We have provided you with Extra and Important Questions from Class 10 Social Science History Chapter 6 Work, Life and Leisure. This Extra and Important Questions will help you to score 100% in your Board Exams. These extra questions will be helpful to revise the important topics and concepts.

Work, Life and Leisure Class 10 Important Questions with Answers History Chapter 6

Extra Questions for Class 10 History Chapter 6 Very Short Answer Type

Question: Who wrote the novel, Debganer Martye Aagaman (The Gods Visit Earth) ?

Answer: Durgacharan Ray.

Question: What type of opportunities were available in the city of Calcutta in the nineteenth century ?

Answer: For trade and commerce, education and jobs.

Question: Which Gods visited Calcutta ?

Answer: Brahma with some other gods.

Question: Why the gods were disturbed on their visit to Calcutta ?

Answer: They were disturbed on seeing cheats, thieves, poverty and poor quality of housing.

Question: Name any two ancient cities along the river valleys.

Answer: Nippur and Mohenjodaro.

Question: Which three historical processes have shaped modern cities in decisive ways ?

Answer:

• Rise of industrial capitalism.
• The establishment of colonial rule over large parts of the world.
• The development of democratic ideals.

Question: What do you understand by metropolis ?

Answer: A metropolis is a large densely populated city of a country or state, often the capital of the Regine.

Question: What is urbanisation ?

Answer: Urbanisation implies development of a city or town.

Question: Which is the largest city in the world ?

Answer: London.

Question: State any one factor that changed the form of urbanisation in the modem period.

Answer: Industrialisation.

Question: Why did the women loose their industrial jobs and were forced to work within household in the late 18th century and early 19th century ?

Answer: With technological developments, women lost their industrial jobs, and were forced to work within households. The 1861 census recorded that of a quarter of a million domestic servants in London, majority were women.

Question: Which book was written by clergyman Andrew Meams ?

Answer: The Bitter Cry of Outcast London.

Question: What was importance of the Compulsory Elementary Education Act of 1870 and factory acts ?

Answer: These acts kept children out of industrial work. The children could not be employed in factories/industries.

Question: Who was Charles Booth and what did he do in 1887 ?

Answer: Charles Booth was a Liverpool shipowner. In 1887, he conducted the first social survey of low-skilled London workers in the East End of London.

Question: Why did larger number of people begin to recognise the need for housing for the poor in London ? State any one reason.

Answer: One room houses occupied by the poor were overcrowded, badly ventilated and lacked sanitation. As such these houses were seen as a serious threat to public health.

Question: What was a tenement ?

Answer: It was a overcrowded apartment house in a poor section of a large city.

Question: Where was the first section of the underground railway opened in the world ?

Answer: The first section of the underground railway was opened on 10 January 1863 between Paddington and Farrington Street in London.

Question: State one bad effect of construction of the London tube railway.

Answer: To make approximately two miles of railway, 900 houses had to be destroyed. Thus it led to massive displacement of London poor.

Question: What were presidency cities ?

Answer: Presidency cities were the capitals of the Bombay, Bengal and Madras Presidencies in British India.

Question: When did Bombay come under the control of the British and how ?

Answer: In 1661, control of the islands (Bombay was a group of seven islands) passed into British hands after the marriage of Britain’s King Charles II to the Portuguese princess.

Extra Questions for Class 10 History Chapter 6 Short Answer Type

Question: “City of Calcutta fascinated the Gods as described in the novel written by Durgacharan Ray.” Explain.

Answer: In the novel, ‘The Gods Visit Earth’ Durgacharan Ray writes that when Gods – Brahma, the creator in Hindu mythology along with other Gods, Varuna, the Rain God etc., visited Calcutta, they were fascinated by the big, modern city’s marvels as mentioned below :

• Train
• The large ships on the river Ganges
• Factories belching smoke
• Bridges and monuments
• A dazzling array of shops selling a wide range of commodities. The gods were so impressed that they decided to build a Museum and a High Court in Heaven.

Question: “Calcutta in the nineteenth century was a city of contrasts.” How far this reflected in Durgacharan Ray’s novel, Dehganer Martye Aagaman ?

