BLOOM PUBLIC SCHOOL
Vasant Kunj, New Delhi
Lesson plan 2016- 17
Class XII C
Subject History
Month – July-Aug, 2016
Chapter-8
Peasants, Zamindars and the State
TTT- 6
Ch 8
Peasants, Zamindars and the
State
Learning Objectives
Resources
Activity
Assignment
No of Periods: 9
WT: 3
Agrarian Relations: The Ain-i-Akbari
Broad Over View
a. Structure of agrarian relations in the 16th and the 17th
centuries.
b. Patterns of change over the period
Story of discovery: Account of the compilation and translation of
Ain-I-Akbari
Excerpt from the Ain-I Akbari
Discussion: Ways in which the historians have used the text to
reconstruct History
• Discuss developments in agrarian relations.
• Discuss how to supplement official documents withother
sources.
• NCERT Text Book
• Extra marks smart class, Mind Map, SLM.
• Topic wise question and Answer
• Internet research/Videos and images from the internet
• Study Material
Map Work
What are the problems in using Ain as a source for
reconstructing agrarian history? How do historians deal with
this situation? (Prd1)
To what extent is it possible to characterize agricultural
production in the 16th century as subsistence agriculture? Give
reasons for your answer. (Prd 2)
Explain the role of Panchayats in the Mughal rural Indian
society during 16th -17th centuries. (Prd3)
Describe the role played by women in agricultural production.
How were the lives of forest dwellers transformed in the 16th
and the 17th centuries? (Prd4)
Period Wise Plan
Period 1&2
Period 3
Examine the role played by Zamindars in Mughal India.
(Prd6)
1. Peasants and Agricultural Production
1.1 Looking for Sources
• One of the most important chronicles was the Ain-i Akbari
authored by Akbar’s court historian Abu’lFazl.
• This text meticulously recorded the arrangements made by the
state to ensure cultivation, to enable the collection of revenue
by the agencies of the state and to regulate the relationship
between the state and rural magnates, the zamindar
• The central purpose of the Ain was to present a vision of
Akbar’s empire where social harmony was provided by a
strong ruling class.
1.2 Peasants and their lands
• Sources of the seventeenth century refer to two kinds of
peasants – khud-kashta and pahi-kashta
• The former were residents of the village in which they held
their lands. The latter were non-resident cultivators who
belonged to some other village, but cultivated lands elsewhere
on a contractual basis.
1.3 Irrigation and technology
• Monsoons remained the backbone of Indian
agriculture. But there were crops which required additional
water. Artificial systems of irrigation had to be devised for
this.
• In northern India the state undertook digging of new canals
(nahr, nala) and also repaired old ones like the Shahnahr in
the Punjab during Shah Jahan’s reign.
1.4 An abundance of crops
• Agriculture was organised around two major seasonal cycles,
the kharif (autumn) and the rabi(spring.
• The Mughal state also encouraged peasants to cultivate cash
crops as they brought in more revenue. Crops such as cotton
and sugarcane were jins-i kamil par excellence. Pg.196-200
2.The Village Community
2.1 Caste and the rural milieu
• Despite the abundance of cultivable land, certain caste groups
were assigned menial tasks and thus relegated topoverty.
• There was a direct correlation between caste, poverty and
social status at the lower strata of society Panchayats and
headmen
2.2 Panchayats and headmen
• The panchayat was headed by a headman knownas
muqaddam or mandal chosen through the consensus of the
village elders.
The chief function of the headman was to supervise the
preparation of village accounts, assisted by theaccountant or
patwari of the panchayat.
• One important function of the panchayat was to ensure
that caste boundaries among the various communities
inhabiting the village wereupheld.
• In addition to the village panchayat each casteor jati in the
village had its own jati panchayat.
Pg.201-204
2.3 Village artisans
• Village artisans – potters, blacksmiths, carpenters, barbers,
even goldsmiths – provided specialized services in return for
which they were compensated by villagers by a variety of
means.
• The distinction between artisans and peasants in village
society was a fluid one, as many groups performed the tasks
of both.
2.4 A Little Republic
3 Women in Agrarian Society
• Women were considered an important resource in agrarian
society also because they were child bearers in a society
dependent on labour.
