Class 10 History Chapter 8 Extra Questions and Answers Novels, Society and History

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Class 10 History Chapter 8 Extra Questions and Answers Novels, Society and History

Novels, Society and History Class 10 Extra Questions and Answer History Chapter 8 Very Short Answers Type

Question 1.
What is a novel?
Answer:
A novel is a modern form of literature, born from print.

Question 2.
Why were novels not popular in ancient times?
Answer:
There were handwritten manuscripts of novels in ancient times. These were circulated among very few people.

Question 3.
What happened when novels began to be printed?
Answer:
When novels began to be printed, they were widely read and became popular very soon.

Question 4.
Why did Chandu Menon give up the idea of directly translating English novels into Malayalam?
Answer:
He realised that his readers in Kerala were not familiar with the way in which the characters in English novels lived i.e; their clothes, ways of speaking and manners were unknown to them. They would find a direct translation of an English novel dreadfully boring.

Question 5.
Why were serialised novels popular among the people?
Answer:
Serialisation allowed readers to relish the suspense, discuss the characters of a novel and live for weeks with their stories.

Question 6.
Who was Tolstoy?
Answer:
Tolstoy was a famous novelist from Russia who wrote extensively on rural life and community.

Question 7.
What is the theme of Charles Dicken’s Oliver Twist?
Answer:
In his novel Oliver Twist Charles Dickens focused on the terrible conditions of urban life under industrial capitalism.

Question 8.
What is the theme of Emile Zola’s Germinal?
Answer:
This novel is based on the life of a young coal miner in France who explores in harsh detail the grim conditions of miners’ lives.

Question 9.
Why did people in Europe fear when women began writing novels?
Answer:
When women began writing novels people in Europe feared that they (women) would now neglect their traditional role as wives and mothers and homes would be in disorder.

Question 10.
How did George Eliot view novels?
Answer:
She believed that novels gave women a special opportunity to express themselves freely.

Question 11.
How is Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre different from other novels of the time?
Answer:
Unlike other novels of the time in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, young Jane is shown as independent and assertive. While girls of her time were expected to be quiet and submissive, Jane at the age of ten protests against the hypocrisy of her elders with startling bluntness.

Question 12.
Name two adventure novels of the nineteenth century that became great hits. Also name their novelists.
Answer:

R.L. Stevenson’s Treasure Island
Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book.

Question 13.
Who wrote Kadambari and in which language?
Answer:
Banabhatta wrote Kadambari in Sanskrit.

Question 14.
What was known as dastan?
Answer:
There was a long tradition of prose tables of adventure and heroism in Persian and Urdu. This was known as dastan.

Question 15.
When did the modern novel form develop in India?
Answer:
The modern novel form developed in India in the nineteenth-century, as Indians became familiar with the Western novel.

Question 16.
Which was the earliest novel written in Marathi? Which problem did it highlight?
Answer:
The earliest novel in Marathi was Baba Padmanji’s Yamuna Paryatan. The novel used a simple style of storytelling to speak about the plight of widows.

Question 17.
Why were novels translated into different Indian languages?
Answer:
This helped to spread the popularity of the novel and stimulated the growth of the novel in new areas.

Question 18.
Who wrote Chandrakantal What was its contribution to Hindi language?
Answer:
Chandrakanta was written by Devaki Nandan Khatri. It was his best-seller. It is believed to have contributed immensely in popularising the Hindi language and the Nagari script among the educated classes of those time.

Question 19.
What do many critics think about Premchand’s Sevasadan?
Answer:
They think that Premchand’s Sevasadan lifted the Hindi novel from the realm of fantasy, moralising and simple entertainment to a serious reflection on the lives of ordinary people and social issues.

Question 20.
How were the sources of entertainment of the old merchant elite of Calcutta different from the new bhadralok?
Answer:
The old merchant elite of Calcutta patronised public forms of entertainment such as Kabirlarai (Poetry contests), musical soirees and dance performances. In contrast, the new Bhadralok found himself at home in the more private world of reading novels.

