Please see Age of Industrialisation Exam Questions Class 10 Social Science below. These important questions with solutions have been prepared based on the latest examination guidelines and syllabus issued by CBSE, NCERT, and KVS. We have provided Class 10 Social Science Questions and answers for all chapters in your NCERT Book for Class 10 Social Science. These solved problems for Age of Industrialisation in Class 10 Social Science will help you to score more marks in upcoming examinations.
Exam Questions Age of Industrialisation Class 10 Social Science
Objective Type Questions
Question. A person who ‘staples’ or sorts wool according to its fibre called
(a) Proto
(b) Stapler
(c) Fuller
(d) Carding
Answer : (a) Proto
Question. The process in which fibres, such as cotton or wool, are prepared prior to spinning
(a) Carding
(b) Proto
(c) Stapler
(d) Fuller
Answer : (a) Carding
Question. Which of the following statements is correct about the European Managing Agencies?
(a) They established tea and coffee plantations.
(b) They acquired land at cheap rates from the colonial government.
(c) They invested in mining, indigo and jute.
(d) All of the above
Answer : (d) All of the above
Question. Indian factories were called upon to supply war needs such as
(a) jute bags
(b) cloth for army uniforms
(c) tents and leather boots
(d) All of these
Answer : (d) All of these
Question. Merchants who took the goods from Punjab to Afghanistan, eastern Persia and Central Asia were
(a) Armenian
(b) Persian
(c) German
(d) Both Armenian and Persian
Answer : (d) Both Armenian and Persian
Question. Which of the following is not a step of the production process?
(a) carding
(b) twisting
(c) ingot
(d) spinning
Answer : (c) ingot
Question. Which among the following on the Coromandel Coast had trade links with Southeast Asian ports along with Hoogli in Bengal?
(a) Masulipatam
(b) Kochi
(c) Vishakhapatnam
(d) Tuticorin
Answer : (a) Masulipatam
Question. The first cotton mill in Bombay came up in which year?
(a) 1854
(b) 1857
(c) 1761
(d) 1793
Answer : (a) 1854
Question. In which of the following years the first jute mill came up in Bengal?
(a) 1755
(b) 1855
(c) 1947
(d) 1950
Answer : (b) 1855
Question. In 1912, J.N. Tata set up the first iron and steel works in India at _____________ .
(a) Kanpur
(b) Allahabad
(c) Jamshedpur
(d) Lucknow
Answer : (c) Jamshedpur
Question. Which of the following is correct about the cotton weavers of India?
(a) Their export market collapsed.
(b) The local market shrank.
(c) Weavers could not easily compete with the mill made clothes.
(d) All of the above
Answer : (d) All of the above
Question. ________________ try to shape the minds of people and create new needs.
Answer : Advertisements
Question. At the port, the big shippers and export merchants had ________________who negotiated the price and bought goods from the supply merchants operating inland.
Answer : brokers
Question. State whether the following statements are true or false
James Watt improved the steam engine produced by Newcomen and patented the new engine in 1881.
Answer : False
Question. State whether the following statements are true or false
With British mills busy with war production to meet the needs of the army, Manchester imports into India declined.
Answer : True
Question. Correct the following statements and rewrite
In Britain, upper classes preferred machine-made goods and hand-made goods were exported to the colonies.
Answer : In Britain the upper classes preferred hand-made goods and machine-made goods were exported to the colonies.
Question. In the question given below, there are two statements marked as Assertion (A) and Reason (R). Read the statements and choose the correct option:
Assertion (A): The East India Company gave advance loans to the weavers to buy raw materials.
Reason (R): The Company permanently engaged weavers and fell in the trap of debt.
Options:
(a) Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A.
(b) Both A and R are true but R is not the correct explanation of A.
(c) A is true but R is false.
(d) A is false but R is true.
Question. Match the following :
(i) Manchester labels (a) 1934
(ii) Maharaja Ranjit Singh (b) advertisements
(iii) Hoardings (c) imported cloth labels
(iv) Sunlight soap calendar
Answer : (i)–(c), (ii)–(d), (iii)–(b), (iv)–(a)
Very Short Answer Type Questions
Question. Whose invention was improved by James Watt?
Answer : Newcomen engine was improved by James Watt and Mathew Boulton manufactured the new model in 1781.
Question. Why were merchants from towns in Europe began to move countryside in seventeenth and eighteenth centuries?
Answer : In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, merchants from the towns in Europe began moving to the countryside, supplying money to peasants and artisans, persuading them to produce for an international market.
