Impact of ‘Rinderpest’ on people’s livelihoods and local economy in Africa were: (i) Rinderpest killed 90% of cattle in Africa. (ii) The loss of cattle destroyed Africa livelihood. (iii) Forced Africans into labour market. During the eighteenth century, Indian cotton was in high demand throughout the world. But with the starting of the nineteenth century, the demand for cotton declined drastically. The main reasons were:
(i) Industrial revolution in England: With the growth of cotton industry in England, Britain stopped importing cotton textile from India. Thus, the Indian textile industry started losing its control over international trade.
(ii) Indian weavers failed to compete in market: The local market was flooded with Manchester goods (goods imported from Britain). Those imported cotton goods were so cheap that Indian weavers could not easily compete with them.
(iii) Shortage of raw material: Due to the American civil war, cotton supplies from the US was cut off, Britain turned to India. As cotton exports from India increased, the price of raw cotton increased. Weavers in India did not get sufficient cotton and they were forced to buy raw cotton at high prices.
The problems faced by the cotton weavers in India during 19th century are as follows: (i) A long decline of textile exports from India made them jobless and revenue less. Weaving regions of India narrated sorrowful stories.
(ii) The local market shrank, being glutted with Manchester imports. The imports from Manchester were considered superior. They had thus monopolized the market and this further resulted in decrease in their sales.
(iii) Produced by machines at lower costs, the imported cotton goods were so cheap that weavers could not easily compete with them.
(iv) By the 1860s, the weavers began to face a new problem. They could not get sufficient supply of raw cotton of goods quality. Civil War had broken out and cotton supplies from the US were cut off and then Britain had to turn to India for raw cotton. As cotton exports from India increased, the price of raw cotton shot up. Weavers in India were starved of supplies and forced to buy raw cotton at exorbitant prices. In this, situation they suffered heavy losses and problems.
(v) Factories in India began production, flooding the market with machine goods increasing more problems.
Three steps taken to clean up London during nineteenth century were:
Large blocks of apartment were built. It had been proved that housing scheme brought a magical change in the urban area where land was very important.
The British rulers with the help of local councils made approximate 1 million houses and rent control was introduced to check housing shortage.
Green belt was created around London.
Demands were made for new lungs for the city and some attempts were made to bridge the differences between the city and countryside by making green belt around London.
The ‘Print Revolution’ transformed the lives of people changing their relationship to information and knowledge and with institution and authorities. It influenced popular perception and opened up new ways of looking at things: (i) Printing reduced the cost of books. The time and labour to produce each book came down and multiple copies were being produced with greater ease. (ii) Due to easy access to books, illiterate persons could listen to the sacred texts of religious books, folk tales and ballads being recited. (iii) Before print revolution, books were not only expensive but they could not be produced in sufficient numbers. Now books can reach out to wider sections of people.
(i) For both, the novelists, Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte, the main idea of novels centered around women but both of them had different ideas and opinions. (ii) The first line of Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and prejudice’ states that “It is a universally acknowledged truth, that a single man in possession of good fortune, must be in want of a wife”. This observation of Austen can be simplified that women were always preoccupied with perception of marriage and money.
(iii) In Charlotte Bronte’s ‘Jane Eyre’, young Jane is shown as independent and assertive, while girls of her time were expected to be quite and well behaved. Jane at the age of ten, protests against the hypocrisy of her elders with startling bluntness. The novels of Jane Austen give us a glimpse of the world of women in genteel rural society in early-nineteenth-century Britain. They make us think about a society which encouraged women to look for ‘good’ marriages and find wealthy or propertied husbands.
This allows us to see the behaviour of the main charactrers, who are preoccupied with marriage and money, as typifying Austen’s society.
On the other hand, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, published in 1874, dealt with women who broke established norms of society before adjusting to them. Such stories allowed women readers to sympathise with rebellious actions.
(i) India has witnessed intensive industrialization and urbanization for the last few years. The ever-increasing number of industries has made matter worse by exerting pressure on existing fresh water resources. Freshwater is required in thermal energy plants and steel industries on a large scale.
(ii) Industries, apart from being heavy users of water also require power to run it which in turn needs additional water.<bt>
(iii) We have to consider a situation where water is sufficiently available but these areas still suffer from water scarcity. This scarcity may be due to bad quality of water or polluted water
(i) Whether for an individual or for any industry use, materials and services are required on daily basis. Goods and services do not move from supply points to demand locals on their own. The movement of these goods and services from supply location to demand locations necessitates the need of transport.
(ii) Movements of these goods and services can be over three important domains of our earth i.e., land, water and air. Based on these, transport is divided/classified into land, water and air transport.
(iii) The pace of development of a country and region depends upon the production of goods and services as well as their movement over space within the shortest time. Therefore, efficient means of transport are prerequisite for fast development.
A major step towards decentralization was taken in 1992. The ‘ constitution was amended to make the third tier of democracy more powerful and effective:
Now it is constitutionally mandated to hold regular elections for local government bodies
Seats are reserved in the elected bodies and the executive heads of these institutions for SC/ST/Backward classes. At least one-third of all positions are reserved for women.
An independent institution called the State Election Commission has been created in each state to conduct Panchayat and Municipal elections.
The State Governments are required to share some powers and revenue with local government bodies.
Three factors which determine the outcome of politics of social division are:
Peoples’ perception of their identities: When this is singular, the accommodation of other identifies becomes difficult.
Representation of a community by political leaders: While representing a community if politicians raise demands that are constitutional then it is easier to accommodate those demands.
The government’s reaction: If the reasonable demands of a community are suppressed by the government, then it leads to social division, which in turn threaten the integrity of the country.
Secularism is not just an ideology of some parties or person. This idea constitutes one of the foundations of our country. This fact has been part of various constitutional provisions, stated herein:
There is no official religion for the Indian state. The constitution provides all individuals and communities freedom to profess, practice and propagate any religion, or not to follow any.
The constitution prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion.
At the same time, the constitution allows the state to intervene in the matters of religion in order to ensure equality within religious communities. For example, it bans untouchability.