Textbook in History

for Class XII

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12093 – Themes in Indian History (Part I)
ISBN 81-7450-651-9
Textbook in History for Class XII

First Edition ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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 FOREWORD

The National Curriculum Framework (NCF), 2005, recommends that

children’s life at school must be linked to their life outside the school.
This principle marks a departure from the legacy of bookish learning
which continues to shape our system and causes a gap between the
school, home and community. The syllabi and textbooks developed on
the basis of NCF signify an attempt to implement this basic idea. They
also attempt to discourage rote learning and the maintenance of sharp
boundaries between different subject areas. We hope these measures
will take us significantly further in the direction of a child-centred
system of education outlined in the National Policy on Education (1986).
The success of this effort depends on the steps that school
principals and teachers will take to encourage children to reflect on
their own learning and to pursue imaginative activities and questions.
We must recognise that, given space, time and freedom, children
generate new knowledge by engaging with the information passed on
to them by adults. Treating the prescribed textbook as the sole basis
of examination is one of the key reasons why other resources and
sites of learning are ignored. Inculcating creativity and initiative is
possible if we perceive and treat children as participants in learning,
not as receivers of a fixed body of knowledge.
These aims imply considerable change in school routines and
mode of functioning. Flexibility in the daily time-table is as necessary
as rigour in implementing the annual calendar so that the required
number of teaching days are actually devoted to teaching. The
methods used for teaching and evaluation will also determine how
effective this textbook proves for making children’s life at school a
happy experience, rather than a source of stress or boredom. Syllabus
designers have tried to address the problem of curricular burden by
restructuring and reorienting knowledge at different stages with
greater consideration for child psychology and the time available for
teaching. The textbook attempts to enhance this endeavour by giving
higher priority and space to opportunities for contemplation and
wondering, discussion in small groups, and activities requiring hands-
on experience.
The National Council of Educational Research and Training
(NCERT) appreciates the hard work done by the textbook development
committee responsible for this book. We wish to thank the Chairperson
of the advisory group in Social Sciences Professor Hari Vasudevan
and the Chief Advisor for this book, Professor Neeladri Bhattacharya,
Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
for guiding the work of this committee. Several teachers contributed
to the development of this textbook; we are grateful to their principals
for making this possible. We are indebted to the institutions and

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vi

organisations which have generously permitted us to draw upon their

resources, material and personnel. We are especially grateful to the
members of the National Monitoring Committee, appointed by the
Department of Secondary and Higher Education, Ministry of Human
Resource Development under the Chairpersonship of Professor Mrinal
Miri and Professor G.P. Deshpande, for their valuable time and
contribution. As an organisation committed to the systemic reform
and continuous improvement in the quality of its products, NCERT
welcomes comments and suggestions which will enable us to
undertake further revision and refinement.

Director
New Delhi National Council of Educational
20 November 2006 Research and Training

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RATIONALISATION OF CONTENT IN THE TEXTBOOKS
In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is imperative to reduce
content load on students. The National Education Policy 2020,
also emphasises reducing the content load and providing
opportunities for experiential learning with creative mindset. In
this background, the NCERT has undertaken the exercise to
rationalise the textbooks across all classes. Learning Outcomes
already developed by the NCERT across classes have been taken
into consideration in this exercise.
Contents of the textbooks have been rationalised in view of the
following:
• Overlapping with similar content included in other subject
areas in the same class
• Similar content included in the lower or higher class in the
same subject
• Difficulty level
• Content, which is easily accessible to students without much
interventions from teachers and can be learned by children
through self-learning or peer-learning
• Content, which is irrelevant in the present context

This present edition, is a reformatted version after carrying

out the changes given above.

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Rationalised 2023-24
 DEFINING THE FOCUS OF STUDY

What defines the focus of this book? What does it seek to do? How
is it linked to what has been studied in earlier classes?
In Classes VI to VIII we looked at Indian history from early
beginnings to modern times, with a focus on one chronological
period in each year. Then in the books for Classes IX and X, the
frame of reference changed. We looked at a shorter period of time,
focusing specifically on a close study of the contemporary world.
We moved beyond territorial boundaries, beyond the limits of nation
states, to see how different people in different places have played
their part in the making of the modern world. The history of India
became connected to a wider inter-linked history. Subsequently in
Class XI we studied Themes in World History, expanding our
chronological focus, looking at the vast span of years from the
beginning of human life to the present, but selecting only a set of
themes for serious exploration. This year we will study Themes in
Indian History.
The book begins with Harappa and ends with the framing of the
Indian constitution. What it offers is not a general survey of five
millennia, but a close study of select themes. The history books in
earlier years have already acquainted you with Indian history. It is
time we explore some themes in greater detail.
In choosing the themes we have tried to ensure that we learn
about developments in different spheres – economic, cultural, social,
political, and religious – even as we attempt to break the boundaries
between them. Some themes in the book will introduce you to the
politics of the time and the nature of authority and power; others
explore the way societies are organised, and the way they function
and change; still others tell us about religious life and ritual
practices, about the working of economies, and the changes within
rural and urban societies.
Each of these themes will also allow you to have a closer look at
the historians’ craft. To retrieve the past, historians have to find
sources that make the past accessible. But sources do not just reveal
the past; historians have to grapple with sources, interpret them,
and make them speak. This is what makes history exciting. The
same sources can tell us new things if we ask new questions, and
engage with them in new ways. So we need to see how historians
read sources, and how they discover new things in old sources.
But historians do not only re-examine old records. They discover
new ones. Sometimes these could be chance discoveries.
Archaeologists may unexpectedly come across seals and mounds
that provide clues to the existence of a site of an ancient civilisation.
Rummaging through the dusty records of a district collectorate a
historian may trip over a bundle of records that contain legal cases
of local disputes, and these may open up a new world of village life
several centuries back. Yet are such discoveries only accidents? You
may bump into a bundle of old records in an archive, open it up
and see it, without discovering the significance of the source. The