Answer: The city life of Calcutta presented contrasting images of opportunities as mentioned below :

• Wealth and poverty : People were wealthy as well as poor. There was grinding poverty and the poor quality of housing.
• Splendour and dirt: There were bridges and monuments and a dazzling array of shops selling wide range of commodities. On the other hand, large quantities of refuse and waste products polluted air and water.
• Opportunities and disappointments : There were beaming opportunities for trade and commerce, education and jobs. But there was another aspect of life – its cheats, thieves, its grinding poverty and the poor quality of housing for many. Brahma himself was cheated by shopkeepers when he was buying a pair of shoes.Similarly the gods were disappointed due to caste and religious identities in the city.

Thus, the city offered a series of contrasting images and experiences.

Question: Enumerate the major characteristics of an ancient town.

Answer: The major characteristics of an ancient town were as given below :

1. The ancient towns and cities such as Ur, Nippur and Mohenjodaro appeared along river valleys.
2. They were larger in scale than the other human settlements.
3. The development of ancient cities was based on increase in food supplies to support a wide range of non-food producers.
4. Cities were often the centers of political power, administrative network, trade and industry, religious institutions, and intellectual activities.
5. The cities supported artisans, merchants, priests and other social groups.

Question: Why Charles Booth, a Liverpool shipowner stated, “London needed there building of at least 400,000 rooms to house its poorest citizens” ?

Answer: The reasons for the statement by Charles Booth that London needed the rebuilding at least 400,000 rooms to house its poorest citizens were as follows :

• One million Londoners (about one-fifth of the population of London at that time) were very poor.
• Their average life expectancy was 29 years as against the life expectancy of 55 among the gentry and the middle class.
• The poor had no houses. These people were more than likely to die in a ‘work house, hospital or lunatic asylum’.

Question: Mention the various measures which were taken to decongest London in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Answer: The following steps were taken to decongest localities, green the open spaces, reduce pollution and landscape the city :

• Large blocks of apartments were built just like those in Berlin and New York, the cities which had similar housing problems.
• The congestion in the nineteenth century industrial city also led to a yearning for clean country air. Many wealthy residents of London constructed holiday homes in the country¬side.
• Demands were made for new ‘lungs’ for the city and attempts were made to bridge the difference between city and countryside through such ideas as the Green Belt around London.
• Architect and planner Ebenezer Howard developed the principle of the Garden City, a pleasant space full of plants and trees, where people would both live and work.He also believed that this would also produce better quality citizens,
• Raymond Unwin and Barry Parker designed the Garden City of New Earswick. There were common garden spaces and beautiful views in this city. However, only rich people could afford houses in the Garden City.
• Rent control was introduced in Britain during the First World War to ease the impact of a severe housing shortage.
• Between the World Wars (1914-1939), the responsibility for housing working classes was accepted by the British state. A million houses, most of them single family cottages, were built by local authorities.Thus the city of London was cleaned and decongested.

Question: “The London underground railway eventually became a huge success.” Support the statement with example.

Answer: It is true that the underground railway was criticised on many grounds as it displaced the poor people of London but ultimately it was a huge success as mentioned below :

1. By the twentieth century, most large metropolises such as New York, Tokyo and Chicago could not do without their well-functioning transit systems.
2. As a result of the railway, the population in the city became more dispersed.
3. Better planned suburbs and a good railway network enabled large numbers to live outside central London and travel to work.
4. The new conveniences wore down social distinctions and also created new ones.

Question: What were the changes in the kind of work available to women in London between the 19th and the 20th centuries ?

Answer: The different kinds of work available to women in London between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were as mentioned below :

• Factories employed large number of women in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
• With technological developments, women gradually lost their industrial jobs and were forced to work within households.
• The 1861 census recorded a quarter of a million domestic servants in London, of whom the vast majority were women, many of them recent migrants.
• A large number of women used their homes to increase family income by taking in lodgers or through such activities as tailoring, washing or matchbox making.
• There was a change once again in the twentieth century. As women got employment in wartime industries and offices, they withdrew from domestic service.

Question: Give examples to prove that large masses of people could be drawn into political causes in the city or give some examples of politics in the cities.

