History

May/June 2015

Q1) a) it tells us that robert clive had persuaded the nawabs commander Mir Jafar to betray the
nawab. The nawab started the gunfire which proved ineffective as they did not protect their
gunpowder when it rained. Thus, the british backfired and killed 500 of his soldiers. Betrayal by
the Nawabs commander made the british victorious.

b) the picture shows a british officer riding a horse while the indians walk around him which
indicates the british’s superiority against the indians. The height difference between the local
indians and the british officer suggests how the british were more powerful than the indians. The
east india company was known to be wealthy thus the decorative uniforms indicate wealth. The
horses the officer rides on is shown as a magnificent ride which again shows the british as a
superior power in india.

c) the british were more powerful as they had more modern weapons and a well trained and
disciplined army. This turned out to be an advantage for them as the indian army was not well
trained or had the money to buy more advanced military supplies. The british also owned
gunpowder which was advanced in front of the Indians swords and shields.

The british used their vast military skills to use when they took part in the battle of Plassey and
buxar. The victory at these battles made the british more powerful in terms of land power.
Bengal which was captured did not only bring british with an area they could control but also
provided the british with vast riches. The introduction of governor generals by the british in India
aided in increasing the control of the british in india. The british chose these governor generals
in terms of who is willing to control India under the british’s commands.

d) Indians had opposed the british due to many reasons which consisted of christian
missionaries converting the indians. The british sent christian missionaries to india who forcibly
converted the hindu, muslim and sikh community. This was opposed creately by the Indians as
they saw this as a threat to their religion.

The british did not stop here at making attempts to westernize India, they removed Sanskrit and
persian as the official language of India and replaced it by english. A change in the official
language of India to english made the Indians more eager as this attacked their language and
culture.

The british also went ahead to introduce a number of social reforms without any consultation
with the local indians. These reforms including those about schools; christianity was to be taught
in every school and co education was implemented. Christianity being taught at school and
making education co-ed made the Indians worry as this attacked social norms and religion of all
hindus, muslims and sikhs of india.
The british also introduced of other reforms such as abolishing the muslim pardah, banning of
killing baby girls and ban on suttee. Abolishing the pardah was opposed widely by the muslims
as it was a religious practise while sutte was a practise for Hindus to burn the widow with her
husband's body. However, the british failed to impose these laws.

In my opinion, the christian missionaries were the main reason to oppose the british as they
carried out forcefully converting hindu, muslims and sikhs. Other reasons also led the indians to
oppose but the forcefully converting muslims attacked the religion of indians.

Q2) a) Tipu sultan became the ruler after the death of his father Haider ali. He was the ruler of a
princely state of India and came out as a fierce opposition to the british. He was however,
receiving many attacks from his neighbour the marathas. He defeated the british who were led
by Sir hector. His defeat came when his relative deceived him and made the british victorious.
His two sons were taken by the british.

b) urdu was the best language of the region as it was also understood by muslims all over the
subcontinent. Urdu is a language that consists of persian,turkish,arabic and hindi. As the
language consists of many languages it was understood widely. It has also been the language
of muslims for over 300 years.

After independence, the need to choose a national language arose. With vast types of people
came the vast languages to choose from. Quaid-e-Azam made the decision to make urdu the
national language as it was not only the language of the muslims in the subcontinent for over
300 years but was also a mixture of all languages and could be understood widely. Urdu was
also the language that was used through ot the muslim struggle to get their separate muslim
state and all their political movements.

c) sir syed worked many wonders to help the muslims of that time thrive. His belief was that te
muslims of that time could only thrive when the relations between the british and muslims would
be better. He also believed that the muslims getting educated would help the muslims achieve a
better role in the society.

The muslims relations with the british deteriorated after the war of independence 1857. The
british believed that the cause of the uprising was all the muslims fault. Sir Syed took it upon
himself and made attempts to make the relation between the two better. He wrote books such
as ‘the causes of the revolt’ to help explain that all the fault was not because of muslims and
that it was because of a misunderstanding. He also wrote a book about the similarities between
christianity and islam to help improve the relations.

Sir Syed made attempts to get the muslims to take western education. He wanted to make the
muslims take western education so that they could gain all the knowledge and advance in the
world. He also took initiatives to get muslims educated by opening the muhammadan anglo
oriented college. He wanted the muslims to get educated so they could come to the level of the
Hindus in the sub-continent as they by receiving western education were succeeding.
He also wrote the two nation theory in which he concluded that Hindus and muslims can not
work together in any situation. This was a result as the hindus opposed urdu as the official
language and how hindus were a majority in the assembly and in no way would muslims ever
win a majority in that case. To increase the political power of muslims sir syed also suggested
having separate electorates.

In my opinion, sir syed’s most important work was improving relations between the british and
muslims. As this would help the muslims prosper in the subcontinent. By improving the relations
between the two the muslims would be amongst the advanced world and would be an equal in
the society. While his attempts to get the illiteracy rate down and raise the political power of the
muslims were also quite outstanding, however, improving relations between the british and the
muslims came out the most important.

Q3) a) the all india khilafat conference was held in delhi led by the Ali brothers. Gandhi attended
as the representative of india; while also trying to unite Hindus and muslims under his non-
violent protest against the british. The conference talked about the british aiming to punish
Turkey for going to war against britain. The conference decided to send a delegation to Britain
showing how they supported Turkey and to convince the british to not take any action against
turkey.

b) jinnah introduced his 14 points to form the basis demands of the muslim league. The muslims
now demanded a separate muslim homeland which was included in the 14 points of jinnah. The
muslims had now realised more than ever that living in the same place as Hindus could not be
done. With the british leaving India soon the demand for a separate homeland for muslims rose,
it was a now or never situation for the muslims. The league had understood that if they waited
till the independence the hindus would have overruled and would lead the muslims to not getting
a separate homeland.

Jinnah’s 14 points also made the basis of any future discussions with the congress party or the
british. The points covered all