Class 8 History Chapter 1 How, When and Where Extra Questions and Answers are provided here. These Extra Questions with solution are prepared by our team of expert teachers who are teaching in CBSE schools for years. Extra questions for Class 8 History Chapter 1 will help you to properly understand a particular concept of the chapter.

How, When and Where Class 8 History Extra Questions and Answers

Very Short Answer Type Question

1. When The National Archives of India came up?

Answer: The National Archives of India came up in the 1920s.

2. How did paintings project Governor-Generals?

Answer: Paintings projected Governor-Generals as powerful figures.

3. Who became the first governor general of British India?

Answer: Warren Hastings became the first Governor-General of India in 1773.

4. What did James Mills think about all Asian societies?

Answer: Mill thought that all Asian societies were at a lower level of civilisation than Europe.

5. How have historians divided Indian history?

Answer: Historians have usually divided Indian history into ‘ancient’, ‘medieval’ and ‘modern’.

6. What do you mean by the term ‘ colonisation’?

Answer: When one country subjugates another country which leads to political, economic, social and cultural changes refer to colonisation.

7. Who was James Mill?

Answer: James Mill was a Scottish economist and political philosopher, who published a massive three-volume work, A History of British India.

8. Who wrote the book ‘A History of British India’?

Answer: In 1817, James Mill, a Scottish economist and political philosopher, published a massive three-volume work, A History of British India.

Short Answer Type Questions

1. What do you understand by history?

Answer: History is certainly about changes that occur over time. It is about finding out how things were in the past and how things have changed.

2. With what did the British historians associate the modern period?

Answer: The British modern period was associated with the growth of all the forces of modernity – science, reason, democracy, liberty and equality.

3. What evil practices, according to James Mill, dominated the Indian social life before the British came to India?

Answer: Religious intolerance, caste taboos and superstitious practices dominated social life.

4. What was an important aspect of the histories written by the British historians in India?

Answer: In the histories written by British historians in India, the rule of each Governor- General was important.

5. What official records do not tell?
Or
What were the things that official records did not tell?

Answer: Official records do not always help us understand what other people in the country felt, and what lay behind their actions.

6. Mention the events for which specific dates can be determined.

Answer: The year a king was crowned, the year he married, the year he had a child, the year he fought a particular war, the year he died, and the year the next ruler succeeded to the throne.

7. Why do many historians refer to modern period as colonial?

Answer: Under British rule people did not have equality, freedom or liberty. Nor was the period one of economic growth and progress. Many historians therefore refer to this period as ‘colonial’.

8. Who are calligraphists? How were they important in the early nineteenth century?

Answer: Calligraphists are those who are specialized in the art of beautiful handwriting. In the early years of the nineteenth century documents were carefully copied out and beautifully written by calligraphists.

9. Mention one important source used by historians in writing about the last 250 years of Indian history.
Or
What sources do historians use in writing about the last 250 years of Indian history?

Answer: One important source is the official records of the British administration. Other sources include diaries of people, accounts of pilgrims and travellers, autobiographies of important personalities, and popular booklets that were sold in the local bazaars.

10. What do official records not tell? How do we come to know about them?
Or
What official records do not tell? From where do we get such information?

Answer: Official records do not always help us understand what other people in the country felt, and what lay behind their actions. For that we have diaries of people, accounts of pilgrims and travellers, autobiographies of important personalities, and popular booklets that were sold in the local bazaars.

11. Why did the British preserve official documents?

Answer: The British believed that the act of writing was important. Every instruction, plan, policy decision, agreement, investigation had to be clearly written up. Once this was done, things could be properly studied and debated. This conviction produced an administrative culture of memos, notices and reports.

12. By what criteria do we choose a set of dates as important?

Answer: The dates we select, the dates around which we compose our story of the past, are not important on their own. They become vital because we focus on a particular set of events as important. If our focus of study changes, if we begin to look at new issues, a new set of dates will appear significant.

13. Why do we try and divide history into different periods?

Answer: We do so in an attempt to capture the characteristics of a time, its central features as they appear to us. So the terms through which we periodise – that is, demarcate the difference between periods – become important. They reflect our ideas about the past. They show how we see the significance of the change from one period to the next.

14. How did the British conquer India and establish their rule?

Answer: British came to conquer the country and establish their rule, subjugating local nawabs and rajas. For this, they established control over the economy and society, collected revenue to meet all their expenses, bought the goods they wanted at low prices, produced crops they needed for export. They also brought changes about in values and tastes, customs and practices.

Long Answer Type Questions

1. How did the invention of the printing press help in spreading news and information?

Answer: In the early years of the nineteenth century documents were carefully copied out and beautifully written by calligraphists. By the middle of the nineteenth century, with the spread of printing, multiple copies of these records were printed as proceedings of each government department. As printing spread, newspapers were published and issues were debated in public. Leaders and reformers wrote to spread their ideas, poets and novelists wrote to express their feelings.