Question. In which industries were European managing agencies interested?
Answer : They established tea and coffee plantations, acquiring land at cheap rates from the colonial government and they invested in mining, indigo and jute.
Question. Which products were produced by Indian factories during the First World War?
Answer : (a) Jute bags
(b) Cloth for army uniform
(c) Tents and leather boots
(d) Horse and Mule Saddles
Question. When did the handloom production expand?
Answer : In the 20th century, almost doubling between 1900 and 1940.
Question. How did new inventions increase the efficiency of the production process?
Answer : The new inventions of cording, twisting, spinning and rolling enhanced the output per worker. Now each worker was able to produce more. They produced stronger thread and gain yarn.
Question. When did the first spinning and weaving mill begin production?
Answer : Madras in 1874.
Question. Name the fine variety of the Indian cotton.
Answer : Coarser cotton.
Question. How did the Indian cotton travel to Central Asia?
Answer : Bales of fine textile were carried on camel back via the north-west frontier, through mountain passes and across deserts. Armenian and Persian merchants took the goods from Punjab to Afghanistan, Eastern Persia and Central Asia.
Question. Name the old ports from where local traders operate their trade. Also name the new ports controlled by European countries.
Answer : New ports – Bombay and Calcutta.
Question. Who was a Gomastha?
Answer : A paid servant appointed by the Company–
(i) To supervise weavers
(ii) To collect supplies
(iii) To examine the quality of cloth
Question. Why do the figures of Nawabs and Emperors appear on the advertisement and calendars?
Answer : The images of royal figures seem to say that if you respect the royal figure, then respect this product.
When the product was being used by kings or produced under royal command, its quality could not be questioned.
Question. How did the British sell their products in Indian market?
OR
Mention the methods adopted by producers in India to expand their goods in 19th century.
Answer : Various methods adopted by the produces were–
(i) Advertisements,
(ii) Bold Labels,
(iii) Images of Gods & Goddesses,
(iv) Image of royal figures,
(v) Printing calendars.
Question. What did the picture of goddess represent?
Answer : The angel of progress, on a wheel with wings symbolise time and her flight is taking her into the future.
Short Answer Type Questions
Question. How did Indian merchants and bankers help in the export of trade?
Answer : (i) Indian merchants and bankers were involved in the network of export trade by financing production, carrying goods and supplying exporters.
(ii) They gave advances to the weavers to get woven cloth and carried the supply to the ports.
(iii) They also negotiated the price by the big shippers and export merchants.
Question. How did the weavers suffer due to European policies?
Answer : When the demand of fine textile expanded, the weavers took the advances and hope to earn more. Along with weaving, many poor weavers cultivate a small plot of land to fulfil their family needs. But now weaving required more time and the labour of the entire family. So all family members were engaged in different stages of the weaving process but earning was very less.
Question. What steps were taken by the weavers of Carnatic and Bengal?
Answer : (i) In Carnatic and Bengal many weavers left their homes and migrated to other villages.
(ii) They set up looms in other villages where they had friends or relatives.
(iii) Some weavers revolted against the Company and its officials.
(iv) Many weavers began refusing loans, closing down their workshops and started working as agricultural labours.
Question. Explain new problem faced by the weavers in 1850s.
Answer : (i) By the 1860s, weavers faced a new problem. They could not get sufficient supply of raw cotton of good quality.
(ii) When the American Civil War broke out and cotton supplies from the US were cut off, Britain turned to India.
(iii) As raw 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 weavers couldn’t pay.
Question. What do you mean by fly shuttle? How did fly shuttle help the weavers? Name the regions where weavers used fly shuttle.
Answer : A mechanical device used for weaving. It helps weaver to operate large looms and weave wide pieces of cloth.
(a) Fly shuttle increased productivity for weavers.
(b) Speeded up production.
(c) R educed labour demand.
Weavers used fly shuttle in Madras, Mysore, Cochin, Bengal and Travancore.
Question. Why did industrialists in India begin shifting from yarn to cloth production?
Answer : (i) When Indian businessmen began setting up industries. They avoided competing with Manchester goods in the Indian market.
(ii) Since yarn was not imported by British in India, early cotton mills in India started producing coarse cotton yarn rather than fabric.
(iii) The yarn produced in Indian spinning mills was used by handloom weavers in India or exported to China.
(iv) In 1906 the export of Indian yarn to China declined so industrialists in India began shifting from yarn to cloth production.
Question. Why was the cotton textile industry concentrated in the cotton growing belt in the early years? Explain.
