NCERT Solutions for Class 10 Social Science History Chapter 6 Work, Life and Leisure

NCERT Solutions for Class 10 Social History Chapter 6 Work, Life and Leisure

Q.1. Give three reasons why the population of London expanded from the middle of the eighteenth century.
[CBSE 2008 ID). Sept. 2010. 2011]
Ans.
By 1750, the population of London was about 675,000. Its population, however, continued to expand. Between 1810 and 1880 it increased from 1 million to about 4 million. ”

The reasons for this increase were as given below :

Migrant populations: London was a powerful magnet for migrant populations. Even though it did not have large factories. Historian Gareth Stedman Jones says, “Nineteenth-century London was a city of clerks and shopkeepers, of small masters and skilled artisans, of a growing number of semi-skilled and sweated out workers, of soldiers and servants, of casual labourers, street sellers and beggars”.
Dockyards and industries: Apart from the London dockyards, there were five major industries – clothing and footwear, wood and furniture, metals and engineering, printing and stationery, and precision products such as surgical instruments, watches, and objects of precious metal. These industries attracted large number of people.
World War I: During the First World War (1914-18) London began manufacturing motor cars and electrical goods. The number of large factories increased and ultimately they accounted for nearly one-third of all jobs in the city.

Q.2. What were the changes in the kind of work available to women in London between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries? Explain the factors which led to this change.
Ans.
(i) Employment in Factories: In the 18th and the 19th centuries, a large number of women were employed in the factories because, during that period, most of the production activities were carried with the help of the family.

(ii) Technological Developments and loss of jobs: But with technological advancement, women gradually lost their industrial jobs and were forced to do household work. They also tried to increase the family income by activities like tailoring, washing or matchbox making.

(iii) Employment during War: However, in the 20th century, women again started getting employed in wartime industries and offices because most of the male citizens were fighting at the front.

Q.3. How does the existence of a large urban population affect each of the following? Illustrate with historical examples.
(a) A private landlord.
(b) A Police Superintendent in charge of law and order.
(c) A leader of a political party.
Ans.
(a) A private landlord: The existence of a large urban population enables a private landlord to earn more and more money. For example, after the Industrial Revolution, the increase in the migrant population in London led to housing problems. Factory owners did not house the migrant workers. Under such conditions, private landlords took advantage of the situation. They put up cheap and usually unsafe tenements for the new arrivals to earn money quickly. A tenement was run-down and often overcrowded apartment house, especially in a poor section of a large city.

(b) A Police Superintendent in charge of law and order: The existence of a large urban population creates law and order problems for a Police Superintendent. For example, the population of London increased from 675,000 in 1750 to four million in 1880. At that time i.e., in the 1870s, there were about 20,000 criminals in the city. It was a great problem and the police was worried about this. Crime had become an object of widespread concern. Philanthropists were anxious about public morality, and industrialists wanted a hardworking and orderly labour force. In such a situation the job of the Police Superintendent incharge of law and order was tough.

Thus in order to control the situation, the population of criminals was counted. Their activities were watched, and their ways of life were investigated. Not only criminals, children of poor families too became thieves because crime was more profitable than labouring in small underpaid or low paid factories. Poor adults also resorted to petty thieving. Thus, the existence of large urban population creates many problems for a Superintendent of Police incharge of law and order and he has to work hard to control the situation.

(c) A leader of a political party: A large population affects a leader of a political party., because he is representative of the people and is supposed to protect their interests. A large 5 population means more problems and more and more involvement of leader in those problems. It is both a threat and an opportunity. It may lead to strikes and riots as had happened in London i in 1886 and 1888. Political leaders in the government or outside the government support or oppose the mass agitations in their own interest or in the interest of the people. The leaders have to see and save the interests of the people cautiously in order to remain popular among the population/voters of the constituency.

Q.4. Give explanations for the following :
(a) Why did the well off Londoners support the need to build housing for the poor in the nineteenth century?
(b) Why were a number of Bombay films about the lives of migrants?
(c) What led to the major expansion of Bombay’s population in the mid-nineteenth century?
Ans.
(a) Well-off Londoners supported the need to build housing for the poor in the nineteenth century due to the following reasons :

Threat to public health: The poor were living in one-room houses which were over¬crowded. These houses were badly ventilated and lacked sanitation. Thus, these houses were a threat to public health.
Fire hazards: There were worries about fire hazards created by poor housing. In case of a fire, it was difficult to control it due to overcrowding of the area.
Social order: There was fear of social disorder among the poor, especially after the Russian Revolution in 1917. Many of the criminals were in fact poor people who met their needs
by stealing and other methods. As the areas of one-room houses of the poor were overcrowded, it was easy for the criminals or petty thieves to commit the crimes.
Thus, under these circumstances, the need to build houses for the poor was supported by the well-off Londoners in the nineteenth century.

(b) A number of Bombay films were about the lives of migrants because most of the people in the film industry were themselves migrants who came from cities like Lahore, Calcutta and Madras. They contributed to the national character of the industry. Those who came from Lahore, then in Punjab, were especially important for the development of the Hindi film industry. Many famous writers like Ismat Chughtai and Saadat Hasan Manto, were associated with Hindi cinema. These migrants knew the problems of people coming to Bombay and tried to highlight the same in the films that dealt with their encounters with the real pressures of daily life as well as contradictory aspects of the city. For example, in the film CID (1956) the hero sings, ‘Ai dil hai muskil jeena yahan; zara hatke zara bachke, ye hai Bombay merijaan.’ It means ‘My heart, it is difficult to live here! Move over a little, take care of yourself! This is Bombay my love!’