• The household was headed by a male. Thus women were kept
under strict control by the male members of the family and
the community.
• Amongst the landed gentry, women had the right to inherit
property. Instances from the Punjab show that women,
including widows, actively participated in the rural land
market as sellers of property inherited by them.
Pg.204-207
4 Forests and Tribes
4.1 Beyond settled villages
• Forest dwellers were termed jangli. The term described those
whose livelihood came from the gathering of forest
produce, hunting and shifting agriculture. These activities
were largely season specific.
4.2 Inroads into forests
• External forces entered the forest in different ways. For
instance, the state required elephants for the army. So
thepeshkash levied from forest people often included a supply
of elephants.
• Social factors wrought changes in the lives of forest dwellers.
Like the “big men” of the village community, tribes also had
their chieftains.
•
Period 4
Period 5
Pg208-211
Period 6
Period 7
5. The Zamindars
• The zamindars held extensive personal landstermed milkiyat,
meaning property. Milkiyat landswere cultivated for the
private use of zamindars.
• 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.
• Zamindars spearheaded the colonisation of agricultural land,
and helped in settling cultivators by providing them with the
means of cultivation.
6.Land Revenue System
• This apparatus included the office (daftar) of the diwan who
was responsible for supervising the fiscal system of the
empire.
• Thus revenue officials and record keepers penetrated the
agricultural domain and became a decisive agent in shaping
agrarian relations.
• The jama was the amount assessed, as opposed to hasil, the
amount collected.
• Both cultivated and cultivable lands were measured in each
province. The Ain compiled the aggregates ofsuch lands
during Akbar’s rule.
Pg.211-213
7. The Flow of Silver
• An expanding trade brought in huge amounts of silver bullion
into Asia to pay for goods procured from India, and a large
part of that bullion gravitated towardsIndia
• This facilitated an unprecedented expansion of minting of
coins and the circulation of money in the economy as well as
the ability of theMughal state to extract taxes and revenue in
cash.
8 The Ain-i Akbari of Abu’l FazlAllami
• The Ain- i Akbari was the culmination of a large historical,
administrative project of classification undertaken by
Abu’lFazl at the order of Emperor Akbar. It was completed in
1598.
• The Ain gives detailed accounts of the organization of the
court, administration and army, the sources of revenue and the
physical layout of the provinces of Akbar’s empire and the
literary, cultural and religious traditions of the people.
Pg.215-220
Period 8
Period 9
Discussion of Question Answers from the book and Extra
Marks/Map Work
Class Test
BLOOM PUBLIC SCHOOL
Vasant Kunj, New Delhi
Lesson plan 2016- 17
Class XII C
Subject History
Month – August, 2016
Chapter-9
Kings and Chronicles
No of Periods: 9
WT: 3
TTT- 6
Chapter-9
Kings and Chronicles
The Mughal court: Reconstructing history through
Chronicles.
Broad Over view
a. Structure of agrarian relations in the 16th and 17th
centuries.
b. Discussion of the Mughal courts and politics.
Story of Discovery: Account of the production of court
chronicles and their subsequent translation and
transmission
Excerpt: from the Akbarnama and the Padhshahnama
Discussion: The ways in which historians have used the
text to reconstruct political histories.
Learning Objectives
Familiarise the learner with the major landmarks in
political history.
• Show how chronicles and other sources are usedto
reconstruct the histories of political institutions
NCERT Text Book
Extra marks smart class, Mind Map, SLM.
Topic wise question and Answer
Internet research.
Study Material
Map work
Describe the process of manuscript production in the
Mughal court.(Prd2)
In what ways did the daily routine and special
festivities associated with the Mughal court conveyed a
sense of the power of the emperor?(Prd5)
Assess the role played by women of the imperial
household in the Mughal Empire.(Prd6)
Discuss the major features of the Mughal
administration. How did the centre control the
province?(Prd7)
Resources
Activities
Assignment
•
Discuss with examples the distinct features of the
Mughal Nobility.(Prd7)
Analyze Akbar’s religious policy.(Prd8)
Period Wise Plan
Period 1-2
Period 3
1. The Mughal and Their Empire
• The name Mughal derives from Mongol.
• They referred to themselves as Timurids, as
descendants of the Turkish ruler Timur on the paternal
side.