Answer: Sometimes people take part in rebellion or riot or strike to force the civic authorities to take action in a particular case such as to reduce poverty. Some incidents that took place in London are given below :

• People’s march in winter of 1886 : About 10,000 poor of London took part in a march from Xleptford to London in the winter of 1886. They demanded relief from terrible conditions of poverty. Shopkeepers were alarmed and closed down their shops. Police dispersed the marchers.
• Riot in 1887 : A riot took place in 1887. It was brutally suppressed by the police. This day of riot is known as the Bloody Sunday of November 1887.
• London dockworkers’ strike : In 1889, thousands of London’s dockworkers remained on 12 days strike which was called to gain recognition for the dockworkers’ union.These examples show that large masses of people could be drawn into political causes in the city like London. This also shows that a large city population was thus both a threat and an opportunity. To overcome such situations, state authorities went to great lengths to reduce the possibility of rebellion and enhance urban aesthetics, as the-example of Paris shows.

Question: What was the position of urbanisation in India till the beginning of the 20th century ?

Answer:

1. Urbanisation in India was slow under the colonial rule. The number of cities was small.
2. In the early twentieth century, no more than 11 per cent of the Indians were living in cities.
3. A large proportion of these urban dwellers were residents of three Presidency cities.
4. The Presidency cities were multifunctional cities because they had major ports, warehouses, homes and offices, army camps as well as educational institutions, museums and libraries.

Question: What were effects of famine of 1888-89 and epidemic of plague 1898 on the ‘ population migration to Bombay ?

Answer:

1. Famine in the dry regions of Kutch drove large numbers of people into Bombay in 1888-89.
2. The flood of migrants in some years created panic and alarm in official circles.
3. Worried by the influx of population during plague epidemic of 1898, district authorities sent about 30,000 people back to their places of origin by 1901.

Extra Questions for Class 10 History Chapter 6 Long Answer Type

Question: How the use of coal in the factories in the industrial cities of England polluted the environment ? How was it controlled ?

Answer: (1) The widespread use of coal in homes and industries in the 19th century England raised serious problems as mentioned below :

1. In industrial cities such as Leeds, Bradford and Manchester, hundreds of factory chimneys spewed black smoke into the skies.
2. People joked that most inhabitants of these cities grew up believing that the skies were grey and all vegetation was black.
3. Shopkeepers, homeowners and others complained about black fog that descended on their towns, causing bad tempers, smoke-related illnesses and dirty clothes.

(2) How smoke was controlled :

When people first joined campaigns for cleaner air, the goal was to control the nuisance through legislation. This was not at all easy since factory owners and steam engine owners did not want to spend on technologies that would improve their machines. By the 1840s, a few towns such as Derby, Leeds and Manchester had laws to ‘ control smoke in the city.

But the smoke was not easy to monitor or measure and owners got away with small adjustments to their machinery that did nothing to stop the smoke. Moreover, the Smoke Abatement Acts of 1847 and 1853, as they were called, did not always work to clear the air.

Question: How did the development of cities influence the ecology and environment in late nineteenth century ? Explain by giving example of Calcutta (Kolkata).

Answer: (1) City development everywhere occurred at the expense of ecology and environment as mentioned below :

1. Natural features were destroyed or transformed to meet the growing demand of land for factories, housing and other institutions.
2. Large quantities of refuse and waste products polluted air and water.
3. Excessive noise affected the hearings of the people.

(2) In Kolkata, the development of the city influenced the ecology and environment badly in the late nineteenth century. Kolkata had a long history of air pollution. The main reasons for air pollution were as given below :

1. Huge population depended on dung and wood as fuel in their daily life.
2. The industries and establishments that used steam engines ran on coal.
3. In 1855, the introduction of railways brought coal from Raniganj. The high content of ash in coal polluted the air. The high content of ash in Indian coal was a problem. Many pleas were made to banish the dirty mills from the city with no effect. However, in 1863, Calcutta became the first Indian city to get smoke nuisance legislation.
4. In 1920, the rice mills of Tollygunge began to burn rice husk instead of coal, leading residents to complain that “the air is filled up with black soot which falls like drizzling rain from morning till night and it has become impossible to live.”
5. As a result of above complaints, the inspectors of the Bengal Smoke Nuisance Commission finally managed to control industrial smoke. Controlling domestic smoke, however, was far more difficult.