Question 21.
How did writers like Viresalingam use the novel?
Answer:
They used the novel mainly to propagate their ideas about society among a wider readership.

Question 22.
Mention any two reasons for the popularity of novels among Indian women.
Answer:

Novels allowed for a new conception of womanhood. Stories of love showed women who could choose or refuge their partners and relationships.
Novels showed women who could to some extent control their lives.

Question 23.
In what sense were characters like Indulekha and Madhavan unique?
Answer:
They showed readers how Indian and Western lifestyles could be brought together in an ideal combination.

Question 24.
How did the history written by colonial historians tend to depict Indians?
Answer:
It tended to depict Indians as weak, divided, and dependent on the British.

Question 25.
Surdas is the central character of Premchand’s novel Rangbhoomi. He is a visually impaired beggar from an untouchable caste. What is the significance of choosing such a person as the hero of a novel?
Answer:
It makes the lives of the most oppressed section of society as worthy of literary reflection. We see Surdas struggling against the forcible takeover of his land for establishing a tobacco factory.

Novels, Society and History Class 10 Extra Questions and Answer History Chapter 8 Short Answers Type

Question 1.
What were the reasons for the popularity of novels? (Imp)
Answer:
The reasons for the popularity of novels were:
(i) Novels created the world which were absorbing and believable, and seemingly real. While reading novels, the reader was transported to another person’s world, and began looking at life as it was experienced by the characters of the novel.

(ii) Novels allowed individuals the pleasure of reading in private, as well as the joy of publicly reading or discussing stories with friends or relatives.

(iii) People in rural areas also loved reading novels. They would collect to hear one of them reading a novel aloud, often becoming deeply involved in the lives of the characters.

Question 2.
Mention some of the main features of Premchand’s novel Sewasadan.
Answer:
Sewasadan (The Abode of Service) is one of the famous novels of Premchand. It was published in 1916. Some of the main features of this novel are:

It lifted the Hindi novel from the realm of fantasy, moralising and simple entertainment to a serious reflection of the lives of ordinary people and social issues.
The novel deals mainly with the poor condition of women in society. Issues like child marriage and dowry are also highlighted in it.
It also tells us about the ways in which the Indian upper caste people used whatever little opportunities they got from colonial authorities to govern themselves.

Question 3.
“The novels bring together many cultures”. Explain. (Imp)
OR
Describe how novels bring together many cultures.
Answer:
The novel uses vernacular language that is spoken by common people. By coming closer to the different spoken languages of the people, the novel produces the sense of a shared world between diverse people in a nation. Novels also draw from different styles of language. A novel may take a classical language and combine it with the language of the streets and make them all a part of the vernacular that it uses. In this way, the novel, like the nation, brings together many cultures.

Question 4.
How can you say that the early novels in Europe contributed to colonialism? Explain giving reference to Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe.
OR
“Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe made the reader feel that they were part of a superior community.” Support the statement.
OR
How does Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe justify colonialism? Explain.
Answer:
Robinson Crusoe’s actions that make us see him as a typical coloniser are many—
(i) Shipwrecked on an island inhabited by coloured people. Crusoe treats them not as human beings equal to him, but as inferior creatures.

(ii) In the novel, he rescues a native and makes him his slave. He does not ask for his name but starts calling him by the name Friday.

(iii) Most writers of the time saw colonialism as natural and depicted colonised people as primitive and barbaric, less than human. They considered colonial rule necessary to civilise them and to make them fully human. Crusoe represents his ideology of colonisers.

Question 5.
How does the novel Pariksha-Guru reflect in the inner and outer world of the new emerging middle classes?
Answer:
The picture of the new middle-class which the novel Pari ksha-Guru portrays: Pari ks ha- Guru, of Srinivas Das, reflects the inner and outer world of the newly emerging middle class. The characters in this novel are shown facing the difficulties of adapting to colonised society and at the same time preserving their own cultural identities. The world of colonial modernity seems to be both frightening and irresistible to the characters.

