Structural Change

Question
CBSEENSO12044279

Why do we say that nation state have become the important political form after the first decade of the twentieth century. Briefly explain your answer.

Solution

(i) Historically, we know that nation state developed in Europe after the downfall of feudalism. Nation state took place in Germany, Britain, France, Spain, Polland, Belgium, etc. With the beginning of first decade of the twentieth century national states became the dominant political form. That we all live in nation states and that we all have a nationality or a national citizenship may appear natural to us today.

(ii) Before the First World War passports were not widely used for international travel, and in the most areas few people had one. Societies were, however, not always organised on these lines.

(iii) Nation state pertains to a particular type of state, characteristic of the modern world. A government has sovereign power within a defined territorial area, and the people are citizens of a single nation. Nation states are closely associated with the rise of nationalism.

(iv) The principle of nationalism assumes that any set of people have a right to be free and exercise sovereign power. It is an important part of the rise of democratic ideas.

(v) It must have struck you that the practice of colonialism and the principle of nationalism and democratic rights are contradictory. For colonial rule implied foreign rule such as British rule over India.

(vi) Nationalism implied that the people of India or of any colonised society have an equal right to be sovereign. Indian nationalist leaders were quick to grasp this irony. They declared that freedom or swaraj was their birth-right and fought for both political and economic freedom.

Sponsor Area

Some More Questions From Structural Change Chapter

What is meant by structural change?

Why do we say that nation state have become the important political form after the first decade of the twentieth century. Briefly explain your answer.

Read the following passage and answer the both questions given at its end. (Passage).

Tea industry began in India in 1851. Most of the tea gardens were situated in Assam. In 1903, the industry employed 4,79,000 permanent and 93,000 temporary employees. Since Assam was sparsely populated and the tea plantations were often located on uninhabited hillsides, bulk of the sorely needed labour had to be imported from other provinces. But to bring thousands of people every year from their far-off homes into strange lands, possessing an unhealthy climate and infected with strange fevers, required the provision of financial and other incentives, which the tea-planters of Assam were unwilling to offer. Instead, they had recourse to fraud and coercion; and they persuaded the government to aid and abet them in this unholy task by passing penal laws. ...The recruitment of labourers for tea gardens of Assam was carried on for years mostly by contractors under the provisions of the Transport of Native Labourers Act (No. Ill) of 1863 of Bengal as amended in 1865, 1870 and 1873.

The labour system in Assam was essentially that of indenture by which the labourers went to Assam under contract for a number of years. The government helped the tea-planters by providing for penal sanction in case of non-fulfilment of the contract by the labourers.

This view is explicitly made by T. Raleigh, Law (Committee) Member, when speaking on the Assam Labour and Emigration Bill of 1901: “The labour-contract authorised by this Bill is a transaction by which, to put it rather bluntly, a man is often committed to Assam before he knows what he is doing, and is thereupon held to his promise for four years, with a threat of arrest and imprisonment if he fails to perform it. Conditions like these have no place in the ordinary law of master and servant. We made them part of the law of British India at the instance and for the benefit of the tea-planters of Assam... The fact remains that the motive power in this legislation is the interest of the planter, not the interest of the coolie”.


What are the effects of urbanisation?

Discuss differences between colonial and capitalist time rule of the British in India with the pre-British and pre-capitalist time rule in about 200-300 words.

“Colonialism in India introduced a wide array of changes in every sphere”. Explain this statement in about 300 words. Also give some example where you feel their need.

How has colonialism affected our lives? You can either focus on one aspact like culture or politics or treat them together.

Industrialisation and urbanisation are linked processes. Discuss.

Discuss impact of British industrialisation on India.