Question 1:
What were the offices held by Sa’adat Khan?
Answer:
Burhan-ul-Mulk Sa’adat Khan was appointed as the Subadar of Awadh in 1772 C.E. He also held the combined offices of subadari, diwani and faujdari, or he was the political, financial and military officer of Awadh.
Question 2:
Why did the Nawabs of Awadh and Bengal try to do away with the jagirdari system?
Answer:
Nawabs of Awadh and Bengal tried to do away with the jagirdari system because of the
following reasons:
(i) Jagirdars were appointed by the Mughals and these jagirdars were very loyal to the
Mughal Empire.
(ii) Though many of the larger states were established by Mughal nobles, they were highly
suspicious of some of the administrative systems that they had inherited, especially the
jagirdari system.
Hence, they appointed their loyalists to these posts so that they could give them help at
the time of war.
Question 3:
How were the Sikhs organised in the eighteenth century?
Answer:
In 1699 C.E., the tenth Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh, created the institution of
Khalsa. After him, the whole Khalsa stood up against the Mughal Empire under the leadership
of Banda Bahadur. He struck coins in the names of earlier Sikh Gurus. In 1715 C.E., he was
captured by the Mughal forces and martyred in 1716 C.E.
During the 18th century, the Sikhs organised into a number of groups called jathas which
later on became misls. Combined force of all the jathas was known as Dal Khalsa and they
used to meet at Amritsar at the time of Baisakhi and Diwali. The system of rakhi was
introduced whichmeant to collect 20% of the land produce from the farmers for their
protection. Later on, Maharaja Ranjit Singh reunited all these misls and established the
Sikh Kingdom.
Question 4:
Why did the Marathas want to expand beyond the Deccan?
Answer:
Marathas under the leadership of Shivaji fought bravely against the Mughal Empire. After Shivaji, different Peshwas became leaders of the Marathas and developed successful military organisations between 1720 C.E. and 1761 C.E. which helped in expanding the Maratha kingdom. The Maratha rulers wanted to be recognised as the overlords of the entire Deccan. They even had the right to collect chauth and sardeshmukhi in the entire region. Hence, they wanted to expand their kingdom beyond the Deccan and suppress the power of Mughal Empire.
Question 5:
Do you think merchants and bankers today have the kind of influence they had in the 18th century?
Answer:
In the 18th century, kings were collecting land revenue from the jagirdars who used to collect taxes from the farmers. Revenue was collected from the zamindars in cash with great strictness. Due to this, many zamindars had to borrow money from bankers and moneylenders. Those zamindars who were unable to pay back the money were forced to sell their lands to bigger zamindars. There was a close relationship between rich bankers and merchants. They used to lend money to revenue farmers, received land as security and collected taxes from these lands through their own agents. But, these types of provisions have no importance today. Since banks and merchants can give loans to the people by keeping land as security they do not have any right to collect taxes. Only government can collect taxes from the people. Therefore, merchants and banks of the18th century are of no importance today.
Question 6:
What is the Khalsa? What led to its formation?
Answer:
(i) Khalsa? was set up as a panth by Guru Gobind Singh.
(ii) Sikh Movement began to get politicised in the seventeenth century, a development which
culminated in the institution of the Khalsa by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699 C.E. The community
of the Sikhs, called the Khalsa, became a political entity.