NCERT Class 10 History Chapter 6 Work, Life and Leisure : Cities in the Contemporary World Question Answer of Social Science Book. Students also Needs Notes and Important Questions of Class 10 History for score High in Exams. Work, Life and Leisure : Cities in the Contemporary World of Class 10 Chapter 6 Questions and Answer of NCERT History Solution.
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Work, Life and Leisure : Cities in the Contemporary World Question Answer of Class 10th History Chapter 6 NCERT Solution for HBSE, CBSE, MP Board, RBSE and some other boards.
Work, Life and Leisure : Cities in the Contemporary World Class 10 History Question Answer
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Q. 1. Give two reasons why the population of London expanded from the middle of the eighteenth century.
Ans. By 1750, the population of London was about 675,000. Between 1810 and 1880, it
increased from 1 million to about 4 million. Two reasons for its expansion were the following:
1. Even though there were no large factories in London, it attracted migrant populations in great numbers. There lived in London clerks, shopkeepers, small masters, skilled artisans, semi-skilled and sweated out workers, soldiers, servants, casual labourers, street
sellers and beggars.
2. There were five major types of industries in London. These were clothing and footwear, wood and furniture, metals and engineering, printing and stationery, and precious products such as surgical instruments, watches and objects of precious metals. These industries employed a large number of people.
Q. 2. What were the changes in the kind of work available to women in London between the nineteenth and the twentieth century ? Explain the factors which led to this change.
Ans. Between the nineteenth and the twentieth century there took place a number of changes in the kind of work available to women in London. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, women were employed in large numbers because they were paid low wages than men. But with technological developments, they gradually lost their industrial jobs and were forced to work at some other places. Some of them began to work as maid servants. Some other women used their homes to increase family income through various activities such as tailoring, washing or matchbox making. However, in the twentieth century women got employment in war time industries and offices because most of male citizens were fighting at the front. Now they gave up their domestic service.
Q. 3. How does the existence of a large urban population affect each of the following ? Illustrate with historical examples.
(a) A private landlord
(b) A Police Superintendent in charge of law and order
(c) A leader of a political party.
Ans. (a) Effect on a private landlord.
The existence of a large urban population proves beneficial to a private landlord. He sells his plots of land to the needy people at very high rates. He constructs cheap tenements on his land, rents them and charges high rents. When industrialisation took place in England, a large number of rural people settled in London. Consequently, population of London increased manifold. This increase in population was a blessing in disguise for private landlords. They put up cheap but usually unsafe dwelling places to the migrants and earned large sums of money as rents.
(b) Effect on a Police Superintendent in charge of law and order.
The existence of a large urban population creates law and order problem. It increases crime rate, which in turn becomes an object of worry for a Police Superintendent in charge of law and order. He demands more police force from government. He maintains strict discipline amongst the police force under his charge. If he fails at some moment, he is bitterly criticised. When population grew in London in large numbers, the crimes incrased there. According to an estimate, there were twenty thousand criminals in London in the 1870s. These criminals included thieves, robbers, pickpockets, cheats, trickstres, gamblers, etc. So law and order situation in London was worst. Therefore the Police Superintendent faced many difficulties in maintaining law and order. He counted the population of criminals, watched their activities and investigated their ways of life.
(C) Effect on a leader of a political party.
A large urban population helps a leader of a political party in grinding his own axe. He can easily draw such crowds into political cause. He instigates people to agitate against the government. He asks the labour class to form a trade union. He supports demands of labourers against factory owners. He leads processions taken against the government and factory owners. For example, the London poor’s strike of 1886, their riots of late 1887 and London’s dock-workers’ strike in 1889 were motivated by political leaders.
Q.4. Give explanations for the following:
(a) Way well-off Londoners supported the need to build housing for the poor in the nineteenth century ?