• The empire was carved out of a number of regional
states of India through conquests and political alliances
between the Mughals and local chieftains.
• The founder of the empire, Zahiruddin Babur.
• Jalaluddin Akbar (1556-1605) the greatest of all the
Mughal emperors, for he not only expanded but also
consolidated his empire.
2. The Production of Chronicles
2.1 From Turkish to Persian
• Mughal court chronicles were written in Persian.
• It was Akbar who consciously set out to make Persian
the leading language of the Mughal court.
• Even when Persian was not directly used, its
vocabulary and idiom heavily influenced the language
of official records in Rajasthani and Marathi and even
Tamil.
• Mughal chronicles such as the Akbar Nama were
written in Persian, others, like Babur’s memoirs, were
translated from the Turkish into the Persian Babur
Nama.
2.2 The making of manuscripts
• The centre of manuscript production was the imperial
kitabkhana.
• The creation of a manuscript involved a number of
people performing a variety of tasks. Paper makers
were needed to prepare the folios of the manuscript,
scribes or calligraphers to copy the text, gilders
toilluminate the pages, painters to illustrate scenes
from the text, bookbinders to gather the individual
folios and set them within ornamental covers.
Pg. 225-228
3.The Painted Image
• Paintings served not only to enhance the beauty of a
book, but were believed to possess special powers of
communicating ideas about the kingdom
• The historian Abu’l Fazl described painting as a
•
Period 4
“magical art”: in his view it had the power to make
inanimate objects look as if they possessed life.
Muslim rulers in many Asian regions during centuries
of empire building regularly commissioned artists to
paint their portraits and scenes of life in their
kingdoms.
The Akbar Nama and the Badshah Nama
• Beginning in 1589, Abu’l Fazl worked on the Akbar
Nama for thirteen years.
• The Akbar Nama is divided into three books of which
the first two are chronicles. The third book is the Ain-i
Akbari.
• The Akbar Nama was written to provide a detailed
description of Akbar’s reign in the traditional
diachronic sense of recording politically significant
events across time.
• Edited versions of the Akbar Nama and Badshah Nama
were first published by the Asiatic Society in the
nineteenth century
Pg.228-232
The Ideal Kingdom: A divine light
• Abu’l Fazl placed Mughal kingship as the highest
station in the hierarchy of objects receiving light
emanating from God.
• Paintings that accompanied the narrative of the
chronicles transmitted these ideas in a way that left a
lasting impression on the minds of viewers.
A unifying force
• Abu’l Fazl describes the ideal of sulh-i kul (absolute
peace) as the cornerstone of enlightened rule. In sulh-i
kul all religions and schools of thought had freedom of
expression but on condition that they did not
undermine the authority of the state or fight among
themselves.
• The ideal of sulh-i kul was implemented through state
policies.
• All Mughal emperors gave grants to support the
building and maintenance of places of worship.
5.3 Just sovereignty as social contract
• Abu’l Fazl defined sovereignty as a social contract: the
emperor protects the four essences of his subjects,
namely, life (jan), property (mal), honour (namus) and
faith (din), and in return demands obedience and a
share of resources.
Pg.232-235
Period 5
Period 6
6. Capitals and Courts
6.1 Capital cities
• The capital cities of the Mughals frequently shifted
during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Babur
took over the Lodi capital of Agra.
• The Mughal emperors entered into a close relationship
with sufis of the Chishti silsila.
• In 1648 the court, army and household moved from
Agra to the newly completed imperial capital,
Shahjahanabad.
6.2 The Mughal court
• Chronicles lay down with great precision the rules
defining status amongst the Mughal elites.
• The place accorded to a courtier by the ruler was a
sign of his importance in the eyes of the emperor.
• Once the emperor sat on the throne, no one was
permitted to move from his position or to leave without
permission.
• The forms of salutation to the ruler indicated the
person’s status in the hierarchy: deeper prostration
represented higher status.
Pg.236-241
6.3 Titles and gifts
• Grand titles were adopted by the Mughal emperors at
the time of coronation or after a victory over an enemy.
• The granting of titles to men of merit was an important
aspect of Mughal polity.