Answer : Cotton textile industry was concentrated in the cotton growing belt in the early years because:
(i) availability of raw cotton – e.g. belt of Maharashtra and Gujarat
(ii) nearness to market (iii) transport (iv) port facilities (v) cheap labour
(vi) moist climate.
Question. How did the Swadeshi Movement responsible for the growth of Indian production?
Answer : During the Swadeshi Movement, nationalists mobilised the people to boycott foreign cloth and pressurised the Indians to use the goods made in India.
(i) Industrial groups organised themselves to protect their collective interests.
(ii) They pressurised the government to increase tariff protections and grant other concessions to support the Indian industries.
(iii) So, industrialists in India began shifting from yarn to cloth production.
(iv) As a result, cotton piece goods production in India doubled between 1900 and 1912.
Question. Why could Manchester not occupy or recapture its old position in the Indian market after the First World War?
Answer : (i) Because Manchester was unable to modernise and compete with US, Germany and Japan.
(ii) Export of cotton cloth from Britain fell dramatically.
(iii) Within the colonies, local industrialists consolidate their position and capturing the home market.
Question. Explain any three causes which led to the decline of Indian cotton textiles in the early nineteenth century.
Answer : (i) The British cotton manufacture began to expand.
(ii) British manufacturers pressurized the Government to restrict cotton imports.
(iii) Manufacturers began to search the overseas markets for selling their cloth.
(iv) Indian textiles faced stiff competition in other international market.
(v) There was a decline in the share of the textile.
(vi) Tariffs were imposed on cloth imports into Britain.
Question. Name the sea routes that connected India with Asian countries.
Answer : (i) A vibrant sea trade operated through the main pre-colonial ports.
(ii) Surat on the Gujarat coast connected India with the Gulf and the Red Sea ports.
(iii) Masulipatnam on the Coromandal Coast and Hooghly in Bengal had trade links with the southeast Asian ports.
Question. How did introduction of cotton mill make supervision of workers easy?
Answer : Within the mill all the processes were brought together under one roof and management. This led to a more careful supervision over the production process, a watch over quality to regulate the labour properly. So many industries set up over the English landscape.
Question. Why did the technological changes occur slowly? Or
What was the drawback of new technology for the industrialists?
Answer : The new technology spread slowly because:
(i) The new technology was expensive.
(ii) Merchants were afraid of using it.
(iii) The machine often broke down and repair was costly.
(iv) They were not as effective as claimed by the manufacturers.
Question. Why did the port of Surat decline by the end of the 18th century?
Answer : (i) European leading companies gained power by acquiring trade concessions from local rulers.
(ii) The local trade from the old ports of Surat and Hoogly declined.
(iii) The local bankers slowly became bankrupt.
(iv) By the 1740s the value of trade dropped from ₹ 16 million to ₹ 3 million.
Question. How did the Company dominate the weavers through the system of advances?
Answer : (i) Once the order was placed, the weavers were given loans to purchase the raw material for their production.
(ii) Those who took loans had to handover the woven clothes only to the Gomastha, appointed by the Company.
(iii) Weavers could not sell their products to any other trader.
Question. How can you say that famines did not effect the weavers of finer varieties in Mysore and Madras?
Answer : (i) Among weavers some produced coarse cloth while others wove finer varieties demanded by the well-to-do families.
(ii) The rich could buy these even when the poor starved.
(iii) Famines did not affect the sale of Banarasi or Baluchari saris, because mills could not copy their specialised saris.
(iv) The beautiful designs of handwoven cloth could not be easily copied by the mills.
(v) Saris with woven borders, lungis and handkerchiefs of Madras could not be easily replaced by mill production.
Question. Why did upper classes in Victorian Britain p refer things made by hands?
Answer : The aristocrats rich people preferred things produced by hand because–
(i) Hand-made products symbolised refinement and class.
(ii) They were better finished.
(iii) They were individually produced and carefully designed.
Long Answer Type Questions :
Question. How did small scale industries survive in India despite of industrialisation?
Answer : Large industries formed only a small segment of the economy. Over the rest of the country small-scale production continued to predominate.
(i) Only a small proportion of the total industrial labour force worked in registered factories the rest worked in small workshops and house had units.
(ii) Handicrafts people adopted new technology if that helped them to improve production without pushing up costs. So weavers began to use loons with a fly shuttle.
(iii) Even famines did not affect the scale of Banarasi or Baluchori Saris.
(iv) Mills could not imitate specialised weavers so the saris with woven benders or the famous Lungis and handkerchiefs of Madras could not be easily displaced by mill production.