The major expansion of Bombay’s population in the mid-nineteenth century was due to the following reasons:

In the beginning, it was a major outlet for cotton textiles from Gujarat. In the nineteenth century, the city functioned as a port through which large quantities of raw materials such as cotton and opium would pass.
Bombay became capital of the Bombay Presidency in 1819, after the Maratha defeat in the Anglo-Maratha war. This led to its expansion.
As the trade of cotton and opium grew, large communities of traders and bankers, artisans and shopkeepers came to settle in Bombay. 4
The establishment of textile mills led to a fresh surge in migration. The first cotton textile mill in Bombay was established in 1854. By 1921, there were 85 cotton mills with about 146,000 workers.
Only about one-fourth of Bombay’s inhabitants between 1881 and 1931 were born in Bombay. The rest came from outside. Large numbers flowed in from the nearby district of Ratnagiri to work in the Bombay mills.
Maritime trade also attracted a large number of people to the city.
Bombay was at the junction head of two major railways. The railways also encouraged higher migration into the city. For example, the famine in the dry regions of Kutch drove large numbers of people into Bombay in 1888-89. As a result of above factors the population of Bombay increased from 644,405 in 1872 to nearly 1,500,000 in 1941.

Q.5. What forms of entertainment came up in the nineteenth century England to provide leisure activities for the people?
Ans. (i) London Season: For wealthy Britishers, there had long been an annual ‘London Season. Several cultural events, such as the opera, the theatre, and the classical music performances were organised for an elite group of 300-400 families in the late eighteenth century.
(ii) Pleasure gardens: Pleasure gardens came in the 19th century to provide facilities for sports, entertainment, and refreshments for the well-to-do.
(iii) Pubs for working-class: Working classes met in pubs to have a drink: exchange news and sometimes, also to organise for political action.
(iii) Libraries and museums: Libraries, art galleries, and museums were established in the nineteenth century to provide people with a sense of history and pride in the achievements of the British.
(iv) Music halls and cinemas: Music hails were popular among the lower classes and, by the early twentieth century, cinema became the great mass entertainment for the mixed audiences
(vi) Beaches: British industrial workers were increasingly encouraged to spend their holidays by the sea. so as to derive the benefits of the sun and the bracing winds.

Q.6. (a) Explain the social changes in London which led to the need for the Underground Railway.
[CBSE 2009 (O), Sept. 2010,2011] (b) Why was the development of the Underground Railway criticized?
[CBSE Sept. 2010, 2011]
Ans
(a) (i) Industrialisation was the most important factor responsible for the urbanisation in the modem period.

(ii ) London soon started emerging as a great industrial centre with a population of about 6,75,000. Over the 19th century, London continued to expand, and its population multiplied fourfold.

(iii) The city of London attracted people from all walks of life like clerks, shopkeepers, soldiers, servants, labourers, beggars, etc.

(iv) The living conditions in London changed dramatically when people started migrating from the countryside to the city in search of jobs. This was largely because accommodation was not provided to the labourers by the factory owners.

(v) The labourers had to live in cheap and unsafe tenements provided by the individual landowners.

(vi) Poverty was clearly visible in the city. In 1887, Charles Booth conducted a survey, and concluded that about one million landowners were very poor, and were expected to live only upto an average age of 29. These people were more likely to die in a workhouse, hospital or a lunatic asylum. Meanwhile, the city had extended beyond the range where people could walk to work. So the planners realised the need for a means of transport.

(b) (i) Many fell that the “iron monsters added to the mess and unhealthiness of the city.
(ii) To make approximately two miles of railway, about 900 houses had to be destroyed.
(iii) The London Tube Railway led to a massive displacement of the London poor.

Q.7. Explain what is meant by the Haussmannization of Paris. To what extent would you support or oppose this form of development? Write a letter to the editor of a newspaper, to either support or oppose this, giving reasons for your view.
Ans.
Haussmannization of Paris: It simply means that the new city o: Pahs was designed by the chief architect of the new Paris. At the instance of Napoleon 111 (a nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte). Haussmann built the new city of Paris for a continuous 17 years (between 1852 ro 1869). He designed straight, broad avenues (or boulevards), and open spaces and transplanted full-grown trees. By 1370. about one-fifth of the streets of Paris were the creation of Haussmann. In addition, night patrols were introduced, bus shelters were built, and tap water was introduced.

The opposition of Haussmannization: Many opposed this form o: development About 3.50.000 people were evicted from the centre of Paris. Some said that the city of Paris had been monstrously transformed. Some lamented the passing of an earlier way of life and the development of upper-class culture. Others believed that Haussmann had killed the street and its life to produce an empty boring city.

Arguments in Support of Haussmannization: The new Pans city soon got converted into a civic pride as the new capital became the toast of all of Europe. Paris became the hub of many new architectures. social and intellectual developments that were very influenced through the 20th century in many parts of the world.
Letter to the Editor to Self Explanatory.

Q.8. To what extent docs government regulations and new laws solve problems of pollution? Discuss one example each of the success and failure of legislation to change the quality of :
(a) public life
(b) private life
Ans.
The government regulations and new laws had a mixed history of the successes and failures:
(i) New legislations in London were not taken seriously by the factory owners. They were not ready to spend on technologies that would improve their machines.
(ii) The Smoke Abatement Acts of 1847 and 1853 failed to clean the air.
(iii) Calcutta (Kolkata) became the first Indian dry to get the smoke nuisance legislation.
(iv) In 1920. the nee mills of Tollygunge began to burn rice husk instead of coal, leading residents to complain that ’the air is filled up with black soot which falls like drilling rain from morning rill night, and it has become impossible to live’. The inspectors of the Bengal Smoke Nuisance Commission finally managed to control the industrial smoke.