History

Novels, Society and History

Question:

In what ways was the novel In colonial India useful for both the colonisers as well as the nationalists?

Answer:

(i) Source of Information : Colonial administrators found the ‘vernacular' novels a valuable source of information on native life and customs. Such information was useful for them in governing Indian society, with its large and a variety of communities and castes.
As outsiders, the British knew little about life inside Indian households. The novels in Indian languages often had descriptions of domestic life.
(ii) Novels and colonialism : The novel originated in Europe at a time when it was colonizing the rest of the world. The early novel contributed to colonialism by marking the readers feel they were part of a superior community of fellow colonialists.
(iii) The novel and nation making : The history written by colonial historians tended to depict Indians as weak, divided, and dependent on the British. These histories could not satisfy the tastes of the new Indian administrators and intellectuals. Nor did the traditional Puranic stories of the past- peopled by gods and demons, filled with the fantastic and the supernatural- seem convincing to those educated and working under the English system. Such minds wanted a new view of the past that would show that Indians could be independent minded and had been so in history. The novel provided a solution. In it, the nation could be imagined in a past that also featured historical characters, places, events and dates.
(iv) Novels and struggle for freedom : The imagined nation of the novel was so powerful that it could inspire actual political movements. Banking's Anandamath (1882) is-a novel about a secret Hindu militia that fights Muslims to establish a Hindu Kingdom. It was a novel that inspired many kinds of freedom fighters.
(v) Novels and common sharing novelists included : Various classes in the novel in such a way that they could be seen to belong to a shared world. Premchand's novels, for instance, are filled with all kinds of powerful characters drawn from all levels of society. In his novels you meet aristocrats and landlords, middle level peasants and landless labourers, middle class professionals and people from the margins of society. The women characters are strong individuals, especially those who come from the lower classes and are not modernised.

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Novels, Society and History

Q 1.

Which novel supplied the adventurous text for the young English population ? [CBSE 2014]

Q 2.

Trace the history of novels of South India.

Q 3.

Name some important novelists who use to write for the young generation.
Or
Name some of the important novels for the young. [CBSE 2014]

Q 4.

Explain the themes and issues of the novels of Thomas Hardy. [CBSE 2011]

Q 5.

Who is the writer of the novel Germinal ? What was the theme of the novel ?

Q 6.

How most of the novels of the 19th century represented the true picture of the community and the society ?

Q 7.

Mention some important characteristics of novels which increased their popularity among the readers.

Q 8.

Name a novelist who has written about terrible effects of industrialisation on people's lives and character.

Q 9.

How most of the novels of the 19th century represented the true picture of the community and the society ?

Q 10.

Which was the first proper modem novel in Hindi ? What was its theme ?

Q 11.

Explain the following:
a) Social changes in Britain which led to an increase in women readers
b) What actions of Robinson Crusoe make us see him as a typical coloniser.
c) After 1740, the readership of novels began to include poorer people.
d) Novelists in colonial India wrote for a political cause.

Q 12.

What was the reason for the popularity of the novel?

Q 13.

What did the novels in the nineteenth- century India mean to :
(a) Women
(b) Children
Or
What was the attitude of people in India in the 19th century towards women reading ? How did women responded to this ? [CBSE Sept. 2010, 2011]

Q 14.

"Social changes in Britain led to an increase in women readers". Explain.
Or
Explain the factors that led to women writing novels in Europe. [CBSE 2012]

Q 15.

Which was the first modern novel in Nalayalam ? [CBSE 2014]

Q 16.

The Novel is about an epic about the Mallas, a community of fisherfolk who live off fishing in the river Titash. Identify the novel and the author.

Q 17.

Which was the first historical novel written in Bengal ?

Q 18.

Who wrote Saraswativijayam ? [CBSE 2014]

Q 19.

Who wrote Anandmath ? [CBSE 2014]

Q 20.

What were the favourite themes to women novelists in India? Explain giving any three examples. [CBSE 2012]

Q 21.

Outline the changes in technology and society which led to an increase in the readers of the novel in the eighteenth century Europe. [CBSE Sept. 2013]

Q 22.

Discuss some of the social changes in nineteenth-century Britain which Thomas Hardy and Charles Dickens wrote about.

Q 23.

Summarise the concern in both nineteenth-century Europe and India about women reading novels. What does this suggest about how women were viewed?

Q 24.

In what ways was the novel in colonial India useful for both the colonisers as well as the nationalists?

Q 25.

What was the reason for the popularity of the novel?

Q 26.

How did serialisation of novels increase the popularity of novels and magazines ? [CBSE 2012]

Q 27.

How did the novels play a significant role in awareness about the India's glorious past. [CBSE 2013]
Or
How did novels inspire the freedom fighters? Explain with two examples. [CBSE 2011]

Q 28.

How did novels promote colonialism ? Explain with an example of a novel. [CBSE Sept. 2010]
Or
What kind of novels were written for young boys in the 19th century ? Explain. [CBSE Sept. 2010]
Or
How did novels make themselves relevant to young boys ? [CBSE Sept. 2011]
Or
Explain any five features of novels written for the young in the last stage of 19 th century. [CBSE 2012]

Q 29.

What do you mean by epistolary novel ? Give One example.
Or
State the meaning of epistolary novel. Give one example for this type of novel. [CBSE 2013]

Q 30.

"The novels bring together many cultures". Explain. [CBSE 2010, 11]
Or
How did the novels bring together different cultures ?

Q 31.

Who was Charlotte Bronte ? How has she presented the picture of a woman in her novels ?
Or
Describe the depiction of women in the novels of Charlotte Bronte. [CBSE 2013]
Or
In which way was women depicted in Charlotte Bronte's novel Jane Eyre'? [CBSE 2011]

Q 32.

Explain the role of novelists in the field of social reforms in India with the help of any three examples. [CBSE Sept. 2010]

Q 33.

What is a novel ?

Q 34.

What are major differences between a novel and a manuscript ?

Q 35.

Who was another of Pamela a novel based on exchange of letters between two lovers.

Q 36.

Identify the person given in the image.

Q 37.

Who is the writer of the Novel Germinal ? What was the theme of the novel ?

Q 38.

Name a novelist who wrote about traditional rural communities of England that were vanishing.

Q 39.

Which was the first proper modem Hindi novel? Who was its author ?

Q 40.

Who was the author of Pariksha Guru ?

Q 41.

How did the vernacular novels help Britishers to expand their rule in India ?

Q 42.

Name any two novelists of South India. Also mention the names of the novels written by them.

Q 43.

Which was the first modem novel in Malayalam? When was it published ?

Q 44.

Who is the author of the novel Sewasadan'? What is the importance of the novel for the Hindi literature ?

Q 45.

During the 19th century, the early Bengali novelists lived in two worlds'. Explain.

Q 46.

Who was Rokeya Hossein ?

Q 47.

How novels helped in popularising the sense of belonging to a common nation ?

Q 48.

Name any two novels written by Munshi Premchand. [CBSE 2014]

Q 49.

Which was the first novel of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay ?

Q 50.

What is satire ? Give one example. [CBSE 2014]