A historian is comparing the Ain-i Akbari with records of a market town in Awadh from the late seventeenth century. The Ain's lists of crops for northern India leave out a certain plant. The later records show the same plant growing in nearby fields, smoked by many townspeople in hookahs and chillums, and carried by traders to distant markets. A court chronicle adds that an emperor had once issued an order against it. She sets out to trace where the plant came from and how it spread.
Which of the following statements about the emperor's order in the court chronicle is correct?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Jahangir banned the plant because he was concerned about addiction to it
Option (1) Akbar banned the plant soon after he and his nobles first came across it in 1604 — Incorrect. Akbar and his nobles did come across tobacco for the first time in 1604. The ban came later, from his successor Jahangir.
Option (2) Jahangir banned the plant because he was concerned about addiction to it — Correct. <strong>Jahangir was so concerned about addiction to tobacco that he banned it</strong>. The ban was totally ineffective, as tobacco spread all over India by the end of the century.
Option (3) Shah Jahan banned the plant because it took land away from food crops — Incorrect. Shah Jahan is the wrong ruler. The ban came from Jahangir, and his reason was addiction.
Option (4) Akbar banned the plant because he was concerned about addiction to it — Incorrect. The reason is right but the ruler is wrong. Akbar only met tobacco in 1604; the ruler worried about addiction was Jahangir.
NCERT (2026-27): “1.4 An abundance of crops … |