• The title Mirza Raja was accorded by Aurangzeb to his
two highest-ranking nobles, Jai Singh and Jaswant
Singh.
• Other awards included the robe of honour (khilat), a
garment once worn by the emperor and imbued with
his benediction.
• A courtier never approached the emperor empty
handed: he offered either a small sum of money (nazr )
or a large amount (peshkash).
7. The Imperial Household
• The term “harem” is frequently used to refer to the
domestic world of the Mughals.
• The Mughal household consisted of the emperor’s
wives and concubines, his near and distant relatives
and female servants and slaves.
• In the Mughal household a distinction was maintained
between wives who came from royal families
(begams), and other wives (aghas) who were not of
•
noble birth.
Apart from wives, numerous male and female slaves
populated the Mughal household. The tasks they
performed varied from the most mundane to those
requiring skill, tact and intelligence.
Pg.241-243
Period 7
8. The Imperial Officials
• The nobility was recruited from diverse ethnic and
religious groups. This ensured that no faction was large
enough to challenge the authority of the state.
• In Akbar’s imperial service, Turani and Iranian nobles
were present from the earliest phase of carving out a
political dominion.
• Two ruling groups of Indian origin entered the
imperial service from 1560 onwards: the Rajput’s and
the Indian Muslims (Shaikhzadas.
• Nobles stationed at the court (tainat-i rakab) were a
reserve force to be deputed to a province or military
campaign.
8.2 information and empire
8.3 Beyond the centre: provincial administration
9. Beyond the Frontiers
• The Safavids and Qandahar
• The Ottomans: pilgrimage and trade
• Jesuits at the Mughal court
Pg.244-248
Period 8
Questioning Formal Religion
• Akbar’s quest for religious knowledge led to interfaith
debates in the ibadat khana at Fatehpur Sikri between
learned Muslims, Hindus, Jains, Parsis and Christians.
• Akbar and Abu’l Fazl created a philosophy of light and
used it to shape the image of the king and ideology of
the state.
Pg. 251
Map
Discussion of Question Answers from the book and Extra
Marks
Period 9
Class Test
BLOOM PUBLIC SCHOOL
Vasant Kunj, New Delhi
Lesson plan 2016- 17
Class XII C
Subject History
Month – Aug, 2016
Chapter-10
Colonialism and Countryside
TTT- 6
Chapter-10
Colonialism and
Countryside
Learning Objectives
No of Periods: 9
WT: 3
Colonialism and Rural society: Evidence from official reports.
Broad overview
a. Life of Zamindars, Peasants and artisans in the late 18th
century
b. East India Company: revenue settlements and surveys
c. Changes over the 19th century
Story of official Records: An account of why official
investigations into rural societies were undertaken and types of
records and reports produced.
Excerpts: From Firmingher’s Fifth Report, Account of Frances
Buchanan-Hamilton and Deccan Riot Report.
Discussion :What official records tell us and do not tell us and
how they have been used by the historians
• Discuss how colonialism affected zamindars, peasants and
artisans.
• Understand the problems and limits of using official sources
for understanding the lives of people.
Resources
NCERT Text Book
Extra marks smart class, Mind Map, SLM.
Topic wise question and Answer
Internet research.
Study Material
Class Work
How did Zamindars manage to retain control over their
zamindaris?
(Prd1)
Why was Jotedars a powerful figure in many parts of rural
Bengal?
(Prd )
How did the American Civil war affect the lives of ryots in
India?
Critically examine the Fifth Report.
(Prd 3)
In what way was the livelihood of Paharias different from
that of the Santhals? (Prd 4)
How did the American Civil War affect the lives of ryots in
India?(Prd 6)
Period 1
Period 2
1. Bengal and the Zamindars
1.1 An auction in Burdwan
The problem of unpaid revenue
• By the 1770s, the rural economy in Bengal was in crisis, with
recurrent famines and declining agricultural output.
• Officials felt that agriculture, trade and the revenue resources
of the state could be developed by securing rights of property
and permanently fixing the rates of revenue demand.
• If the revenue demand of the state was permanently fixed,
then the Company could look forward to a regular flow of
revenue, while entrepreneurs could feel sure of earning a
profit from their investment.
1.2 The problem of unpaid revenue
1.3 Why zamindars defaulted on payments
• First: the initial demands were very high.