The novel tries to teach the readers to remain rooted in the values of their own traditions and culture, and to live with dignity and honour. The characters are seen attempting to bridge two different worlds through their actions — they take to new agricultural technology, modernise trading practices, change the use of Indian languages, making them capable of transmitting both Western sciences and Indian wisdom. But the novel emphasises that all this must be achieved without sacrificing the traditional values of the middle-class household.

Question 6.
Give a brief assessment of the novels Hard Times and Olive Twist, written by Charles Dickens.
OR
How did Charles Dickens focus on the life of the industrial workers and the terrible conditions of urban life in his novels? Explain with examples. (Imp)
Answer:
With the growth of industrial activities in Europe in the nineteenth century, many novelists began to write about the problems that emerged out of these activities. Charles Dickens was one of them who left no chance to criticise the ill effects of industrialisation on people’s lives and characters.

Hard Times: His novel Hard Times (1854) describes Coketown, a fictitious industrial town, as a grim place full of machinery, smoking chimneys, rivers polluted purple and buildings that all looked the same. Workers in this town have lost their identity. They are known as ‘hands’ or operators of machines. Dickens was highly critical of the ideas that reduced human beings into simple instruments of production.

Oliver Twist: In this novel, Dickens focused on the terrible conditions of urban life under industrial capitalism. The novel is the tale of an orphan who lived in a world of petty criminals and beggars. Oliver was brought up in a cruel workhouse. Later he was adopted by a wealthy man who brought happiness in his life.

Question 7.
Distinguish between epistolary novels and serialised novels with examples.
Answer:
The novel Godan by Premchand was first published in 1936. It is an epic of the Indian peasantry. The novel tells us about the moving story of Hori and his wife Dhania, a peasant couple. For them, their cows mean everything. They have a small plot of land and work hard to earn their living. In due course of time, landlords, moneylenders, priests and colonial bureaucrats — all those who hold power in society — form a network of oppression, rob their land and make them into landless labourers. Yet Hon and Dhania retain their dignity to the end.

Peasants and farmers suffered a lot during the Great Depression. Though agricultural prices fell sharply, the colonial government refused to reduce revenue demands. As a result, peasants’ indebtedness increased. They used up their savings and mortgaged their lands to meet their expenses.

Question 8.
What kind of novels were written for young boys in the nineteenth century? Explain.
Answer:
(i) Novels for young boys idealised a new type of man-someone who was powerful, assertive, independent and daring. Most of these novels were full of adventures set in places remote from Europe.

(ii) The colonisers are depicted as heroic and honourable. They are shown confronting native peoples and strange surroundings, adapting to native life as well as changing it, colonising territories and finally developing nations there. Books like R.L. Stevenson’s Treasure Island and Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book became great hits.

(iii) Novelists like G.A. Henty wrote historical adventure novels for boys. These novels were very popular during the height of the British empire. They aroused excitement and adventure of conquering strange lands. They were always about young boys who get involved in some military action and show courage of ‘English’ Type.

Question 9.
How did Indian novels include modernity in their vision? Explain with examples.
OR
How had the different novelists of the colonial period taken up the task of modernisation of the Indians? Explain briefly.
Answer:
In many novels written during the colonial period, heroes and heroines are shown successfully balancing between modernity and tradition. They accept ideas coming from the west without losing their identity. Chandu Menon portrayed Indulekha as a woman of extreme beauty, high intellectual abilities, artistic talent, and with an education in English and Sanskrit.

Madhavan, the hero of the novel, was also presented in ideal colours. He was a member of the newly English-educated class of Nayars from the University of Madras. He dressed in Western clothes. But, at the same time, he kept a long lift of hair, according to the Nayar custom.

The heroes and heroines in most of the novels were people who lived in the modern world. Thus they were different from the ideal or mythological characters of the earlier poetic literature of India. Under colonial rule, many of the English-educated class found new Western ways of living and thinking attractive. But they never ignored their traditional ways of living.

Question 10.
How does Saraswativijayam lay stress upon the importance of education for the upliftment of the lower castes?
Answer:
Many Indians wrote novels to criticise what they considered defects in their society and to suggest remedies. Since the issue of caste was a major defect, so it was included in Indian novels for the same purpose.

