NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Social Science History Chapter 4 Forest Society and Colonialism
Textbook Exercises
Question 1.
Discuss how the changes in forest management in the colonial period affected the following groups of people :
(i) Shifting cultivators
(ii) Nomadic and pastorals communities
(iii) Firms trading in timber/forest produce
(iv) Plantation owners
(v) Kings/British officials engaged in shikar.
Answer:
(i) The shifting.cnltivalors were not allowed to burn, the forests as was the practice traditionally. The colonial rulers thought that such a practice could not possibly provide timber for the railway tracks. They also forbade them to burn the forests for fear of fires and flames spreading over to other areas. And then shifting cultivation made for the government harder to calculate taxes.
(ii) The changes made in the forest management during the colonial period put the nomadic and the pastoral communities to governmental regulation, for earlier, these communities used to have trade in forest products such as hides, horns, silk cocoons, ivory, bamboo, spices, fibres grasses, gums etc. Their trade was, to an extent, restricted.
(iii) The trading firms/mostly Europeans, had t^ve benefits, given to them by the colonialists, of monopolising the trade in the forest products. This ultimately rooted the traditional nomadic and pastoral communities, banjaras especially.
(iv) The European colonialists cleared – large areas of natural forests and gave the European planters at cheap rates. The plantation in tea and coffee and nibber benefitted the fpreignres. On the one hand, die colonialists restricted the natives, to desist, the. forests products, and on the other, helped the European planters to make use of the forest areas for tea, coffee and rubber.
(v) At one point of time, hunting was allowed. Tire kings, the Nawab’s, the British officials indulged in hunting when it was regarded adventurism. The colonialists did allow this without knowing that they were disturbing the ecological balance. However in independent India, hunting has been banned; it was banned for the common people during the colonial rule.
Question 2.
What are the similarities between colonial management of the forests of Bastar and in Java?
Answer:
The following are the similarities between the colonial management of the forests in Basta r and in Java.
- The people of Bastar and Java resisted the foreigners (the English and the Dutch respectively) the new changes made by the colonialists in forest management.
- The people of Bastar and of Java, in fact, rebelled against the foreigner colonialists.
- In both cases, the colonialists suppressed the uprisings.
- In both cases the forest laws were so made that they went oh to benefit the colonialists and harm the natives.
- In both cases, the timber was used for railway and ship building and, thus, in both cases, forest timber was used for the same purposes.
- In both cases the native labour was exploited by the colonialists as free labour.
Question 3.
Between 1880 and 1920, forest cover in the Indian subcontinent declined by 9.7 million hectares, from 108.6 million hectares to 98.9 million hectares. Discuss the role of the following factors in this decline:
— Railways
— Shipbuilding
— Agricultural expansion
— Commercial farming
— Tea/Coffee plantations
— Adivasis and other peasant users.
Answer:
Between 1800 and 1920, the forest cov er in the Indian subscontinent declined by 9.7 million hectares from 108.6 million hectares to 98.9 million hectares. This was because of the laws passed by the colonial rulers who made use of forests for their own benefits. They used the forest timber for railway tracks and in shipbuilding. Another factor responsible for the decline in forest cover has been the expansion in agricultural activities; more agriculture means more clearing of forests. Commercial farming too was another factor. The European planters, in course of tea, coffee and rubber plantains, took large areas of forest coyer; The adivasis, the nomads and the pastoral communities used the cleared forest areas for-grazing and other purposes.
Question 4.
Why are forests affected by wars?
Answer:
The World War I and II had an important impact on forests. In India the working plans were abandoned and the forest department cut freely trees to meet the British war needs. The timber was used for war industries.
These Solutions are part of NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Social Science. Here we have given NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Social Science History Chapter 4 Forest Society and Colonialism.