Ncert Solutions for Class 7 Social Science Chapter 1 – Tracing Changes Through a Thousand Years
Page No 14:
Question 1:
Who was considered a “foreigner” in the past?
Answer:
In the past a foreigner was someone who was not part of a certain society or culture. A city dweller might have regarded a forest dweller as a foreigner.
Question 2:
State whether true or false:
(a) We do not find inscriptions for the period after 700.
(b) The Marathas asserted their political importance during this period.
(c) Forest-dwellers were sometimes pushed out of their lands with the spread of agricultural settlements.
(d) Sultan Ghiyasuddin Balban controlled Assam, Manipur and Kashmir.
Answer:
(a) False
(b) True
(c) True
(d) False
Question 3:
Fill in the blanks:
(a) Archives are places where ___________ are kept.
(b) _____________ was a fourteenth-century chronicler.
(c) _______, ________, ________, ________ and _______ were some of the new crops introduced into the subcontinent during this period.
Answer:
(a) Archives are places where manuscripts are kept.
(b) Ziyauddin Barani was a fourteenth-century chronicler.
(c) Potatoes, corn, chillies, tea and coffee were some of the new crops introduced into the subcontinent during this period.
Question 4:
List some of the technological changes associated with this period.
Answer:
Some of the technological changes associated with this period are − the Persian wheel, the spinning wheel and firearms in combat.
Page No 15:
Question 9:
What are the difficulties historians face in using manuscripts?
Answer:
While using manuscripts, the historians face a number of difficulties. Manuscripts were written with hand and as a result there were small but significant difference between any two copies. The scribes who copied them introduced changes. As a result historians have to read different manuscript versions of the same text to guess what the authors had originally written.
Question 10:
How do historians divide the past into periods? Do they face any problems in doing so?
Answer:
Historians divide the past into periods based on the economic and social factors which characterize them. In doing so they are faced with two problems. First, economic and social changes keep taking place hence definite boundaries cannot be drawn. Second, these periods are compared with modernity. Modernity gives a sense of progress. This implies that there was no progress before, which is not true.
Question 5:
What were some of the major religious developments during this period?
Answer:
Major religious developments of this period are the inclusion of new deities in Hinduism, emergence of bhakti and the introduction of Islam.
Question 6:
In what ways has the meaning of the term “Hindustan” changed over the centuries?
Answer:
Over the centuries there has been a vast change in the meaning of the term “Hindustan”. Today it is understood as India, the modern nation state. In the thirteenth century the term stood for the lands under the Delhi Sultanate. Babur used the term to describe the geography, culture and fauna of the subcontinent.
Question 7:
How were the affairs of jatis regulated?
Answer:
The affairs of the Jatis were regulated by an assembly of elders, known in some areas as the jati panchayat.
Question 8:
What does the term pan-regional empire mean?
Answer:
The term pan-regional empire is applied to an empire which stretches over many regions. The Mughal empire is a good example of such an empire.