Novels like Indirabai and Indulekha were written by the upper-castes, and were primarily about upper-caste characters. But all novels were not of this kind. The two novels that make readers think about existing social issues are:

(i) Unlike Indirabai and Indulekha, Saraswativijayam was written by a lower-caste writer from north Kerala named Potheri Kunjambu. He wrote this novel in 1892 to make an attack on caste oppression. This novel shows a young man from an ‘untouchable’ caste, leaving his village to escape the cruelty of his Brahmin landlord.

He converts to Christianity, gets modern education and returns to his village as a judge in the local court. In the meantime, the villagers, thinking that the landlord’s men had killed him, file a case. At the end of the trial, the judge reveals his identity and the Nambuthiri repents and gets ready to reform his ways. The novel Saraswativijayara highlights education as a means to uplift the lower caste people.

(ii) In Bengal too a new kind of novel emerged from the 1920s that depicted the lives of peasants and low castes. Aclvajta Malla Burman’s Titash Ekti Nadir Naam is an epic about the Mallas, a community of fisher folk who live off fishing in the river Titash. The novel is about three generations of the Mallas and describes the oppression of the upper castes. The lives of the Mallas is tied with the river. Their end comes together. As the river dries up, the community also dies too. The novel is special because the author is himself from a low caste, fisher folk community describing the bitter experiences of the low-caste people.

Question 11.
What was the attitude of people in India in the nineteenth century towards women reading? How did women respond to this? (Imp)
Answer:
When women in India started reading novels, people in general got upset. They were worried about the effects of the novel on women who were taken away from their real surroundings into an imaginary world where anything could happen. They began advising women to stay away from the immoral influences of novels because they were seen as easily corruptible.

But women did not listen to such advice. They continued to read novels and soon a time came when they also began to write novels. They wrote stories of love which was a major theme of many novels. These stories showed women who could choose or refuse their partners and relationship. Some women authors also wrote about women who changed the world of both men and women.

Question 12.
Name the first Hindi modern novel which became a best-seller. Who was its writer? Why was it so popular? (Imp)
Answer:
The first Hindi modern novel which became a best-seller was Devaki Nandan Khatri’s Chandrakanta. It is a story of romance with dazzling elements of fantasy. It is believed to have contributed immensely in popularising the Hindi language and the Nagari script among the educated classes of those times. Although it was apparently written purely for the pleasure of reading, this novel also gives some interesting insights into the fears and desires of its reading public.

Question 13.
Name the first novel written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. Discuss his contribution to the Bengali novel. (Imp)
Answer:
The first novel written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay is Durgeshnandini which came in 1865. When Bankim read out this novel to a gathering of people for the first time, they were stunned to realise that the Bengali novel had achieved excellence within a very short span of time.

Besides the ingenious twists and turns of the plot and suspense, the novel Durgeshnandini was also liked for its language. Bankim introduced prose style for story telling which gave real enjoyment to the reader. Previous Bengali novelists used a colloquial style associated with urban life. They also used meyeli, the language associated with women’s speech. Bankim Chandra replaced this style with his prose which was Sanskritised but also contained a more vernacular style.

Question 14.
Explain the role of novelists in the field of social reforms in India with the help of any three examples.
Answer:
The role of novelists in the field of social reforms in India is really praiseworthy. Potheri Kunjambu, Chandu Menon and Premchand are some of the eminent novelists of India who have raised various social issues and have also suggested their remedies.

(i) In his novel Saraswativijayam, Potheri Kunjambu attacks on caste oppression and stresses the importance of education for the upliftment of the people belonging to the lower castes.

(ii) In Indulekha, Chandu Menon wants his readers to appreciate the new values of the hero and heroine and criticise the ignorance and immorality of Suri Nambutheri.

(iii) Premchand wrote about the lives of ordinary people and social issues like the poor condition of women in society, child marriage, dowry and exploitation of poor peasants by wealthy landlords. By pointing out these issues, he has made an attempt to reform the society.