Question. Why do historians agree that the typical workers in 19th century were not a machine operator but the traditional craftspersons?
Answer : The workers were traditional craft-persons because –
(i) The large portion of the textile was produced within domestic units, not within factories.
(ii) In Britain, 500 varieties of hammers and 45 kinds of axes were produced. These required human skill not mechanical technology.
(iii) The rich people, aristocrats preferred things produced by hand, which symbolised refinement and class.
(iv) Handmade products were better finished, individually produced and carefully designed.
(v) So even the most powerful new technology that enhanced the productivity of labour manifold was slow to be accepted by industrialists.
Question. “The First World War created the favourable conditions for the development of industries in India.” Support the statement with suitable examples.
Answer : (i) The First World War created a dramatically new situation. Till then industrial production had been slow.
(ii) British mills were busy with war production to meet the needs of the army. Manchester imports into India declined.
(iii) Indian mills now had a vast home market for supply.
(iv) As the war prolonged, Indian factories were called upon to supply war needs, jute bags, cloth for army uniforms, tents, leather boots, horse and mule saddlers and many other items.
(v) Many workers were employed as new factories were set up and old ones ran in multiple shifts.
(vi) Over the war years, industrial production boomed Manchester was unable to capture its old position in the Indian market after the war. Cotton production collapsed and export of cotton cloth from Britain fell dramatically.
Question. Why were there frequent clashes between Gomasthas and weavers in the villages? Explain five reasons. OR
Why did the relations between Gomasthas and weavers disturb later on?
Answer : (i) Earlier the gomasthas lived within the weaving villages and had a close relationship with the weavers. They helped the weavers in times of crisis.
(ii) The new gomasthas were outsider, unfamiliar and arrogant.
(iii) They marched into the villages with Sepoys and Peons.
(iv) They often punished the weavers for delay in supply.
(v) The weavers could not bargain or demand for higher price because they were tied with the system of advance.
(vi) The price the weavers received was very low, so some weavers left their jobs and migrated to neighbouring villages.
(vii) Some weavers opposed the Company and its officials and revolted against them.
(viii) Many weavers closed down their workshops and started working as agricultural labours.
Question. How did the American civil war affect the Indian weavers by the 1860s?
Answer : When the American civil war broke out.
(i) Cotton supplies from US were cut off and Britain turned to India to get raw cotton.
(ii) As the demand for raw cotton increased, which led to the increase in the price of raw cotton.
(iii) Indian weavers had to pay high price to get raw cotton, which affected the cost of weaving.
(iv) By the end of the 19th century, factories in India developed and the market was full of machinemade goods. So Indian crafts people and weavers failed to compete with them.
Question. What steps were taken by the East India Company to control the market of cotton and silk goods? What was its impact?
Answer : (i) The East India Company tried to eliminate the existing traders and appointed ‘Gomasthas’ as supervisors.
(ii) The system of advances was introduced to have a direct control over the weavers.
Impact:
(i) Weavers devoted entire time to weaving.
(ii) They have forced to accept the prices fixed by the company.
(iii) There were reports of clashes of weavers with gomasthas.
Question. “Indian trade had played a crucial role in the late 19th century world economy.” Analyse the statement.
Answer : Indian trade played a crucial role in the late 19th century world economy. British manufacturers flooded the Indian market. Foodgrain and raw material exports from India to British and the rest of the world increased. But the value of British exports to India was much higher than much higher than the value of British imports from India. Thus, Britain had a trade surplus with India. Britain used this surplus to balance its trade deficits with other countries that is, with countries from which Britain was importing more than it was selling to. By helping Britain balance its deficits, India played a crucial role in the late-19th century world economy. Britain’s trade surplus in India also helped pay the so-called ‘home charges’ that included private remittances home by British officials and traders, interest payments on India’s external debt and pensions of British officials in India.
Question. Explain the ways through which British manufactures attempted to take over the Indian market.
Answer : Through the following ways British manufactures attempted to take over the Indian market—
(i) They securing a variety of concessions from local courts, then the monopoly rights to trade. This resulted is decline of old ports of Surat and Hoogly and exports from these ports fell down and the local bankers slowly went bankrupt.
(ii) Bombey and Calcutta grew as new ports and trade through these new ports came to be controlled by British or some other European companies.
(iii) The British developed a system of management and control that would eliminate competition, control costs, and ensure regular supplies of cotton and silk goods.
