Page 116 - Understanding NCERT Histroy 09th

4. Assertion (A): Tax was imposed on land, canal water, salt, on trade goods, and even on
grazing animals.
Reason (R): To expand its revenue income, the Colonial government looked for every
possible source of taxation.
Goyal Brothers Prakashan
Ans. (a)

III. Case Study Based Questions
l Further to the east,in Garwal and Kumaon, the Gujjar cattle herders came down to the dry
forests of the bhabar in the winter, and went up to the high meadows – the bugyals – in
summer. Many of them were originally from Jammu and came to the UP hills in the nineteenth
century in search of good pastures.
1. Where do Gujjar cattle herders live?
Ans. They reside in Garhwal and Kumaon regions of Uttarakhand.
2. What do Gujjars herd? Why?
Ans. They herd mainly buffaloes. They live by selling milk, ghee, butter-milk.
3. Explain the terms ‘bhabar’ and ‘bugyals’.
Ans. Bhabar – Dry forested area below the foothills of Garhwal and Kumaon.
Bugyals – Vast meadows in high mountains.
l The accounts of many travellers tell us about the life of pastoral groups. In the early nineteenth
century, Buchanan visited the Gollas during his travel through Mysore. He wrote: ‘Their
families live in small villages near the skirt of the woods, where they cultivate a little ground,
and keep some of their cattle, selling in the towns the produce of the dairy. Their families
are very numerous, seven to eight young men in each being common. Two or three of these
attend the flocks in the woods, while the remainder cultivate their fields, and supply the towns
with firewood, and with straw for thatch.’ From: Francis Hamilton Buchanan, A Journey from
Madras through the Countries of Mysore, Canara and Malabar (London, 1807).
1. Whom did Buchanan visit and where?
Ans. Buchanan visited Golla tribe in Mysuru.
2. How did the families earn a living?
Ans. They cultivated a small piece of land and herded cattle. They sold dairy products in nearby
town.
l In the 1920s, a Royal Commission on Agriculture reported: ‘The extent of the area available
for grazing has gone down tremendously with the extension of area under cultivation
because of increasing population, extension of irrigation facilities, acquiring the pastures for
Government purposes, for example, defence, industries and agricultural experimental farms.
[Now] breeders find it difficult to raise large herds. Thus their earnings have gone down. The
quality of their livestock has deteriorated, dietary standards have fallen and indebtedness has
increased.’ The Report of the Royal Commission of Agriculture in India, 1928.
1. What are the causes for shrinking grazing grounds?
Ans. Extension of area under cultivation, extension of irrigation facilities, government’s
acquisition of pasture lands for defence, industries and other purposes.

2. Why do breeders find it difficult to raise large herds?
Ans. They have stopped herding large herds because of dwindling pastures.
3. What are effects of shrinkage of pasture lands?
Ans. Earnings of cattle herders have come down. The quantity of cattle has deteriorated, their
dietary standards have fallen. Their indebtedness has increased.

History Class IX H-107