Question: Why is Bombay a city of dreams for some, while a city of hardship for others ? Explain.

Answer: (1) City of dreams :

1. Bombay is rightly called a city of dreams because a number of people come from other places in search of jobs or to work in the film industry. It has become India’s film capital. In 1947, 756 million were invested in 50 films and by 1987 the film industry employed 520,000 people. The Bombay films have contributed in a big way to produce an image of the city.
2. Industries provide jobs to large number of people from the neighbouring areas.
3. It is a junction of two railways. That has increased its importance.

(2) City of hardships :

1. There is an acute housing problem.
2. A large number of migrants live in chaivls and slums.
3. It is a costly city. It makes the lives of the poor miserable.

Question: Describe any five features of land reclamation in Bombay.

Answer:(1) Land Reclamation is the process of reclaiming of marshy or submerged area or other wasteland for settlements, cultivation or other use.

(2) Causes for land reclamation :

1. There was shortage of land.
2. It was a land of seven islands that were separated.
3. The population increased in the early 20th century.
4. The industrial development also required more land.

(3) Projects :

1. The earliest project began in 1784. The Bombay Governor William Horn by approved the building of the great sea wall which prevented the flooding of the low-lying areas of Bombay.
2. In 1864, the Back Bay Reclamation Company reclaimed the western foreshore from the tip of Malabar Hill to the end of Colaba. Reclamation often meant the leveling of the hills around Bombay.
3. The Bombay Port Trust built a dry dock between 1914 and 1918. It created the 22-acre Ballard Estate by using the excavated earth.
4. Later on Marine Drive of Bombay was developed. It was built on land reclaimed from the sea in the twentieth century.

Question: What were the chawls ? Describe the living conditions in chawls.

Answer: (1) Chawls were multistoried structures. These were largely owned by private landlords looking for quick ways of earning money from anxious migrants. Each chawl was divided into smaller one-room tenements which had no private toilets.

(2) The living conditions in chawls were as mentioned below :

1. The average number of occupants of a room were between 4 and 5.
2. High rents forced the workers to share their rooms with relatives or caste fellows.
3. People had to keep the windows of kilter rooms closed even in humid weather due tothe ‘close proximity’ of filthy gutters, privies, buffalo stables etc.
4. Water was scarce, and people often quarrelled every morning for a turn at the tap. The houses were, however, kept clean.
5. As the homes were small, the streets and neighbourhoods were used for cooking, washing and sleeping.
6. Liquor shops and akharas were opened in the empty spot.
7. The magicians, monkey players or acrobats used to perform their acts in the open space in the middle of chawls.
8. Chawls became the places where people exchanged news about jobs, strikes, riots or demonstrations.
9. Caste and family groups in the neighbourhood were headed by a person like a village headman.
10. The ‘depressed classes’ or the lower castes were not allowed to live in many chawls. They lived in shelters made of corrugated sheets, leaves or bamboo poles.

Question: “From its earliest days Bombay did not grow according to any plan.” Explain. What were its effects ?

Answer: (1) It is a fact that from its earliest days Bombay did not grow according to any plan and houses especially in the Fort area, were interspread with gardens. Its effects were as mentioned below :

1. Bombay Fort area was divided into two sections, namely, ‘native town’, where most of the Indians lived, and European or ‘white’ section.
2. A European suburb, and an industrial area developed to the north of the Fort settlement area, with a similar suburb and cantonment in the south.

(2) Effects : The effects of early development of Bombay are as given below :

1. It developed on the racial pattern where Europeans enjoyed more facilities than the Indians.
2. The rapid and unplanned expansion led to crisis of housing and water supply. The setting up of the textile mills increased the housing problem.
3. European elite, the richer Parsi, Muslim and upper caste traders and industrialists of Bombay-dived in sprawling, spacious bungalows while more than 70 per cent of the working people lived in chawls.
4. 90 per cent of mill workers lived in Girangaon, a mill village, near the mills.