NCERT Solutions for Class 8 Social Science History Chapter 7 Weavers, Iron Smelters and Factory Owners

Class 8 History Chapter 7 Weavers, Iron Smelters and Factory Owners InText Questions and Answers

Activity (Page 69)

Question 1.
Why do you think the Act was called the Calico Act? What does the name tell us about the kind of textiles the Act wanted to ban?
Answer:

The Act was called the Calico Act because this Act banned cotton textiles which were generally called Calico in Europe.
Indian cotton textiles.

Activity (Page 72)

Question 1.
Read sources 1 and 2 (given on Textbook Pg. 71, 72). What reasons do the petition writers give for their condition of starvation?
Answer:

They are weavers and do not know any other business.
Their ancestors and they used to receive advances from the company, which have been stopped. The aurangs have been abolished.
The weavers do not call at the house for buying yam.
If the yarn is sent to the market, it is still not sold even at one-fourth of the old prices. Activity (Page 75)

Activity (page 75)

Question 1.
Why would the iron and steel making industry be affected by the defeat of the nawabs and rajas?
Answer:
This was because the nawabs and rajas used swords and armor. So, the swords and armor-making industry died with the conquest of India by the British, and imports of iron and steel from England displaced the iron and steel produced by craftspeople in India.

Let’s Imagine (Page 79)

Question 1.
Imagine you are a textile weaver in late nineteenth-century India. Textiles produced in Indian factories are flooding the market. How would you have adjusted to the situation?
Answer:
I would have adjusted to the situation in the following ways:

I would have begun to produce that types of clothes which could not be supplied by machines.
I would produce saris with intricate borders, cloths with traditional woven patterns. These would have a wide demand amongst the rich and middle classes.
I would also produce the very coarse clothes used by the poor people in India.

Class 8 History Chapter 7 Weavers, Iron Smelters and Factory Owners Exercise Questions and Answers

Let’s recall

Question 1.
What kinds of cloth had a large market in Europe?
Answer:

Muslin
Calico
Chintz
Cossaes
Bandanna
Jamdani.

Question 2.
What is Jamdani?
Answer:
Jamdani is a fine muslin on which decorative motifs are woven on the looms, typically in grey and white colours. Often a mixture of cotton and gold thread was used. Important centres were Dacca in Bengal and Lucknow in United Provinces (now in Uttar Pradesh).

Question 3.
What is a bandanna?
Answer:
The word bandanna was meant by any brightly coloured and printed scarf for the neck or head.

Question 4.
Who are the Agaria?
Answer:
Agaria: Women and men who carried basket loads of iron ore on their heads were called Agarias in Chhattisgarh.

Question 5.
Fill in the blanks :
(a) The word chintz comes from the word ______.
Answer:
Chhint (Hindi)

(b) Tipu’s sword was made of ______ steel.
Answer:
Wootz

Let’s discuss

Question 6.
How do the names of different textiles tell us about their histories?
Answer:
European traders first saw fine cotton cloth from India carried by Arab merchants in Mosul in present-day Iraq. Hence, they began to refer to all finally woven textiles as muslino. When the Portuguese first came to India in search of spices, they landed in Calicut on the Kerala coast in south-west India. The cotton textiles which they took back to Europe came to be known as calico, which is derived from Calicut.

Printed cotton cloths called chintz, cossaes or khassa and bandanna were also in great demand. The chintz is derived from the Hindi word chhint, a cloth with small and colourful flowery designs. The word bandanna is referred to any brightly coloured and printed scarf for the neck or head. Originally, the term derived from the word ‘bandhna’ (Hindi for tying) and referred to a variety of brightly coloured cloth produced through a method of tying and dying.

Question 7.
Why did the wool and silk producers in England protest against the import of Indian textiles in the early eighteenth century?
Answer:
Due to the popularity of Indian woolen and silk textiles in England.

Their textile industry had just developed and they found themselves unable to compete with Indian goods.
They protested against the import to protect their market by the early 18th century.

Question 8.
How did the development of cotton industries in Britain affect textile producers in India?
Answer:
The development of cotton industries in Britain affected textile producers in India in several ways :

Indian textiles now had to compete with British textiles in the European and American markets.
Exporting textiles to England also became increasingly difficult since very high duties were imposed on Indian textiles imported into Britain.

Question 9.
Why did the Indian iron smelting industry declined in the nineteenth century?
Answer:
The forest laws prevented entry into reserved forests and made it difficult for smelters to find wood for charcoal and iron ore.

They often entered the forests secretly to collect wood. But they could not sustain their occupation for long.
In areas where access was given, they had to pay high taxes to forest departments for every furnace used, which reduced their income.
The Wootz steel-making process was widely known in south India. But it was completely lost by the mid-nineteenth century. The swords and armour making industry died with the conquest of India by the British.
And imports of iron and steel from England displaced the iron and steel produced by smelting in furnaces.
Iron smiths in India began using imported iron to manufacture utensils and implements, this further lowered demand of local steel.

Question 10.
What problems did the Indian textile industry face in the early years of its development?
Answer:

It found difficult to compete with the cheap textiles imported from Britain.
In most countries, government-supported industrialization by imposing heavy duties on imports. This eliminated competition and protected infant industries. The colonial government in India usually refused such protection to local industries.

Question 11.
What helped TISCO expand steel production during the First World War?
Answer:

TISCO (Tata Iron & Steel Company) was set up at a good time.
During the late nineteenth century, India imported steel from Britain.
Expansion of the Railways in India provided a huge market for rails that Britain produced.
British experts in the Indian Railways did not believe that good quality steel could be produced in India.
But by the time TISCO was set up the situation changed. In 1914 the First World War broke out. Steel produced in Britain now had to meet the demands of the war in Europe. So imports of British steel into India declined dramatically and the Indian Railways turned to TISCO for the supply of rails.
TISCO had to produce shells and carriage wheels for the war. By 1919 the colonial government was buying 90 percent of the steel manufactured by TISCO. Over time TISCO became the biggest steel industry within the British empire.

Let’s do

Question 12.
Find out about the history of any craft around the area you live. You may wish to know about the community of craftsmen, the changes in the techniques they use, and the markets they supply. How have these changed in the past 50 years?
Answer:
History of Handloom weaving: