UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — A colonial gaze: how the British imagined Bastar and its people
Q1. Consider the following statements regarding the Persian chronicle Tarikh-i-Firishta and its nineteenth-century English translation:
1. The English translation carries the narrative of the chronicle down to A.D. 1612.
2. The description of the Bastar Raja as a 'Gond' occurs in the Persian original of the chronicle itself, and not in any apparatus added by its English translator.
3. Because the translator's identification was accepted as settled, every later British account of Bastar rested exclusively on first-hand observation in the region.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- The English translation carries the narrative of the chronicle down to A.D. 1612.
- The description of the Bastar Raja as a 'Gond' occurs in the Persian original of the chronicle itself, and not in any apparatus added by its English translator.
- Because the translator's identification was accepted as settled, every later British account of Bastar rested exclusively on first-hand observation in the region.
- A. 1 only
- B. 1 and 2 only
- C. 2 and 3 only
- D. 1, 2 and 3
Q2. The English rendering of Firishta's chronicle, in whose annotation the ruler of Bastar came to be labelled a 'Gond', was made by John Briggs, who served as an officer of which one of the following?
- A. The Bengal Artillery, then supervising the Chhattisgarh territories
- B. The Bombay Engineers, then attached to the Deccan Residency
- C. The Madras Army, in which he rose to general officer rank
- D. The Bengal Native Infantry, then posted in the Saugor territories
Q3. The colonial claim that the people of Bastar 'sacrifice and eat their fellow creatures' rests on two men — Henry Harpur Spry, who wrote it down, and the Company officer whose report he relied on. Between the two of them, how many visits to Bastar are evidenced?
- A. None
- B. One
- C. Two
- D. Four
Q4. Consider the following statements about Henry Harpur Spry's account of Bastar and its relation to earlier writing on the region:
1. Spry, an East India Company official, wrote that the people of Bastar sacrifice and eat their fellow creatures.
2. Spry's claim was built on material supplied by an officer of the Bengal Artillery who had charge of the Chhattisgarh territories, rather than on Spry's own observation.
3. Spry departed from the earlier English translation of the Tarikh-i-Firishta by identifying the Bastar ruling house as Rajput rather than Gond.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- Spry, an East India Company official, wrote that the people of Bastar sacrifice and eat their fellow creatures.
- Spry's claim was built on material supplied by an officer of the Bengal Artillery who had charge of the Chhattisgarh territories, rather than on Spry's own observation.
- Spry departed from the earlier English translation of the Tarikh-i-Firishta by identifying the Bastar ruling house as Rajput rather than Gond.
- A. 1 and 3 only
- B. 1 and 2 only
- C. 2 and 3 only
- D. 1, 2 and 3
Q5. In accounts of the founding of the Bastar ruling house, the term 'Danteshwari Mai' denotes which one of the following?
- A. The hereditary office of diwan through which the ruling house administered its forest tracts
- B. The mother goddess installed by the Kakatiya rulers who moved to Bastar from Warangal
- C. The tract of upland forest reserved for the exclusive hunting use of the ruling house
- D. The assembly of village headmen that confirmed each new ruler of the Bastar house
Q6. The seat from which the rulers of the former Bastar princely state administered their territory, and which lies just south of the Indravati river, is which present-day city?
- A. Dantewada, the shrine town of the ruling house's tutelary goddess
- B. Kanker, the headquarters of a separate princely state to the north
- C. Jagdalpur, an upland town encircled by dense forest
- D. Kondagaon, a craft centre on the plateau's northern approach
Q7. The Gond zamindaris of central India that the British took over for revenue purposes after the war of 1817–18 had, until that point, mostly formed part of the dominions of which power?
- A. The nizams of Hyderabad, holding the tracts south of the Godavari
- B. The Scindias of Gwalior, holding the tracts north of the Narmada
- C. The Holkars of Indore, holding the western Malwa uplands
- D. The Bhonsle rajas of Nagpur, whose seat collapsed early in that war
Q8. Consider the following statements comparing pre-British and British treatment of the Gonds of central India:
1. Gondwana, the traditional homeland of the Gonds, lies broadly in the country between the Narmada and the Godavari.
2. Raids and evasion of tribute by Gonds had been treated as political acts by pre-British regimes, but were recast as crimes under British rule.
3. The whole of the Gond country passed under direct British authority in a single settlement made immediately after the war of 1817–18, after which no Gond raja continued to rule anywhere.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- Gondwana, the traditional homeland of the Gonds, lies broadly in the country between the Narmada and the Godavari.
- Raids and evasion of tribute by Gonds had been treated as political acts by pre-British regimes, but were recast as crimes under British rule.
- The whole of the Gond country passed under direct British authority in a single settlement made immediately after the war of 1817–18, after which no Gond raja continued to rule anywhere.
- A. 1 only
- B. 2 and 3 only
- C. 1 and 2 only
- D. 1, 2 and 3
Q9. The Tarikh-i-Firishta was composed for the ruler of which one of the Deccan Sultanates, the court its author entered in 1589 and after whose patron it takes its alternative title?
- A. Golconda, under the Qutb Shahi rulers of the Krishna-Godavari doab
- B. Bijapur, under the Adil Shahi ruler who reigned from 1579 to 1626
- C. Ahmadnagar, under the Nizam Shahi rulers of the upper Godavari country
- D. Bidar, under the Barid Shahi rulers of the central Deccan plateau
Q10. Under which colonial statute were large numbers of nomadic, pastoral and forest-dwelling communities registered and placed under police surveillance as hereditary offenders, a designation lifted only when the statute was repealed on 31 August 1952?
- A. The Scheduled Districts Act of 1874, which set apart tracts from ordinary law
- B. The Indian Forest Act of 1878, which classified and reserved forest tracts
- C. The Criminal Tribes Act of 1871, which provided for notification of whole communities
- D. The Thagi and Dakaiti suppression legislation of the 1830s, aimed at organised gangs
Q11. In the context of the tribal geography of the Bastar region, the term 'Abujhmadiya' is used for which one of the following?
- A. The Madia, Gond, Muria and Hill Muria communities of Abujhmad, taken together
- B. The cycle of shifting cultivation practised on the hill slopes of Abujhmad
- C. The unsurveyed forest tract of Abujhmad lying west of the Indravati river
- D. The council of village elders regulating customary forest use in Abujhmad
Q12. With reference to Bastar and the colonial-era record on it, consider the following:
1. Bastar acceded to the Union of India on 1 January 1948 and was placed within Madhya Pradesh in 1956.
2. Bastar became a district of Chhattisgarh when that state was created in 2000.
3. The Bhumkal of 1910, led by Gunda Dhur along with the state's diwan, arose from forest-reservation policies that barred tribal communities from customary forest use.
4. The 1872 census returned Bastar, excluding Kanker, at 13,062 sq. miles, and its enumeration of the region is regarded as a model of accuracy for tribal tracts.
Which of the above is/are NOT correct?
- Bastar acceded to the Union of India on 1 January 1948 and was placed within Madhya Pradesh in 1956.
- Bastar became a district of Chhattisgarh when that state was created in 2000.
- The Bhumkal of 1910, led by Gunda Dhur along with the state's diwan, arose from forest-reservation policies that barred tribal communities from customary forest use.
- The 1872 census returned Bastar, excluding Kanker, at 13,062 sq. miles, and its enumeration of the region is regarded as a model of accuracy for tribal tracts.
- A. 1 and 3
- B. 2 and 4
- C. 1, 2 and 4
- D. 4 only