The question provides an Assertion (A) and a Reason (R) related to the military recruitment in India during the 1850s, particularly focusing on Awadh. Let's analyze both and see which option is correct.
Assertion (A) states that "In the 1850's Awadh was called the ‘nursery of the Bengal Army'." This statement is true. During the colonial period, particularly in the 1850s, Awadh (now part of Uttar Pradesh) was a significant recruitment ground for the Bengal Army of the British East India Company. The region had a high prevalence of military families and agrarian communities that traditionally contributed recruits to the army.
Reason (R) states, "Here a large number of sepoys were recruited from entire India." This statement is false. While sepoys were indeed recruited from different parts of India, the specific term "nursery of the Bengal Army" refers to the concentration and strategic importance of recruitment efforts in Awadh, not the entirety of India. The statement incorrectly generalizes the recruitment area.
Given this analysis, the correct option is: Assertion (A) is true, but Reason (R) is false. This option correctly identifies the validity of each statement and their inapplicability as a direct explanation of one another.
Read the given source carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Two rebels of 1857
Shah Mal
Shah Mal lived in a large village in pargana Barout in Uttar Pradesh. He belonged to a clan of Jat cultivators whose kinship ties extended over chaurasee des (eighty-four villages). The lands in the region were irrigated and fertile, with rich dark loam soil. Many of the villagers were prosperous and saw the British land revenue system as oppressive: the revenue demand was high and its collection inflexible. Consequently cultivators were losing land to outsiders, to traders and moneylenders who were coming into the area.
Shah Mal mobilised the headmen and cultivators of chaurasee des, moving at night from village to village, urging people to rebel against the British. As in many other places, the revolt against the British turned into a general rebellion against all signs of oppression and injustice. Cultivators left their fields and plundered the houses of moneylenders and traders. Displaced proprietors took possession of the lands they had lost. Shah Mal’s men attacked government buildings, destroyed the bridge over the river, and dug up metalled roads – partly to prevent government forces from coming into the area, and partly because bridges and roads were seen as symbols of British rule. They sent supplies to the sepoys who had mutinied in Delhi and stopped all official communication between British headquarters and Meerut. Locally acknowledged as the Raja, Shah Mal took over the bungalow of an English officer, turned it into a “hall of justice”, settling disputes and dispensing judgments. He also set up an amazingly effective network of intelligence. For a period the people of the area felt that firangi raj was over, and their raj had come.
Shah Mal was killed in battle in July 1857.
How did Shah Mal’s leadership contribute to the spread of the rebellion?
Read the given source carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Two rebels of 1857
Shah Mal
Shah Mal lived in a large village in pargana Barout in Uttar Pradesh. He belonged to a clan of Jat cultivators whose kinship ties extended over chaurasee des (eighty-four villages). The lands in the region were irrigated and fertile, with rich dark loam soil. Many of the villagers were prosperous and saw the British land revenue system as oppressive: the revenue demand was high and its collection inflexible. Consequently cultivators were losing land to outsiders, to traders and moneylenders who were coming into the area.
Shah Mal mobilised the headmen and cultivators of chaurasee des, moving at night from village to village, urging people to rebel against the British. As in many other places, the revolt against the British turned into a general rebellion against all signs of oppression and injustice. Cultivators left their fields and plundered the houses of moneylenders and traders. Displaced proprietors took possession of the lands they had lost. Shah Mal’s men attacked government buildings, destroyed the bridge over the river, and dug up metalled roads – partly to prevent government forces from coming into the area, and partly because bridges and roads were seen as symbols of British rule. They sent supplies to the sepoys who had mutinied in Delhi and stopped all official communication between British headquarters and Meerut. Locally acknowledged as the Raja, Shah Mal took over the bungalow of an English officer, turned it into a “hall of justice”, settling disputes and dispensing judgments. He also set up an amazingly effective network of intelligence. For a period the people of the area felt that firangi raj was over, and their raj had come.
Shah Mal was killed in battle in July 1857.
How did the rebellion led by Shah Mal challenge the authority of the British?