NCERT Solutions Class 9 Social Science (India and the Contemporary World – I)
The NCERT Solutions in English Language for Class 9 Social Science (India and the Contemporary World – I) Chapter – 5 (Pastoralists in the Modern World) has been provided here to help the students in solving the questions from this exercise.
Chapter – 5 (Pastoralists in the Modern World)
Questions
1. Explain why nomadic tribes need to move from one place to another. What are the advantages to the environment of this continuous movement?
Answer – Nomadic tribes move from one location in order to maintain their sustenance and way of life. As they are involved in animal husbandry, the availability of water is paramount to their existence, along with fresh pastures for their animals. When the pasture is depleted, they move to the next area, looking for new grazing grounds.
The advantages to the environment are as follows:
- The environment gets a chance to regrow and recover, thus maintaining the ecological balance of the area.
- It prevents overgrazing, as it will lead to the depletion of future grazing grounds.
- The manure of the animals helps in fertilising the soil, which will be instrumental in repeating the nomadic process of moving from one location to another a possibility.
2. Discuss why the colonial Government in India brought in the following laws. In each case, explain how the law changed the lives of the pastoralists.
(i) Wasteland Rules
(ii) Forest Acts
(iii) Criminal Tribes Act
(iv) Grazing Tax
Answer –
(i) Wasteland rules : The colonial government considered any uncultivated land as unproductive. If this land could be transformed into cultivated farmland, it would result in an increase in land revenue and production of crops such as jute, cotton and wheat. This is why the Waste Land rules were formulated. However, they sounded the death knell for pastoralists because increase in cultivated land meant an obvious decline in pastures, and a consequent loss of a means of livelihood for them.
(ii) Forest Acts : Forest Acts were also enacted in different provinces during the mid-nineteenth century. Through these Acts, some forests which produced commercially valuable timber like ‘deodar’ or ‘sal’ were declared reserved. No pastoralist was allowed access to these forests. This act changed the lives of the pastoralists. The colonial officials believed that grazing destroyed the saplings and young shoots of trees that germinated on the forest floor.
(iii) Criminal Tribes Act : The British government eyed nomadic people with suspicion and disregard on account of their continuous movement. They could not be tracked down or placed in one particular place, unlike rural people in villages who were easy to identify and control. Hence, the colonial power viewed nomadic tribes as criminal. The Criminal Tribes Act was passed in 1871 and it further ruined the lives of the pastoralists who were now forced to live in notified settlements, and were disallowed from moving out without a government permit.
(iv) Grazing Tax : This was introduced in the 1850s to increase the government’s revenue income. The pastoralists were also badly hit by the higher tax that contractors exacted from them in order to make some private profit. Pastoralists could not afford to pay tax on cattle per head, and the only means to enter a grazing tract was by payment. All this led to tremendous losses for them.
3. Give reasons to explain why the Maasai community lost their grazing lands.
Answer – The Maasais lost their grazing lands due to the following reasons:
- In 1885, Maasai land was cut in half by an international boundary between British Kenya and German Tanganyika.
- The best pastures were reserved for white settlements, and the Maasai tribes were given arid zone with uncertain rainfall and poor pastures into a small area in south Kenya and north Tanzania.
- The British colonial government in east Africa also encouraged local peasant communities to expand cultivation. As cultivation expanded, pasturelands were turned into cultivated fields.
- Large areas of grazing land were also turned into game reserves where pastoralists were not allowed to enter.
- This lack of good grazing lands and a two-year drought led to losses of almost 60% cattle belonging to the Maasai tribes.
Thus, with the expansion of British colonisation, the Maasai community lost their grazing lands.
4. There are many similarities in the way in which the modern world forced changes in the lives of pastoral communities in India and East Africa. Write about any two examples of changes which were similar for Indian pastoralists and the Maasai herders.
Answer – There are many similarities in the way in which the modern world forced changes in the lives of pastoral communities in India and East Africa. Two changes that were similar for Indian pastoralists and the Maasai herders are as follows:
(i) Both communities lost their grazing lands due to the preference given to cultivation.
(ii) Both communities were nomadic, and hence, were regarded with extreme suspicion by the colonial powers governing them. This led to their further decline.
