Class 7 History

Tribes Nomads

NCERT Solution

Fill in the blanks:

  1. The new castes emerging within varnas were called ____.
  2. ____ were historical works written by the Ahoms.
  3. The _____ mentions that Garha Katanga had 70,000 villages.
  4. As tribal states became bigger and stronger, they gave land grants to ____ and ____.

Answer: (1) Jatis, (2) Buranjis, (3) Akbar Nama, (4) Poets and scholars

Match Columns

Column IColumn II
(1) Garh(a) Khel
(2) Tanda(b) Chaurasi
(3) Labourer(c) Caravan
(4) Clan(d) Garha Katanga
(5) Sib Singh(e) Ahom State
(6) Durgawati(f) Paik

Answer: (1) b, (2) c, (3) f, (4) a, (5) e, (6) d

Write True or False for the following:

  1. Tribal societies had rich oral traditions.
  2. There were no tribal communities in the north-western part of the subcontinent.
  3. The chaurasi in Gond states contained several cities.
  4. The Bhils lived in north-eastern part of the subcontinent.

Answer: 1. True, 2. False, 3. False, 4. False

Answer the following questions

Question 1: What kinds of exchanges took place between nomadic pastoralists and settled agriculturists?

Answer: They exchanged wool, ghee etc., with settled agriculturists in return for grain, cloth, utensils and other products.

Question 2: How was the administration of the Ahom state organized?

Answer: The administration became quite centralized by the first half of the 17th century. The Ahom state depended on forced labour. Each village had to send a certain number of paiks (people forced to work for the state) by rotation, based on the census taken. People were shifted from highly populated areas to less populated areas, thus breaking the clan. During war almost all adult males served in the army.

Question 3: What changes took place in varna-based society?

Answer: The varna-based societies constantly interacted with the tribal societies. There was emergence of smaller castes within varnas. These were called jatis. Jatis became the basis of organizing society.

Question 4: How did tribal societies change after being organized into a state?

Answer: Many of them merged with caste-based society. Some of them became politically powerful which led to conflicts with the larger and more complex kingdoms. The Gond society in particular got divided into unequal social classes, with the emergence of states.

Question 5: Were the Banjaras important for the economy?

Answer: They were the most important trader-nomads. Sultan Alauddin Khalji used the Banjaras for transporting grain to the city markets. The memoirs of Jahangir reveal that the Banjaras carried grain on their bullocks from different areas and sold it in towns. During Mughal campaigns, they transported food grain. Hence they had a vital role in the economy.

Question 6: In what ways was the history of the Gonds different from that of the Ahoms? Were there any similarities?

Answer: Differences and similarities between the Gonds and the Ahoms:

DifferencesSimilarities
The Gonds lived in the forested areas of Gondwana whereas the Ahoms had migrated to the Brahmaputra from present-day Myanmar.Both had centralized administration.
The Mughals gained control over the Gonds after defeating them but the Ahoms, though were defeated by the Mughals, could not be subdued by them for a long time.Both the societies were divided into clans.