Question 15.
What were the various uses of novels from the Indian point of view? (V. Imp)
Answer:
Novels helped Indians to give shape to their desires. Novels also helped in establishing a relationship
with the past. Many of them told thrilling stories of adventures and intrigues set in the past. Through glorified accounts of the past, these novels helped in creating a sense of national pride among their readers.

Many of the novels emphasised various social issues like caste, untouchability, child marriage, etc. and forced the readers to look inside their own and reform their ways if they were not correct. They also helped people to be rational, just and compassionate. Novels helped in developing nationalist feelings among the Indians who were ready to sacrifice even their lives for the cause of the nation.

Question 16.
Explain three features of the early Bengali novels.
Answer:
Three features of the early Bengali novels were:
(i) In the nineteenth century, the early Bengali novels lived in two worlds. Many of these novels were located in the past, their characters, events and love stories based on historical events.

(ii) Another group of novels defected the inner world of domestic life in contemporary settings. Domestic novels frequently dealt with the social problems and romantic relationships between men and women.

(iii) Novels were read individually. They could also be read in select groups. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay would host a jatra in the courtyard where members of the family would be gathered to listen to the story of the novel.

Novels, Society and History Class 10 Extra Questions and Answer History Chapter 8 Long Answers Type

Question 1.
Why were people worried about the ill-effects of novels on women and young people?
Answer:
(i) The concern in both nineteenth-century Europe and India about women reading novels bore more or less similar fears. Conservative people in both the places got worried about the effects of the novel on women who were taken away from their real surroundings into an imaginary world where anything could happen.

(ii) In Europe, when women started reading and writing novels many people feared that they would now neglect their traditional roles as wives and mothers and homes would be in disorder.

(iii) Similar fears could be sensed in Inthan air too. Women were advised to stay away from the immoral influence of novels. They were seen as easily corruptible.

(iv) It was felt in both Europe and India that if women read novels, they would go astray. They would lose interest in home and hearth and would find ways to go outside. Now we can easily infer that women were viewed as incapable of being independent. They were not expected to go against the wills of their male partners. The domestic sphere was seen as the proper place for women. Once they got married, they were expected to take care of the household chores.

Question 2.
Compare the novels written by Thomas Hardy and Charles Dickens and bring out the differences in their theme.
Answer:
Social changes in nineteenth-century Britain highlighted by Thomas Hardy:

(i) With industrialisation, traditional rural communities of England began to be disappearing. This was actually a time when large farmers fenced off land, bought machines and employed labourers
to produce for the market.

(ii) The old rural culture with its independent farmers is shown dying out. We get a sense of this change in Hardy’s Mayor of Casterbridge.

(iii) In this novel, the novelist mourns at the loss of the more personalised world that is disappearing, although he is aware of its problems and the advantages of the new order.

Social changes in nineteenth-century Britain highlighted by Charles Dickens:

(i) Charles Dickens wrote about the terrible effects of industrialisation on people’s lives and characters.

(ii) In the nineteenth century, Europe entered the industrial age. Factories came up, business profits increased and the economy grew. Capitalists got benefited by all these developments, but workers faced problems.

(iii) Cities expanded in an unregulated manner and were flooded with overworked and underpaid workers. The unemployed poor roamed the streets and the homeless were forced to seek shelter in
workhouses.

(iv) His novel Hard Times highlights the side effects of industrialisation. People are shown facing pollution of air, water and noise. The workers are facing the problem of identity. They are known as hands, as if they had no identity other than as operators of machines.

(v) In this novel, Dickens criticised not just the greed for profits but also the ideas that reduced human beings into instruments of production.

Question 3.
Explain the history of growth of novels in India. (Imp)
OR
Explain briefly the history of Hindi novel from beginning to its excellence.
Answer:
(i) Till the eighteenth century, Indians were not familiar with novels. What they were familiar with were stories in prose such as Banabhatta’s Kadambari and the Panchatantra. The modern novel form developed in India only in the nineteenth century, as Indians came in contact with the Western novel. The development of the vernaculars, print and a reading public helped in this process.

