imposition of rent on land and then exemption (d) None of the above

Q.8.What did Surontiko Samin of Randublatung village, a teak forest village, begin questioning?

(a) The foreign policy of the Dutch (b) State ownership of the forest

(c) The export policy of the Dutch (d) none of the above

Q.9.What was the policy followed by the British in India towards forests during the First and the Second World Wars?

(a) The forest department cut trees freely to meet British war needs

(b) Cutting of trees was strictly prohibited for everyone, including the British

(c) More and more trees were planted to give employment to Indians

(d) None of the above

Q.10.What is the goal of governments across Asia and Africa since the 1980s?

(a) Conservation of forests (b) Collection of timber

(c) Settling people in forest areas (d) Destroying old forests and growing new ones

Q.11. Who wrote the book ‘The Forests of India’ in the year 1923?

(a) David Spurr (b) E.P. Stebbing (c) Verrier Elvin (d) John Middleton

12. Which of the following is not associated with Sweden agriculture?

(a) Karacha (b) Jhum (c) Bewar (d) Penda

13. Indian Forest Service was set up in the year:

(a) 1865 (b) 1864 (c) 1854 (d) 1884

14. Which of the following was not a tribal community?

(a) Karacha (b) Jhum (c) Korava (d) Yerukula

15. The system of scientific forestry stands for:

(a) System whereby the local farmers were allowed to cultivate temporarily within a plantation

(b) System of cutting old trees and plant new ones

(c) Division of forest into three categories

(d) Disappearance of forests

16. In which year the Baster rebellion took place?

(a) 1910 (b) 1909 (c) 1911 (d) 1912

17. In South-East Asia shifting agriculture is known as:

(A) Chitemene (b) Tavy (c) Lading (d) Milpa

18. The Gond forest community belongs to which of the following

(a) Chhattisgarh (b) Jharkhand (c) Jammu and Kashmir (d) Gujarat

19. Forests consisting of which type of trees were preferred by the Forest Department?

(a) Forests having trees which provided fuel, fodder and leaves

(b) Forests having soft wood

(c) Forests having trees suitable for building ships and railways

20. Which of the following term is not associated with shifting agriculture in India?

(a) Penda (b) Bewar (c) Khandad (d) Lading

21. Which of the following is a community of skilled forest cutters?

(a) Maasais of Africa (b) Mundas of Chotanagpur(c) Gonds of Orissa (d) Kalangs of Java

22. Why did the government decide to ban shifting cultivation?

(a) To grow trees for railway timber

(b) When a forest was burnt, there was the danger of destroying valuable timber

(c) Difficulties for the government to calculate taxes

(d) All the above reasons

23. Wooden planks lay across railway tracks to hold these tracks in a position are called:

(a) Beams (b) Sleepers (c) Rail fasteners (d) none of these

24. Which of the following was the most essential for the colonial trade and movement of goods?

(a) Roadways (b) Railways (c) Airways (d) River ways

25. Which of the following is a commercial crop?

(a) Rice (b) Wheat (c) Cotton (d) Maize

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS

Q.1 what is deforestation? Why is it considered harmful?

Ans.1 The disappearance of forests is referred to as deforestation. Forests are cleared for industrial uses, cultivation, pastures and fuel wood.

2.Clearing of forests is harmful as forests give us manythings like paper, wood that makes our desks, tables, doors and windows, dyes that colour our clothes, spices in our food, gum, honey, coffee, tea and rubber. They are the home of animals and birds.

3. Forests check soil erosion and denudation, sand dunes. They preserve our ecological diversity and life support systems.

Q.2. Describe scientific forestry.

Ans.1. In scientific forestry, natural forests which had lots of different types of trees were cut down. In their place one type of tree was planted in straight rows. This is called a plantation.

2. Forest officials surveyed the forests, estimated the area under different types of trees and made working plans for forest management. They planned how much of the plantation area to cut every year.

3.The area cut was then to be replanted so that it was ready to be cut again in some years.

Q.3. Mention the various uses of forests

Ans. 1.Forests give us a mixture of things to satisfy our different needs — fuel, fodder, leaves, trees suitable for building ships or railways, trees that can provide hard wood.

2. Forest products like roots, fruits, tubers, herbs are used for medicinal purposes, wood for agricultural implements like yokes, ploughs etc. Forests provide shelter to animals and birds. They also add moisture to atmosphere. Rainfall is trapped in forest lands.

Q.4.What is shifting agriculture? Why was it regarded as harmful by the British?

Ans. 1.Shifting agriculture or Sweden agriculture is a traditional agricultural practice in many parts of Asia, Africa and South America. It has many local names such as ‘lading’ in South-EastAsia, ‘milpa’ in central America, ‘chitemene’ or ‘tavy’ in Africa, ‘chena’ in Sril Lanka, dhya, Penda, bewar, nevad, jhum, podu, khandad and kumri in India.