• Second: this high demand was imposed in the 1790s, a time
when the prices of agricultural produce were depressed,
making it difficult for the ryots to pay their dues to the
zamindar.
• The Company had recognised the zamindars as important,
but it wanted to control and regulate them, subdue their
authority and restrict their autonomy.
Pg 258-260
1.4 The rise of the jotedars
• Class of rich peasants known as jotedars had acquired vast
areas of land . They controlled local trade as well as
moneylending, exercising immense power over the poorer
cultivators of the region.
• Within the villages, the power of jotedars was more effective
than that of zamindars. Unlike zamindars who often lived in
urban areas, jotedars were located in the villages and
exercised direct control over a considerable section of poor
villagers.
The zamindars resist
• The Zamindars devised ways of surviving the pressures. New
contexts produced new strategies.
• Fictitious sale was one such strategy.
• When people from outside the zamindari bought an estate at
an auction, they could not always take possession. At times
their agents would be attacked by lathyals of the former
zamindar.
• Sometimes even the ryots resisted the entry of outsiders.
They felt bound to their own zamindar through a sense of
Period 3
Period 4
loyalty and perceived him as a figure of authority and
themselves as his proja (subjects).
Pg. 261-263
1.6 The Fifth Report
• It was the fifth of a series of reports on the administration
and activities of the East India Company in India. Often
referred to as the Fifth Report.
• The Fifth Report was a report produced by a Select
Committee. It became the basis of intense parliamentary
debates on the nature of the East India Company’s rule in
India.
2. The Hoe and the Plough
2.1 In the hills of Rajmahal
Pg.263-269
2.2 The Santhals: Pioneer settlers
• As the Company consolidated its power and expanded its
commerce, it looked for natural resources it could control
and exploit.
• Buchanan, undoubtedly an extraordinary observer, he
obsessively observed the stones and rocks and the different
strata and layers of soil.
• When Buchanan wrote about a landscape, he most often
described not just what he saw, what the landscape was like,
but also how it could be transformed and made more
productive – what crops could be cultivated, which trees cut
down, and which ones grown.
2.3 The accounts of Buchanan
Period 5
Period 6
Pg.270-274
3. A Revolt in the Countryside, The Bombay Deccan
• Through the nineteenth century, peasants in various parts of
India rose in revolt against moneylenders and grain dealers.
One such revolt occurred in 1875 in the Deccan
3.1 Account books are burnt.
3.2 A new revenue system
• The revenue system that was introduced in the Bombay
Deccan came to be known as the ryotwari system.
• Unlike the Bengal system, the revenue was directly settled
with the ryot. The average income from different types of
soil was estimated, the revenue-paying capacity of the ryot
was assessed and a proportion of it fixed as the share of the
state.
Pg.275-278
3.3 Revenue demand and peasant debt
3.4 The cotton boom
Pg.278-81
Period 7
Credit dries up
The experience of injustice
• The refusal of moneylenders to extend loans enraged the
ryots.
• Moneylending was certainly widespread before colonial rule
and moneylenders were often powerful.
• In one of the many cases investigated by the Deccan Riots
Commission, the moneylender had charged over Rs 2,000 as
interest on a loan of Rs 100. In petition after petition, ryots
complained of the injustice of such exactions and the
violation of custom.
• In 1859 the British passed a Limitation Law that stated that
the loan bonds signed between moneylenders and ryots
would have validity for only three years.
• Deeds and bonds appeared as symbols of the new oppressive
syste.
The Deccan Riots Commission
• The Government of Bombay to set up a commission of
enquiry to investigate into the causes of the riots. The
commission produced a report that was presented to the
British Parliament in 1878.
• The commission held enquiries in the districts where the riots
spread, recorded statements of ryots, sahukars and
eyewitnesses, compiled statistical data on revenue rates,
prices and interest rates in different regions
Pg.282-285
Period 8
Discussion of Question Answers from the book and Extra Marks
Period 9
Class Test
BLOOM PUBLIC SCHOOL
Vasant Kunj, New Delhi
Lesson plan 2016- 17
Class XII C
Subject History
Month – Aug-Oct, 2016
Chapter-61
The Rebel and the Raj
No of Periods: 9
WT: 3
TTT- 6
Chapter-61
The Rebel and the Raj
Broad Overview:
(a) The events of 1857-58.