(ii) Some of the earliest Indian novels were written in Bengali and Marathi. The earliest novel in Marathi was Baba Padmanji’s Yamuna Paryatan which came in 1857. The novel used a simple style of story-telling to speak about the plight of widows. This was followed by Lakshman Moreshwar Halbe’s Muktamala in 1861. It presented an imaginary romance narrative with a moral purpose.

(iii) Leading novelists of the nineteenth century wrote for a cause. They wrote to develop a modem literature of the country that could produce a sense of national belonging and cultural equality with their colonial masters.

(iv) Translations of novels into different regional languages, however, stimulated the growth of the novel in new areas. O. Chandu Menon tried to translate an English novel called Henrietta Temple written by Benjamin Disraeli into Malayalam. But later he gave up this idea and wrote instead a delightful novel called Indulekha which was published in 1889. It was the first modern novel in Malayalam.

(v) In north India, novels were translated and adapted from English and Bengali, but the first proper modern novel was written by Srinivas Das of Delhi. He wrote Pariksha-Guru which was published in 1882. The novel reflects the inner and outer world of the newly emerging middle class.

(vi) Then came Chandrakanta, written by Devaki Nandan Khatri. It was his best-seller and is believed to have contributed immensely in popularising the Hindi language and the Nagari script among the educated classes of those times.

(vii) It was with the writings of Premchand that the Hindi novel achieved excellence. His Sewasadan came in 1916 and Godan in 1936. Rangbhoomi came in between. Premchandi’s novels were filled with all kinds of powerful characters drawn from all levels of society.

Question 4.
Who is the author of the novel Titash Ekti Nadir Naam? Describe the theme of this novel. (Imp)
OR
Who is the author of the novel Titash Ekti Nadir Naam? Why is it considered a special novel? Give four reasons. {Imp)
Answer:
Many Indian 8 wrote novels to criticise what they considered defects in their society and to suggestremedies. Since the issue of caste was a major defect, so it was included in Indian novels for the same purpose.

Novels like Indirabai and Indulekha were written by the upper-castes, and were primarily about upper- caste characters. But all novels were not of this kind. The two novels that make readers think about existing social issues are:

He converts to Christianity, gets modern education and returns to his village as a judge in the local court. In the meantime, the villagers, thinking that the landlord’s men had killed him, file a case. At the end of the trial, the judge reveals his identity and the Nambuthiri repents and gets ready to reform his ways. The novel Saraswatiuijayam highlights education as a means to uplift the lower caste people.

(ii) In Bengal too a new kind of novel emerged from the 1920s that depicted the lives of peasants and low castes. Advaita Malla Burman’s Titash Ekti Nadir Naam is an epic about the Mallas, a community of fisher folk who live off fishing in the river Titash. The novel is about three generations of the Mallas and describes the oppression of the upper castes.

The lives of the Mallas is tied with the river. Their end comes together. As the river dries up, the community also dies too. The novel is special because the author is himself from a low caste, fisher folk community describing the bitter experiences of the low-caste people.

Question 5.
“Leading Indian novelists of the nineteenth century wrote for a national cause”. Do you agree with the statement? Justify your answer. (Imp)
Answer:
The ways in which the novel in India attempted to create a sense of pan-Indian belonging were

(i) In Bengal, historical novels were written about Marathas and Rajputs. These novels produced a sense of pan-Indian belonging. They imagined the nation to be full of adventure, heroism, romance and sacrifice-qualities that could not be found in the offices and streets of the nineteenth-century world. The novel allowed the colonised to give shape to their desires.

(ii) Bhudeb Mukhopadhyay’s Anguriya Binimoy was the first historical novel written in Bengal. Its hero Shivaji engages in many battles against a clever and treacherous Aurangzeb. What gives him courage is his belief that he is a nationalist fighting for the freedom of Hindus.

(iii) Bankim’s Anandamath is a novel about a secret Hindu militia that fights Muslims to establish a Hindu Kingdom. It was a novel that inspired many kinds of freedom fighters.