2. What did the British do to preserve important official documents and letters?
Or
Why did the British set up record rooms attached to all administrative institutions?

Answer: The British also felt that all important documents and letters needed to be carefully preserved. So they set up record rooms attached to all administrative institutions. The village tahsildar’s office, the collectorate, the commissioner’s office, the provincial secretariats, the lawcourts – all had their record rooms. Specialised institutions like archives and museums were also established to preserve important records.

3. James Rennel was supporter of British Rule in India. Discuss.

Answer: Rennel was asked by Robert Clive to produce maps of Hindustan. An enthusiastic supporter of British conquest of India, Rennel saw preparation of maps as essential to the process of domination. He had produced the first map in 1782. The frontispiece to the first map tries to suggest that Indians willingly gave over their ancient texts to Britannia – the symbol of British power – as if asking her to become the protector of Indian culture.

4. Why we continue to associate history with a string of dates?
Or
What was the reason behind the use of dates in history?

Answer: This association has a reason. There was a time when history was an account of battles and big events. It was about rulers and their policies. Historians wrote about the year a king was crowned, the year he married, the year he had a child, the year he fought a particular war, the year he died, and the year the next ruler succeeded to the throne. For events such as these, specific dates can be determined, and in histories such as these, debates about dates continue to be important.

5. How did James Mill view India?

Answer: James Mill’s view about India

• Mill thought that all Asian societies were at a lower level of civilisation than Europe.
• According to his telling of history, before the British came to India, Hindu and Muslim despots ruled the country. Religious intolerance, caste taboos and superstitious practices dominated social life.
• British rule, Mill felt, could civilise India. Mill, in fact, suggested that the British should conquer all the territories in India to ensure the enlightenment and happiness of the Indian people. For India was not capable of progress without British help.

6. What is the problem with the periodisation of Indian history that James Mill offers?
Or
The Periodisation of Indian History made by James Mill during 1817 was unjustified. Why?

Answer: James Mill divided Indian history into three periods—Hindu, Muslim and British. This periodisation has its own problem.

• It is not correct to refer to any period of history as ‘Hindu’ or ‘Muslim’ because a variety of faiths existed simultaneously in these periods.
• It is also not justified to characterise an age through the religion of the rulers of the time. To do so is to suggest that the lives and practices of the others do not really matter.
• It is worth-mentioning that even rulers in ancient India did not all share the same faith.

7. Historians divide Indian history into ancient, medieval and modem. But this division too has its problems. What are these problems?
Or
Historians divided history into ancient, medieval and modern period. What is the problem with this periodisation?
Or
‘Dividing Indian history into ancient, medieval and modern periods by historians too has its problem’ Explain.
Or
Historians have divided Indian history into ‘ancient’, ‘medieval’ and ‘modern’. What problems does this division have?

Answer: Moving away from British classification, historians have usually divided Indian history into ‘ancient’, ‘medieval’ and ‘modern’. This division too has its problems.

• It is a periodisation that is borrowed from the West where the modern period was associated with the growth of all the forces of modernity – science, reason, democracy, liberty and equality. Medieval was a term used to describe a society where these features of modern society did not exist.
• It is difficult to accept this characterisation of the modern period because under British rule people did not have equality, freedom or liberty. Nor it was the period one of economic growth and progress. Many historians therefore refer to this period as ‘colonial’.

8. How important are dates?
Or
“History is boring because it is all about memorizing dates.” Is such a conception true?
Or
In the common-sense notion, history was synonymous with dates. Discuss

Answer: History is certainly about changes that occur over time. It is about finding out how things were in the past and how things have changed. As soon as we compare the past with the present we refer to time, we talk of “before” and “after”. But time does not have to be always precisely dated in terms of a particular year or a month. Sometimes it is actually incorrect to fix precise dates to processes that happen over a period of time. Similarly, we cannot fix one single date on which British rule was established, or the national movement started, or changes took place within the economy and society. All these things happened over a stretch of time. We can only refer to a span of time, an approximate period over which particular changes became visible.

9. How did surveys become important under the colonial administration?
Or
Explain the importance of survey under the colonial administration.
Or
Why did surveys become a common practice under the colonial administration?

Answer: The practice of surveying also became common under the colonial administration. The British believed that a country had to be properly known before it could be effectively administered. By the early nineteenth century detailed surveys were being carried out to map the entire country. In the villages, revenue surveys were conducted. The effort was to know the topography, the soil quality, the flora, the fauna, the local histories, and the cropping pattern – all the facts seen as necessary to know about to administer the region. From the end of the nineteenth century, Census operations were held every ten years. These prepared detailed records of the number of people in all the provinces of India, noting information on castes, religions and occupation. There were many other surveys – botanical surveys, zoological surveys, archaeological surveys, anthropological surveys, forest surveys.