(b) How these events were recorded and narrated.
Focus: Lucknow Excerpts: Pictures of 1857.
Extracts from contemporary accounts.
Discussion: How the pictures of 1857 shaped British opinion of
what had happened.
Objectives
•
•
•
•
Discuss how the events of 1857 are being reinterpreted.
Familiarize the students with how the mutiny began.
Discuss how visual material can be used by historians.
Understand the drawbacks of the revolt and analyse why it
failed.
Resources
•
•
•
•
•
NCERT Text Book
Extra marks smart class, Mind Map, SLM.
Topic wise question and Answer
Internet research/Videos and images from the internet
Study Material
Activities
Map Work
Assignment
Discuss the evidence that indicate planning and coordination
on the part of the rebels.(Prd 1)
Why did mutinous sepoys in many places turn to erstwhile
rulers to provide leadership to the revolt? (Prd 2)
“Rumours and prophecies played a part in moving people to
action.” Explain.
(Prd 3)
Why was revolt particularly widespread in Awadh? What
prompted peasants, taluqdars and zamindars to join the
rebellion? (Prd4)
“The dispossession of taluqdars meant the breakdown of the
entire social order”. Discuss.(Prd4)
What do visual representation tell us about the revolt of
1857? How do historians analyse these
representations?(Prd7)
Period 1
1. The pattern of the rebellion
1.1 How the mutinies began
•
•
•
•
The sepoys began their action with a signal: in many
places it was the firing of the evening gun or the
sounding of the bugle
When ordinary people began joining the revolt, the targets of
attack widened.
The mutiny in the sepoy’s ranks quickly became a rebellion.
There was a general defiance of all kinds of authority and
hierarchy
Lines of communication
•
•
•
The similarity in the pattern of the revolt in different places
lay partly in its planning and coordination. It is clear that
there was communication between the sepoy lines of various
cantonments.
Charles Ball, who wrote one of the earliest histories of the
uprising, noted that panchayats were a nightly occurrence in
the Kanpur sepoy lines.
Some of the decisions were taken collectively. The fact that
the sepoys lived in lines and shared a common lifestyle and
many of them came from the same caste, they would have
decided their own future. The sepoys were the makers of
their own rebellion.
Pg.289-91
Leaders and followers
•
Period 2
•
•
One of the first acts of the sepoys of Meerut was to rush to
Delhi and appeal to the old Mughal emperor to accept the
leadership of the revolt.
In Kanpur, the sepoys and the people of the town declared
Nana Sahib, the successor to Peshwa Baji Rao II, as their
leader.
In Jhansi, the rani was forced by the popular pressure
around her to assume the leadership of the uprising.
Kunwar Singh, a local zamindar in Arrah in Bihar.
In Awadh, the populace in Lucknow celebrated the fall of
British rule by hailing Birjis Qadr, the young
son of the Nawab, as their leader.
• In Lucknow, there were many religious leaders and selfstyled prophets who preached the destruction of British rule.
• Shah Mal mobilised the villagers of pargana Barout in Uttar
Pradesh; Gonoo, a tribal cultivator of Singhbhum in
Chotanagpur, became a rebel leader of the Kol tribals of the
region.
Rumours and prophecies
• The sepoys told Bahadur Shah about bullets coated with the
fat of cows and pigs and that biting those bullets would
corrupt their caste and religion.
• The British tried to explain to the sepoys that this was not the
case but the rumour that the new cartridges were greased
with the fat of cows and pigs spread like wildfire.
• There was the rumour that the British government had
hatched a gigantic conspiracy to destroy the caste and
religion of Hindus and Muslims and had mixed the bone dust
of cows and pigs into the flour that was sold in the market.
• There was fear and suspicion that the British wanted to
convert Indians to Christianity.
•
•
Pg.292-295
Why did people believe in the rumours?
Period 3
The rumours in 1857 begin to make sense when seen in the
context of the policies the British pursued from the late 1820s
•
•
•
•
Period 4
Governor General Lord William Bentinck, the British
adopted policies aimed at “reforming” Indian society by
introducing Western education Western ideas
and Western institutions. The British established
laws to abolish customs like sati (1829) and to permit
the remarriage of Hindu widows.
