In what ways has the meaning of the term ‘Hindustan' charged over the centuries?
It has been observed that language and its interpretation change with the change of time. The term Hindustan' was used for the first time by Minhaj-i Siraj, a thirteenth century Persian chronicler. He, with this term, meant the areas of Punjab, Haryana and the lands between the Ganga and Yamuna. It was used in a political sense for lands constituting a part of the dominions of the Delhi Sultan. Though the term shifted with the extent of the Sultanate but it never included south India. Later in the sixteenth century, Babur, while using this term, meant the geography, the fauna and the culture of the inhabitants of the subcontinent. A fourteenth-century poet Amir Khusrau also used the term Hind' almost in the same sense. The remarkable point is that while the idea of geographical and cultural entity like India' did exist, the term Hindustan' did not carry the political and national meanings that we associate with it today.
What sources do the historians use for the study of a particular period of history?[V. Imp.]
What difference do you trace out in the region of Hindustan of thirteenth century and the modem India?
State whether true or false:
Fill in the blanks:
(a) Archives are places where………….. are kept.
(b) …………….was a fourteenth-century chronicler.
(c) ……., ……., ………, ……… and ………… were some of the crops introduced into the subcontinent during this period.
Trace out the major changes in the society during 700 and 1750? What was its main reason? [V. Imp.]
What was the change in the religion of the time? Trace out major developments? [V. Imp.]
How do the historians divide the past into periods? Do they face any problems in doing so?
Find out where records are kept in your village or city. Who writes these records? Is there an archive? Who manages it? What kinds of documents are stored there? Who are the people who use it?
Compare either Map 1 or Map 2 with the present-day map of the subcontinent listing as many similarities and differences as you can find.