2.In shifting cultivation, parts of a forest are cut and burnt in rotation, seeds are sown in ashes after the first monsoon rains and the crop is harvested by October-November. Such plots are cultivated for a couple of years and then left fallow for 12 to 18 years for the forest to grow back.

It was regarded as harmful by the British for the forests. They felt that land which was used for cultivation every few years could not grow trees for railway timber. When the forest was burnt there was the danger of the flames spreading and burning valuable timber.

Q.5. Explain why did the Dutch adopt the ‘scorched earth policy’ during the war.

Ans.1. The First World War and Second World War had a major impact on forests. In India, working places were abandoned and trees were cut freely to meet British demand for war needs.

2.In Java, just before the Japanese occupied the region, the Dutch followed the ‘scorched earth policy’ destroying saw mills, burning huge piles of giant teak logs so that they could not fall into Japanese hands.

Q.6. How did the forest rules affect cultivation?

Ans. 1.One of the major impacts of European colonialism was on the practice of shifting cultivation or Jhoom cultivation .In shifting cultivation, a clearing is made in the forest, usually on the slopes of the hills. After the trees are cut, they are burnt to provide ashes. The seeds are then scattered in the area, and left to be irrigated by the rain.

2. Shifting cultivation was harmful for forests and the land both.

3. It also made it harder for the Government to calculate taxes. Therefore, the government decided to ban shifting cultivation.

Q.7. Why did land under cultivation increase during colonial rule?

Ans.1. during the British domination of India, the British encouraged the cultivation of cash crops such as jute, indigo, cotton, etc. Food crops were also required to be grown for food. Both things were important. 2.Secondly, the forests were considered unproductive by the British government and hence large areas of forests were cleared for agriculture. Now this forest land could be cultivated to enhance the income of this state.

Q.8.What did Dietrich Brandis suggest for the improvement of forests in India?

Ans. 1.Dietrich Brandis suggested that a proper system had to be followed. Felling of trees and grazing land had to be protected. Rules about use of forests should be made. Anyone who broke rules needed to be punished. Brandis set up in 1864 the Indian Forest Service. He also helped to formulate the Indian Forest Act of 1865.

Q.9.What was taught at the Imperial Forest Research Institute? How was this system carried out?

Ans. 1.Scientific forestry was taught at the Imperial Forest Research Institute. In this system, natural forests which had a variety of trees were cut down and, instead, one type of tree was planted.

2. Appointed forest officials managed these forests. They planned and assessed how much of the planted area had to be cut down and how much had to be replanted.

Q.10. Differentiate between the customary practice of hunting and hunting as a sport in India, after the Forest Acts were passed.

Ans. Before the laws were passed, people who depended on forests hunted birds and small animals for food. After the laws were passed, hunting of big game became a sport. Under colonial rule the scale of hunting increased so much that many species became extinct. Rewards were given for killing tigers, wolves, etc., on the pretext that they were a threat to human life. Certain areas of the forests were reserved for hunting.

LONG ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS [5 MARKS]

Q.1. Discuss the rise of commercial forestry under the colonial governments.

Ans.1. Commercial forestry became important during the British rule. By the early nineteenth century oak forests in England were disappearing. This created a problem of shortage of timber supply for the Navy.

2. How could English ships be built without a regular supply of strong and durable timber?How could imperial power be protected and maintained without ships?

3. Because of the factors given above, before 1856 the commercial forestry was considered important in India. By the 1820s, search parties were sent to explore the forest resources ofIndia.

4. These parties gave them green signal for commercial forestry in India.Within a decade trees were being felled on a massive scale and large quantities of timber were being exported from India.

5.The spread of railway from the 1850s created a new demand. In India, the colonial government felt that railways were essential for effective internal administration, for colonial trade, for the quick movement of imperial troops.

Q.3. “The introduction of extremely exploitatives and oppressive policies proved to be a disaster.” With reference to Bastar —

(a) What were these policies? (b) What were the consequences of these policies?

Ans. (a) The colonial government proposed to reserve two-thirds of the forest in 1905 and stop shifting cultivation, hunting and collection of forest produce. The people of Baster were very worried. Some villages were allowed to remain on in the reserved forests on the condition that they worked free for the forest department in cutting and transporting trees and protecting the forests from fires. Subsequently these came to be known as forest villages. People of other villages were displaced without any notice or compensation. For long the villagers had been suffering from increased land rents and frequent demands for free labour and goods by colonial officials. Then came the terrible famines in 1899-1900 and again in 1907-1908. Reservations proved to be the last straw.

