1. Which among the following statements about the partition is incorrect?
(a) Partition of India was the outcome of the “two-nation theory.”
(b) Punjab and Bengal were the two provinces divided on the basis
of religion.
(c) East Pakistan and West Pakistan were not contiguous.
(d) The scheme of partition included a plan for transfer of
population across the border.
2. Match the principles with the instances:
(a) Mapping of boundaries i. Pakistan and
on religious grounds Bangladesh
(b) Mapping of boundaries on grounds ii. India and
of different languages Pakistan
(c) Demarcating boundaries within a iii. Jharkhand and
country by geographical zones Chhattisgarh
(d) Demarcating boundaries within a iv. Himachal Pradesh
country on administrative and and Uttarakhand
political grounds
3. Take a current political map of India (showing outlines of states) and
mark the location of the following Princely States.
(a) Junagadh (b) Manipur
(c) Mysore (d) Gwalior
4. Here are two opinions –
Bismay: “The merger with the Indian State was an extension of
democracy to the people of the Princely States.”
Inderpreet: “I am not so sure, there was force being used. Democracy
comes by creating consensus.”
What is your own opinion in the light of accession of Princely States and
the responses of the people in these parts?
5. Read the following very different statements made in August 1947 –
“Today you have worn on your heads a crown of thorns. The seat of
power is a nasty thing. You have to remain ever wakeful on that seat….
you have to be more humble and forbearing…now there will be no end
to your being tested.” — M.K Gandhi
“…India will awake to a life of freedom….we step out from the old to the
new…we end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself
again. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of
opportunity…” — Jawaharlal Nehru
Spell out the agenda of nation building that flows from these two
statements. Which one appeals more to you and why?
6. What are the reasons being used by Nehru for keeping India secular?
Do you think these reasons were only ethical and sentimental? Or were
there some prudential reasons as well?
7. Bring out two major differences between the challenge of nation
building for eastern and western regions of the country at the time of
Independence.
8. What was the task of the States Reorganisation Commission? What
was its most salient recommendation?
9. It is said that the nation is to a large extent an “ imagined community”
held together by common beliefs, history, political aspirations and
imaginations. Identify the features that make India a nation.
10. Read the following passage and answer the questions below:
“In the history of nation-building only the Soviet experiment bears
comparison with the Indian. There too, a sense of unity had to be forged
between many diverse ethnic groups, religious, linguistic communities
and social classes. The scale – geographic as well as demographic
– was comparably massive. The raw material the state had to work with
was equally unpropitious: a people divided by faith and driven by debt
and disease.” — Ramachandra Guha
(a) List the commonalities that the author mentions between India
and Soviet Union and give one example for each of these from
India.
(b) The author does not talk about dissimilarities between the two
experiments. Can you mention two dissimilarities?
(c) In retrospect which of these two experiments worked better and
why?