Meera, a history student, is studying the first weeks of the uprising of 1857 for a class project. Her notes show that in May and June 1857 the revolt spread from town to town, and that it followed much the same course in many different places. She has collected three kinds of material: a remark by a British officer on what happened to Company rule in those two months, accounts of how news of the rising reached distant army posts, and a Delhi Urdu Akhbar account of 14 June 1857 on daily life in the city. She now has to judge what each source tells her.
Which of the following hardships does the Delhi Urdu Akhbar account in Meera's material describe?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Water-carriers had stopped filling water, so poor Shurfas carried water in pails themselves.
Option (1) Water-carriers had stopped filling water, so poor Shurfas carried water in pails themselves. — Correct. The report tells that the water-carriers stopped filling water, so even the gentility carried pails on their shoulders before cooking could start.
Option (2) Kunjras had stopped bringing vegetables, so poor Shurfas grew saag in their own courtyards. — Incorrect. Kunjras appear in the report only as sellers of stale potatoes and arvi kept from before. Shurfas growing saag at home is absent from it.
Option (3) Garden produce from inside the city was sent to the British camp, so the poor went without it. — Incorrect. Garden produce reached only a few places, earmarked for the select.
Option (4) Potatoes and arvi had been seized by the rebels, so kaddu and baingan were the main vegetables left. — Incorrect. Potatoes and arvi were stale and rotten, and kaddu and baingan could be found nowhere in the bazaars.
NCERT (2026-27): “1.1 How the mutinies began … |