History

Tracing Changes Through A Thousand Years

Question:

In what ways has the meaning of the term ‘Hindustan' charged over the centuries?

Answer:

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.

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Tracing Changes Through A Thousand Years

Q 1.

Why did Brahmanas dominate in the society during this period? [Imp.]

Q 2.

What was the basis of such division?

Q 3.

What sources do the historians use for the study of a particular period of history?[V. Imp.]

Q 4.

Who used the term Hindustan for the first time and when?

Q 5.

Who were scribes?

Q 6.

What does time mean for historians? How does it help them?  [V. Imp.]

Q 7.

Who is a cartographer'?

Q 8.

What difference do you trace out in the region of Hindustan of thirteenth century and the modem India?

Q 9.

What do you mean by Jati Panchayat?

Q 10.

Who used the term Hindustan for the first time and when?

Q 11.

Who were the patrons?

Q 12.

Who was the Chief of the village?

Q 13.

What was the major development of this age?

Q 14.

What were the new groups of people to be prominent in this age?  [V. Imp.]

Q 15.

Who was considered a foreigner in the past?

Q 16.

Who was al-Idrisi?

Q 17.

State whether true or false:

  • We do not find inscriptions for the period after 700.
  • The Maraihas asserted their political importance during this period.
  • Forest-dwellers were sometimes pushed out of their lands with the spread of agricultural settlements.
  • Sultan Ghiyasuddin Balban controlled Assam, Manipur and Kashmir.

Q 18.

What do you mean by pan-regional rule? What was its impact? [V. Imp.]

Q 19.

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.

Q 20.

What changes took place during 700 and 1750? [V. Imp.]

Q 21.

What are the difficulties historians face in using manuscripts?

Q 22.

How did the scribes copy down the manuscripts?

Q 23.

What do you mean by archives?

Q 24.

Trace out the major changes in the society during 700 and 1750? What was its main reason? [V. Imp.]

Q 25.

What difference do you notice in the map drawn by al-Idrisi?

Q 26.

What was the change in the religion of the time? Trace out major developments?  [V. Imp.]

Q 27.

How were the affairs ofjaiis regulated?

Q 28.

What factors contributed to the variety of developments?

Q 29.

How do the historians divide the past into periods? Do they face any problems in doing so?

Q 30.

List some of the technological changes associated with this period.

Q 31.

What were some of the major religious developments during this period?

Q 32.

In what ways has the meaning of the term ‘Hindustan' charged over the centuries?

Q 33.

How history was divided by historians during the middle of the nineteenth century?

Q 34.

What does the term pan-regional empire mean?

Q 35.

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?

Q 36.

What was the stretch of Delhi Sultan Ghiyasuddin Balban's Empire?

Q 37.

What was the process of copying manuscript? What were its drawbacks? [Imp.]

Q 38.

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.