On a variety of pleas, like misgovernment and the refusal to
recognize adoption, the British annexed Awadh, Jhansi and
Satara.
The British introduced their own system of administration,
their own laws and their own methods of land settlement and
land revenue collection.
It seemed to the people that all that they cherished
and held sacred was being destroyed and replaced by a
system that was more impersonal, alien and oppressive.
Pg. 295
2. Awadh in Revolt
• In 1856, the kingdom was formally annexed to the British
Empire.
• The Subsidiary Alliance had been imposed on Awadh in
1801.
• Deprived of his armed forces, the Nawab became
increasingly dependent on the British to maintain law and
order within the kingdom. He could no longer assert control
over the rebellious chiefs and taluqdars.
• Lord Dalhousie’s annexations created disaffection in all the
areas and principalities especially in the kingdom of
Awadh.Nawab Wajid Ali Shah was dethroned and exiled to
Calcutta on the plea that the region was being misgoverned
2.1 “A cherry that will drop into our mouth one day”
2.2 “The life was gone out of the body”
2.3 Firangi raj and the end of a world
•
In Awadh, more than anywhere else, the revolt became an
expression of popular resistance to an alien order. The
annexation displaced not just the Nawab .It also dispossessed
the taluqdars of the region.
•
•
•
•
Period 5
The British were unwilling to tolerate the power of the
taluqdars. Immediately after the annexation, the taluqdars
were disarmed and their forts destroyed.
The Summary Settlement of 1856, undermined the authority
of the taluqdars it declared that the taluqdars were interlopers
with no permanent stakes in land: they had established their
hold over land through force and fraud.
The dispossession of taluqdars meant the breakdown of an
entire social order. The ties of loyalty and patronage that had
bound the peasant to the taluqdar were disrupted.
The relationship of the sepoys with their superior white
officers underwent a significant change. The officers
developed a sense of superiority and started treating the
sepoys as their racial inferiors.
Pg.296-98
3 What the Rebels Wanted
3.1 The vision of unity
The rebel proclamations in 1857 repeatedly appealed to all
sections of the population, irrespective of their caste and creed.
The proclamation that was issued under the name of Bahadur
Shah appealed to the people to join the fight under the standards
of both Muhammad and Mahavir.
3.2Against the symbols of oppression
Every aspect of British rule was attacked and the firangi accused
of destroying a way of life that was familiar and cherished. The
rebels wanted to restore that world.
3.3The search for alternative power
Once British rule had collapsed, the rebels in places
like Delhi, Lucknow and Kanpur tried to establish
some kind of structure of authority and administration.
In most cases these structures could not survive the British
onslaught.
Pg.300-04
Period 6
4. Repression
•
•
•
Period 7
Before sending out troops to reconquer North India, the
British passed a series of laws to help them quell the
insurgency. By a number of Acts, passed in May and June
1857 the ordinary processes of law and trial were suspended
and it was put out that rebellion would have only one
punishment – death.
The British began the task of suppressing the revolt. The
British mounted a two-pronged attack. One force moved
from Calcutta into North India and the other from the Punjab
–– to reconquer Delhi
The British used military power on a gigantic scale. In large
parts of Uttar Pradesh, where big landholders and peasants
had offered united resistance, the British promised to give
back to the big landholders their estates.
Pg. 305-06
5. Images of the Revolt
5.1 Celebrating the saviours
British pictures offer a variety of images that were meant to
provoke a range of different emotions and reactions.
•
•
Some of them commemorate the British heroes who saved
the English and repressed the rebels. “Relief of Lucknow”,
painted by Thomas Jones Barker in 1859, is an example of
this type.
“In Memoriam” painted by Joseph Noel Paton two years
after the mutiny.one can see English women and children
huddled in a circle, looking helpless and innocent, seemingly
waiting for the inevitable – dishonour, violence and death.
5.2 English women and the honour of Britain
5.3 Vengeance and retribution
5.4 The performance of terror
5.5 No time for Clemency
Pg. 307-12
5.6 Nationalist imageries
Period 8
Extra Marks/Map Work
Pg. 313
Period 9
Class Test