(iv) Imagining a heroic past was one way in which the novel helped in popularising the sense of belonging to a common nation. Another way was to include various classes in the novel so that

Question 6.
Why were novels popular among the women in the eighteenth century Europe?
OR
Describe the reasons for the popularity of novels among the women in the eighteenth century Europe. (Imp)
Answer:
There were several reasons for the popularity of novels among the women:
(i) The eighteenth century Europe saw the middle classes become more prosperous. Women got more leisure to read as well as write novels. And novels began exploring the world of women- their emotions and identities, their experiences and problems.

(ii) Many novels were written about women’s domestic life. These novels drew upon their experience, wrote about family life and earned public recognition. But women novelists of the time also wrote novels that dealt with women who broke established norms of society before adjusting to them. Such stories became popular among women who were sympathised with rebellious actions. In Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, young Jane is shown as independent and assertive.

(iii) The reason for popularity of novels among women in India was that it allowed for a new conception of womanhood. Novels carried stories of love which showed women choosing or refusing their partners and relationships. They showed women who could to some extent control their lives.

(iv) Some women authors also wrote about women who changed the world of both men and women. Begum Rokeya Hossein was one such author who wrote a satiric fantasy in English called Sultana’s Dream in 1905. It shows a topsy-turvy world in which women take the place of men. Her novel Padmarag also showed the need for women to reform their condition by their own actions.

(v) In the early twentieth century, journals, written for and sometimes edited by women, became very popular. They discussed issues like women’s education, widowhood, widow remarriage and the national movement. Some of them offered household and fashion lessons to women and brought entertainment through short stories and serialised novels.

Question 7.
Who was Vaikkom Muhammad Basheer? Mention some of the features of his writings. (Imp)
Answer:
Vaikkom Muhammad Basheer was one of the early Muslim writers who gained fame as a novelist in Malayalam. Basheer was not highly educated. Still he wrote novels which were mostly based on his own rich experiences rather than on books from the past. He left Rome in early age to join the salt satyagrah. Later, he spent several years roaming in different parts of India and Arabia. Some of the features of Basheer’s writings were:

His short novels and stories were written in ordinary language of conversation.
His novels spoke about details from the everyday life of Muslim households. One can find wonderful humour while reading his novels.
He also brought into Malayalam writing themes which were considered unusual at that time- poverty, insanity and life in prisons.

Question 8.
How did novels explore and depict the world of women? Explain by giving examples. (Imp)
Answer:
There were several reasons for the popularity of novels among the women:
(i) The eighteenth century Europe saw the middle classes become more prosperous. Women got more leisure to read as well as write novels. And novels began exploring the world of women- their emotions and identities, their experiences and problems.

Novels, Society and History Class 10 Extra Questions and Answer History Chapter 8 Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) Questions

Question 1.
In what ways did the character of the novel Indulekha show that Indian and foreign lifestyles could be brought together in an ideal combination?
Answer:
Indulekha was a love story. It was written at the time when girls were not allowed to choose their life partners. But Indulekha, the heroine of the novel goes against this trend. She is intelligent and full of confidence. She rejects the foolish landlord who comes to marry her arid chooses Madhavan, the educated and handsome boy as her husband. After the marriage, the young couple move to Madras, where Madhavan joins the civil service.

Chandu Menon, the author of Indulekha, portrayed Indulekha as a woman of extreme beauty, high intellectual abilities, and with an education in English and Sanskrit. Madhavan, the hero of the novel, was presented in ideal colours. He was a member of the newly English-educated class of Nayars from the University of Madras. But at the same time, he was a scholar in Sanskrit.

He dressed in Western clothes. But, he also kept a loop tuft of hair, according to his custom. Thus, they were against the adoption of western values. They showed readers how Indian and foreign lifestyles could be brought together in an ideal combination.

Question 2.
Analyse the role and involvement of women in the readership and authorship of novels in India.
Answer:
Women in general were not allowed to read novels. They were advised to stay away from the immoral influence of novels. They were seen as easily corruptible. With the passage of time, women began to ignore such advice. They not only started reading novels but also began to write them. In some languages, the early creations of women were poems, essays or autobiographical pieces. In the early decades of the twentieth century, women in south India also began writing novels and short stories. These stories showed women who could choose or refuse their partners and relationships.

