Read the following excerpts carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Escaping to the countryside
This is how the famous poet Mirza Ghalib described what the people of Delhi did when the British forces occupied the city in 1857:
Smiting the enemy and driving him before them, the victors (i.e. the British) overran the city in all directions. All whom they found in the street they cut down.
For two to three days every road in the city, from the Kashmiri Gate to Chandni Chowk, was a battlefield. Three gates–the Ajmeri, the Turcoman and the Delhi–were still held by the rebels. At the naked spectacle of this vengeful wrath and malevolent hatred the colour fled from men’s faces, and a vast concourse of men and women took to precipitate flight through these three gates. Seeking the little villages and shrines outside the city, they drew breath to wait until such time as might favour their return.
(a) Name the three gates still held by the rebels.
(b) Why did the people flee to the countryside?
(c) Name three big cities which were originally fishing and weaving villages. Trace the process of their development.
(a) The three gates still held were the Ajmeri, Turkman and the Delhi Gate.
(b) The people fled to the countryside because the British had recapture the city from the rebels. In retaliation to the atrocities committed by the rebels, the British were killing the inhabitants of Delhi and looting their property. Fear for their safety led the people to take sanctuary in small villages and temples where they waited for conditions to become favourable for their return.
(c) The three cities were Madras, Bombay and Calcutta. Initially fishing and weaving villages, these settlements became big cities due to the economic activities of the East India Company agents settled in Madras (1639) and Calcutta (in 1690). Bombay was given to the Company (1661) by King Charles. Trading and administrative offices were set up in each of these settlements which paved the way for their growth.