(iv) Manchester imported the cotton textiles at lower costs, conseqently the imported cotton goods were so cheap that local merchants could not easily complete with then.
(v) The factories established by British strated the production, flooding the market with machinegoods at cheap price.
Question. Describe any five major problems faced by New European merchants in setting up their industries burns before the Industrial Revolution.
Answer : (i) Due to the expansion of world trade, the merchants wanted to expand their production.
(ii) They could create money problem for the merchants in their town.
(iii) R ulers had granted different guilds and the monopoly rights to produce and trade in specific products. So merchants were handicapped in towns.
(iv) Guilds regulated competition and prices.
(v) In the countryside, peasants and artisans were available for work.
Question. Why was a jobber employed? How did a jobber misuse his position and power? Explain.
Answer : Jobber was employed to get new recruits for the factories or industrialists.
The jobber misused his position and power in the following ways:
(i) Initially jobber cured people from the village ensuring them jobs. He also helped them settle in the city and lent them money in the times of crisis.
(ii) Gradually, jobbers got position and power.
(iii) They started demanding money and gifts for all the favours.
(iv) They also started to control the lives of the workers.
(v) Jobbers got people from his own village and restricted entries of others in the mills.
Question. How did the Indian industries developed in the 19th and 20th centuries? Explain
Answer : (i) The early industrialists avoided a direct competition with the British factories.
(ii) The cotton mills started to produce coarse cotton yarn and this was exported to China.
(iii) As Swadeshi Movement gathered momentum industrialist pressurised government to increase tariff protection.
(iv) Exports to China declined and domestic markets were taken over by China.
(v) During the First World War, the British Government called upon the Indian mills to produce goods such as jute bags boots, etc. for the British Army.
(vi) As the war prolonged, England could not capture the Indian markets.
Question. Analyse the causes leading to the decline of the Indian weaving industry in the 19th century.
Answer : (i) Factories in Manchester began producing cotton textiles for the domestic market.
(ii) The government put more import duties on the textile coming from India to encourage the local industries. Hence, the Indian weavers lost their overseas market.
(iii) Simultaneously, the Manchester goods began flooding the Indian markets also and it became difficult for the Indian weavers to complete with the low cost Manchester cloth.
(iv) The British Government in India also levied more taxes on the handloom units which made the Indian textiles costlier in Indian markets in comparison to the Manchester textiles.
(v) Due to the Civil War in USA the British had to purchase more raw cotton from India for their Manchester textile industries. It created an acute shortage of raw material for the weavers and Indian handloom industry collapsed.
Case Based Questions
Question. Read the source given below and answer the questions by choosing the most appropriate option.
As cotton industries developed in England, industrial groups began worrying about imports from other countries. They pressurised the government to impose import duties on cotton textiles so that Manchester goods could sell in Britain without facing any competition from outside. At the same time industrialists persuaded the East India Company to sell British manufactures in Indian markets as well. Exports of British cotton goods increased dramatically in the early nineteenth century. At the end of the eighteenth century there had been virtually no import of cotton piece-goods into India.
But by 1850 cotton piece-goods constituted over 31 per cent of the value of Indian imports; and by the 1870s this figure was over 50 per cent. Cotton weavers in India thus faced two problems at the same time: their export market collapsed, and the local market shrank, being glutted with Manchester imports. Produced by machines at lower costs, the imported cotton goods were so cheap that weavers could not easily compete with them. By the 1850s, reports from most weaving regions of India narrated stories of decline and desolation. By the 1860s, weavers faced a new problem. They could not get sufficient supply of raw cotton of good quality. When the American Civil War broke out and cotton supplies from the US were cut off, Britain turned to India. As raw 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 weaving could not pay.
(i) Which of the following cities of England was better known as a finishing centre for textiles?
(a) London
(b) Manchester
(c) Cambridge
(d) Birmingham
Answer : (a) London
(ii) Koshtis were
(a) farmers
(b) landless labourers
(c) community of weavers
(d) None of these
Answer : (c) community of weavers
(iii) Which of the following problems was not faced by Indian cotton weavers?
(a) They did not have fine quality cotton.
(b) There were frequent strikes in Indian Industries.
(c) Export market collapsed.
(d) Local market shrank.
Answer : (b) There were frequent strikes in Indian Industries.
(iv) Which of the following was a new problem faced by Indian cotton weavers by the 1860s?
(a) Export market collapsed.
(b) Local market shrank.
(c) Imported cotton goods were cheap.
(d) Insufficient supply of raw cotton of good quality
Answer : (d) Insufficient supply of raw cotton of good quality