(b) People began to gather and discuss these issues in their village councils, in bazars and at festivals or wherever the headmen and priests of several villages were assembled. The initiative was taken by the Dhruvas of the Kanger forest, where reservation first took place.Although there was no single leader, many people speak of Gunda Dhur from villageNethanar as an important figure in the movement in 1910 mango boughs, a limp of earth, chillies and arrows, began circulating between villages. These were actually messages inviting villagers to rebel against the British.Every village contributed something to the rebellion expenses. Bazars were looted, the houses of officials and traders, schools and police stations were burnt and robbed and grain redistributed.

The British sent troops to suppress the rebellion. The adivasi leaders tried to negotiate, but the British surrounded their camps and fired upon them. After that they marched through the villages, flogging and punishing those who had taken part in the rebellion.It took three months for the British to regain control. However, they never managed to capture Gunda Dhur. In a major victory for the rebels, work on reservation was temporarily suspended and the area to be reserved was reduced to roughly that planned before 1910. Were forcibly displaced from their homes in the forests. Some had to change occupations, while some resisted through large and small rebellions.

Q.5. How did the following contribute towards the decline of forest cover in India between1880-1920

(a) Railways and shipbuilding (b) Commercial farming

Ans. (a) (1) Railways: The spread of railways from 1850s created a new demand. Railways were essential for successful colonial control, administration, trade and movement of troops. Thus to run locomotives, (a) wood was needed as fuel (b) and to lay railway lines as sleepers were essential to hold tracks together. As the railway tracks spread throughout India, larger and larger number of trees were felled. Forests around the railway tracks started disappearing fast.

(2) Shipbuilding: UK had the largest colonial empire in the world. Shortage of oak forests created a great timber problem for the shipbuilding of England. For the RoyalNavy, large wooden boats, ships, courtyards for shipping etc., trees from Indian forests were being felled on massive scale from the 1820s or 1830s to export large quantities of timber from India. Thus the forest cover of the subcontinent declined rapidly.

(b) Commercial Farming: Large areas of natural forest were also cleared to make space for the plantations or commercial farming. Jute, rubber, indigo, tobacco etc. were the commercial crops that were planted to meet Britain’s growing need for these commodities.The British colonial government took over the forests and gave of a vast area and exportedit to Europe. Large areas of forests were cleared on the hilly slopes to plant tea or coffee.

This also contributed to the decline of the forest cover in India.

Q.6. How was colonial management of forests in Bastar similar to that of Java?

Ans. The colonial government imposed new forest laws according to which two-thirds of the forests were reserved. Shifting cultivation, hunting and collection of forest produce was banned. Most people in forest villages were displaced without notice or compensation. In the same way, when the Dutch gained control over the forests in Java, they enacted forest laws, restricting villagers' access to forests. Now wood could only be cut for specific purposes and from specific forests under close supervision. Villagers were punished for grazing cattle, transporting wood without a permit or travelling on forest road with horse-carts or cattle. This was the similarity between the British (in Bastar) and Dutch (in Java) management of forests.

Q.7. What new trends and developments have affected the forestry of today?

Ans. 1.Since the 1980s governments across Asia and Africa have begun to see that scientific forestry and the policy of keeping forest communities away from forests has resulted in many conflicts.Conservation of forests rather than collecting timber has become a more important goal.

2.The government has realised/recognised that in order to meet this goal, the people who live near the forests must be involved.

3.In many cases, across India, from Mizoram to Kerala, dense forests have survived only because villagers protected them in sacred groves known as sarnas, Devarakudu, kau, rai etc. Some villages have been patrolling .

their own forests, with each household taking it in turns, instead of leaving it to the forest guards.Local forest communities and environmentalists today are thinking of different forms of forest management.

Q.8. Where is Bastar located? Discuss its history and its people

Ans.1. Bastar is situated in the southern part of Chhattisgarh and borders Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. The river Indrawati flows from east to west across Bastar. The central part ofBastar is a plateau. To the north of this plateau is the Chhattisgarh plain and to its south is the Godavari plain.

2.The people of Bastar believe that each village was bestowed land by the earth and hence they offer something in return during agricultural celebrations. Apart from the earth the people of Bastar show reverence to the spirits of rivers, forests and the mountains.

3.Different communities such as Maria and Muria Gonds, Dhurwas, Bhatras and Halbas practise common customs and beliefs but speak different dialects. Each village is well aware of its boundaries. They look after and preserve their natural resources.

4.There exists a give and take relationship among the communities. If a village wants some forest produce from another village a small price is paid before taking it. This price is called ‘dhand’ or ‘man’ or ‘devsari’.Villagers engage watchmen to look after their forests for a price.

5.This price is collected from all the families. There is a large annual gathering — a big hunt where the headmen of all the villages in a ‘pargana’ (a group of villages) meet and discuss matters that concern them.

Q.9. Discuss the new developments in forestry after the 1980s.

Ans: 1. Since the 1980s the governments of Asia and Africa have begun to see that scientific forestry and the policy of keeping forest communities away from the forests has resulted in many conflicts. Conservation and preservation of forests have become the major goal.