Read the passage and answer the questions:
The Seventeenth-Century India
In fact, during the seventeenth century about 15 percent of the population lived in towns. This was, on average, higher than the proportion of urban population in Western Europe in the same period. In spite of this Bernier described Mughal cities as "camp towns", by which he meant towns that owed their existence, and depended for their survival, on the imperial camp. He believed that these came into existence when the imperial court moved in and rapidly declined when it moved out. He suggested that they did not have viable social and economic foundations but were dependent on imperial patronage. As in the case of the question of landownership, Bernier was drawing an oversimplified picture. There were all kinds of towns: manufacturing towns, trading towns, port-towns, sacred centres, pilgrimage towns, etc. Their existence is an index of the prosperity of merchant communities and professional classes. Merchants often had strong community or kin ties, and were organised into their own caste-cum occupational bodies. In western India these groups were called mahajans, and their chief, the sheth. In urban centres such as Ahmedabad the mahajans were collectively represented by the chief of the merchant community who was called the nagarsheth. Other urban groups included professional classes such as physicians (hakim or vaid), teachers (pundit or mulla), lawyers (wakil), painters, architects, musicians, calligraphers, etc. While some depended on imperial patronage, many made their living by serving other patrons, while still others served ordinary people in crowded markets or bazaars.
Francois Bernier belonged to which country?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → France
François Bernier, a Frenchman, was a doctor, political philosopher and historian who was in India for twelve years, from 1656 to 1668.
Note: This passage is taken from the NCERT chapter ‘Through the Eyes of Travellers’, almost word for word, from the section on Bernier and the more complex social reality of Mughal towns. Bernier’s pages on towns, merchants and professional groups are short, and every line of this passage became a question.
NCERT (2026-27): “3. François Bernier A Doctor with a Difference … François Bernier, a Frenchman, was a doctor, political philosopher and historian. Like many others, he came to the Mughal Empire in search of opportunities. He was in India for twelve years, from 1656 to 1668, and was closely associated with the Mughal court, as a physician to Prince Dara Shukoh, the eldest son of Emperor Shah Jahan, and later as an intellectual and scientist, with Danishmand Khan, an Armenian noble at the Mughal court.…” |