Ans. Well-off Londoners supported the need to build housing for the poor in the nineteenth century because of the following reasons :
1. The vast mass of one-room houses occupied by the poor were seen as a serious threat to public health. They were overcrowded, badly ventilated and lacked sanitation.
2. There were worries about fire hazards created by poor housing.
3. There was a widespread fear of social disorder, especially after the Russian Revolution in 1917.
(b) Why a number of Bombay films were about the life of migrants ?
Ans. A number of Bombay films were about the life of migrants because of the following reasons :
1. Most of the people in the Bombay film industry were migrants who came from cities like Lahore, Calcutta and Madras. They themselves had faced a lot of difficulties as migrants in Bombay. It helped them to choose an effective theme for their films.
2. Bombay was a crowded city. There was acute crisis of housing and water supply. More than 70 per cent of the working people (mostly migrants) lived in the thickly populated chawls of Bombay. So they encountered real pressures of life. Such pressures could easily be converted into a good theme for films.
(c) What led to the major expansion of Bombay’s population in the mid nineteenth century ?
Ans. Following factors led to the major expansion of Bombay’s population in the mid nineteenth century :
1. Bombay became the capital city of the Bombay Presidency in 1819, after the Maratha defeat in the Anglo-Maratha War. As a result more and more people began to settle in Bombay.
2. With the growth of trade in cotton and opium, large communities of traders, bankers, artisans and shopkeepers came to settle in Bombay.
3. In 1854, the first cotton mill was established in Bombay. By 1921, the number of cotton mills there was 85. In these mills about 146.000 workers were employed. Of them, about one fourth were born in Bombay and the rest came from outside, especially from the nearby district of Ratnagiri.
4. Bombay dominated the maritime trade of India. So a large number of people came
here to work at the seaport.
5. Bombay was at the junction head of two major railways. The railways encouraged an even higher scale of migration into the city.
6. Famine in the dry region of Kutch drove large numbers of people into Bombay.
7. Bombay was the film city of India. It attracted many people to work in films and settle in Bombay.
DISCUSS
Q. 1. What forms of entertainment came up in nineteenth-century England provide leisure activities for the people ?
Ans. The forms of entertainment which came up in nineteenth-century England to
to provide leisure activities for the people were the following: 1. There was an annual London Season’ for rich people. Several cultural events, such as the opera, the theatre and classical music performances were organised in the London Season for these people.
2. Working classes met in pubs to have a drink, exchange news and sometimes also to
organise for political action.
3. People visited libraries, art galleries and museums.
4 Music halls and later on cinema houses were popular among the lower classes.
5 Industrial workers spent their holidays by the sea, so as to derive the benefits of the sun and bracing winds.
Q. 2. Explain the social changes in London which led to the need for the underground railway. Why was the development of the underground criticised?
Ans. After the Industrial Revolution, a large number of people began to come and settle in London. Consequently, there arose problems of housing, overcrowding, aluma,
insanitation, pollution and so on. So it was decided to shift some of the residents of
London to suburbs. But it was not possible until some means of transport be developed to establish a contact between London and the suburbs. Therefore, the Underground railway was constructed.
Reasons for Criticism of the Development of the Underground :
1. Some people were afraid to travel underground.
2. Some people considered the underground railway as a menace to health. According
to them, the atmosphere in compartments was a mixture of sulphur, coal dust and foul fumes coming out of gas lamps. Some people smoked pipes. As a result, they were near dead of asphyxiation and heat.
3. Many people felt that the ‘iron monsters’ added to the mess and unhealthiness of the city.
4. During laying of underground railway much loss and inconvenience was caused to the people. Several houses were pulled down, streets were broken through, deep pits and trenches were dug in the ground and enormous heaps of earth and clay were thrown up in order to lay the underground railway.
Q. 3. Explain what is meant by the Haussmanisation of Paris. To what extent would you support or oppose this form of development ? Write a letter to the editor of a newspaper, to either support or oppose this, giving reasons for your view.
Ans. Meaning of Haussmanisation.