There were several reasons for the popularity of novels among the women:
(i) The eighteenth century Europe saw the middle classes become more prosperous. Women got more leisure to read as well as write novels. And novels began exploring the world of women- their emotions and identities, their experiences and problems.

Question 3.
‘Premchand’s novels are filled with all kinds of powerful characters drawn from all levels of society.’ Support the statement giving suitable examples. (V. Imp)
OR
‘Drawn from various strata of society, Premchand’s characters create a community based on democratic values’. Substantiate the above statement with examples from any of his novels.
OR
Give an assessment of the following novels written by Premchand:

Sewasadan
Ranghoomi
Godan

Answer:
Premchand was one of the greatest novelists of India. He began writing in Urdu and then shifted to Hindi, remaining an immensely influential writer in both languages. His characters are drawn from various strata of society and create a community based on democratic values. In his novels, we meet aristocrats and landlords, middle-level peasants and landless labourers, middle-class professionals and people from the margins of society. We can give reference to three of his famous novels to prove this fact:

(i) His novel Sewasadan was published in 1916. It deals with the lives of ordinary people and social issues like the poor condition of women in society, child marriage and dowry. The novel also tells us about the ways in which the Indian upper classes behave. There is a wide gap between their actions and words.

(ii) In his novel Rangbhoomi, Premchand makes a visually impaired beggar from an untouchable caste; the central character. The name of the character is Surdas. The very act of choosing such a person as the hero of a novel is significant. It makes the lives of the most oppressed section of society as worthy of literary reflection. Surdas is shown struggling against the forcible takeover of his land for establishing a tobacco factory.

(iii) Premchand’s Godan was published in 1936. It is considered his best known work. It is an epic of the Indian peasantry. The novel tells us the heart touching story of Hori and Dhania, a peasant couple. Landlords, moneylenders, priests and colonial bureaucrats – all those who hold power and influence in society form a network of oppression, rob their land and make them into landless labourers.

Novels, Society and History Class 10 Extra Questions and Answer History Chapter 8 Value-based Questions (VBQs)

Question 1.
In what way was woman depicted in Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre?
Answer:
Charlotte Bronte was a great novelist of the nineteenth century. She wanted that women should enjoy independence. They should have their own identity. She wrote Jane Eyre which was published in 1847. In this novel, young Jane is shown as independent and assertive while girls of her time were expected to be quiet and well-behaved. “Jane at the age of ten protests against the hypocrisy of her elders with startling bluntness. She tells her Aunt who is always unkind to her, People think you a good woman, but you are bad, …. You are deceitful? I will never call you aunt as long as I live.”

Question 2.
Pariksha-Guru by Srinivas Das was the first proper modern novel in Hindi. How are the values associated with this novel relevant today?
Answer:
The novel Pariksha-Guru (The Master Examiner) by Srinivas Das was published in 1882. Some of the values associated with this novel are:

(i) It has cautioned young men of well-to-do families against the dangerous influences of bad company and consequent loose morals.

(ii) The novel tries to teach to readers the right way to live and expects all sensible men to be wordly- wise and practical, to remain rooted in the values of their own tradition and culture, and to live with dignity and honour.

(iii) If Western sciences are essential in this globalised world, Indian wisdom is in no way less important to preserve Indianness.

(iv) The young are urged to cultivate the healthy habit of reading the newspapers. All the above-mentioned values are relevant even today. If one aspires to achieve success, one has to follow these values.

Question 3.
What message does Gulavadi Venkata Rao’s Indirabai convey? Explain.
Answer:
Gulavadi Venkata Rao’s novel Indirabai conveys a message of social reform. The heroine of the novel is given away in marriage at a very tender age to an elderly man. Her husband dies soon after the marriage, and she is forced to live the life of a widow. She wants to continue her education but her family and society turn against her. But Indirabai does not adjust to them. She gets education and finally marries again, this time a progressive, English-educated man. The novel lays emphasis upon the importance of education for the upliftment of the women.