Practicing Success

Target Exam

CUET

Subject

History

Chapter

Modern India: Colonialism and the Countryside

Question:

Which of the following statement (s) is/are correct about the Hillfolks/Paharias?

Statement A) They practised shifting cultivation.
Statement B) They grew a variety of pulses and millets for consumption.

Options:

Only statement A is correct.

Only statement B is correct.

Both statements are correct.

None of the statements is correct.

Correct Answer:

Both statements are correct.

Explanation:

The correct answer is Option 3 - Both statements are correct.

Statement A) They practised shifting cultivation.
Statement B) They grew a variety of pulses and millets for consumption.

Hill folk were known as Paharias. They lived around the Rajmahal hills, subsisting on forest produce and practising shifting cultivation. They cleared patches of forest by cutting bushes and burning the undergrowth. On these patches, enriched by the potash from the ash, the Paharias grew a variety of pulses and millets for consumption. They scratched the ground lightly with hoes, cultivated the cleared land for a few years, then left it fallow so that it could recover its fertility, and moved to a new area. From the forests they collected mahua (a flower) for food, silk cocoons and resin for sale, and wood for charcoal production. The undergrowth that spread like a mat below the trees and the patches of grass that covered the lands left fallow provided pasture for cattle.