Baron Haussmann was the chief architect of the French empire. In 1852, when Louis Napoleon III (a nephew of Napoleon Bonparte) became the emperor he desired to rebuild Paris. He ordered Baron Haussmann for the purpose. Haussmann constructed the new city of Paris for continuous seventeen years. He designed straight, broad avenues and open spaces and transplanted full-grown trees. In addition, policemen were employed, night patrols were begun and bus shelters and tap water introduced. This rebuilding of Paris by Baron Haussmann is known as Haussmanisation of Paris.
Arguments in Support of the Haussmanisation.
The Haussmanisation converted the new city of Paris into a civic pride. The new capital became the toast of all Europe. It became the hub of many new architectural, social and intellectual developments that were very influential right through the twentieth century, even in other parts of the globe. Besides, the Haussmanisation provided employment to a large number of people. One in five working persons in Paris was in the building trade in the 1860s.
Arguments in Opposition of the Haussmanisation.
The Haussmanisation stood for the forcible reconstruction of cities to enhance their beauty and impose order. The poor were evicted from the centre of Paris to reduce the possibility of political rebellion and to beautify the city. About 350,000 people were displaced for this reconstruction. Some of the wealthier inhabitants said that the city had been monstrously transformed. Some lamented the passing of an earlier way of life and the development of an upper class culture. Others believed that Haussmann had killed the street and its life to produce an empty boring city. So there was outcry against Haussmanisation.
A Letter to the Editor of a Newspaper.
The students are suggested to take help of the above description and write a letter to the editor of a newspaper, either in support or in opposition of the Haussmanisation.
Q. 4. To what extent does government regulation and new laws solve problems of pollution ? Discuss one example each of the success and failure of legislation to change the quality of
(a) public life
(b) private life.
Ans. Urbanisation in the modern world has caused a great threat to ecology and the environment. In fact, it has occurred at the expense of ecology and the environment. Natural features have been flattened out or transformed in response to the growing demand for space for factories, housing and other institutions. Large quantities of refuse and waste product pollute air, water and soil while excessive noise becomes a feature of urban life. In short, there is pollution of air, water and soil and noise worldwide. To check and control the pollution, the government imposes regulation and passes new laws. But government regulation and new laws cannot solve problems of pollution until common people do not give a positive response to them.
Examples of Success and Failure of Legislation to change the Quality of Fubine as well as Private Life.
1. The widespread use of coal in homes and industries in nineteenth-century England raised serious problems of pollution. In industrial cities sucn as Leeds, Bradford and Manchester, hundreds of factory chimneys let out black smoke into the skies. It caused bad tempers, smoke related disease and dirty clothes. So people joined together to campaign for cleaner air. It was decided to control the nusiance through legislation. But it was not at all easy. Factory owners and steam engine owners did not want to spend on technologies that would improve their machines. By the 1840s, a few towns such as Derby, Leeds and Manchester had laws to control smoke in the city. But smoke was not easy to monitor or measure, and owners got away with small adjustments to their machinery that did nothing to stop the smoke. Moreover, the Smoke Abatement
Acts of 1847 and 1853, did not always work to clear the air.
2. The inhabitants of Kolkata inhaled grey smoke, particularly in the winters. Since the city was built on marshy land, the combination of fog and smoke from burning of dung and wood as fuel, industries and establishments which used steam engines run on coal and the railways, generated thick smog. The high content of ash in Indian coal was a problem. Many pleas were made to banish the dirty mills from the city, with no effect. However, in 1863, Kolkata became the first Indian city to get smoke nuisance legislation.
3. In 1920, the rice mills of Tollygunge began to burn rice husk instead of coal. It filled up the air with black soot which fell like drizzling rain from morning till night. As a result, it became difficult for the residents to live. The inspectors of the Bengal Smoke Nuisance Commission finally managed to control industrial smoke. Controlling domestic smoke, however, was far more difficult.