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viii

source may mean nothing to you unless you have relevant questions
in mind. You have to track the source, read the text, follow the clues,
and make the inter-connections before you can reconstruct the past.
The physical discovery of a record does not simply open up the
past. When Alexander Cunningham first saw a Harappan seal, he
could make no sense of it. Only much later was the significance of
the seals discovered.
In fact when historians begin to ask new questions, explore new
themes, they have to often search for new types of sources. If we
wish to know about revolutionaries and rebels, official sources can
reveal only a partial picture, one that will be shaped by official
censure and prejudice. We need to look for other sources – diaries
of rebels, their personal letters, their writings and pronouncements.
And these are not always easy to come by. If we have to understand
experiences of people, then oral sources might reveal more than
written sources.
As the vision of history broadens, historians begin tracking new
sources, searching for new clues to understand the past. And when
that happens, the conception of what constitutes a source itself
changes. There was a time when only written records were
acknowledged as authentic. What was written could be verified,
cited, and cross checked. Oral evidence was never considered a valid
source: who was to guarantee its authenticity and verifiability? This
mistrust of oral sources has not yet disappeared, but oral evidence
has been innovatively used to uncover experiences that no other
record could reveal.
Through the book this year, you will enter the world of historians,
accompany them in their search for new clues, and see how they
carry on their dialogues with the past. You will witness the way
they tease out meaning out of records, read inscriptions, excavate
archaeological sites, make sense of beads and bones, interpret the
epics, look at the stupas and buildings, examine paintings and
photographs, interpret police reports and revenue records, and
listen to the voices of the past. Each theme will explore the
peculiarities and possibilities of one particular type of source. It
will discuss what a source can tell and what it cannot.
This is Part I of Themes in Indian History, Parts II and III will
follow.

NEELADRI BHATTACHARYA
Chief Advisor, History

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 TEXTBOOK DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

CHAIRPERSON, ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Hari Vasudevan, Professor, Department of History, University of Calcutta, Kolkata
CHIEF ADVISOR
Neeladri Bhattacharya, Professor, Centre for Historical Studies,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (Theme 9)
ADVISORS
Kumkum Roy, Associate Professor, Centre for Historical Studies,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (Theme 2)
Monica Juneja, Guest Professor, Institut Furgeschichte, Viennna, Austria
TEAM MEMBERS
Beeba Sobti, P.G.T. History, Modern School, Barakhamba Road, New Delhi
C.N. Subramaniam, Eklavya, Kothi Bazar, Hoshangabad (Theme 7)
Farhat Hassan, Reader, Department of History, Aligarh Muslim University,
Aligarh, UP (Theme 5)
Jaya Menon, Reader, Department of History, Aligarh Muslim University,
Aligarh, UP (Theme 1)
Kunal Chakrabarti, Professor, Centre for Historical Studies,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (Theme 3)
Meenakshi Khanna, Reader in History, Indraprastha College,
University of Delhi, Delhi (Theme 6)
Muzaffar Alam, Professor of South Asian History, University of Chicago, Chicago, USA
Najaf Haider, Associate Professor, Centre for Historical Studies,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Partho Dutta, Reader, Department of History, Zakir Hussain College
(Evening Classes), University of Delhi, Delhi
Prabha Singh, P.G.T. History, Kendriya Vidyalaya, Old Cantt., Telliarganj,
Allahabad, UP
Rajat Datta, Professor, Centre for Historical Studies,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (Theme 8)
Ramachandra Guha, freelance writer, anthropologist and historian,
Bangalore (Theme 11)
Rashmi Paliwal, Eklavya, Kothi Bazar, Hoshangabad
Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Executive Editor, The Telegraph, Kolkata (Theme 10)
Smita Sahay Bhattacharya, P.G.T. History, Blue Bells School,
Kailash Colony, New Delhi
Sumit Sarkar, Formerly Professor of History, University of Delhi, Delhi (Theme 12)
Uma Chakravarti, Formerly Reader in History, Miranda House,
University of Delhi, Delhi (Theme 4)
Vijaya Ramaswamy, Professor, Centre for Historical Studies,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (Theme 7)
MEMBER-COORDINATORS
Anil Sethi, Professor, DESS, NCER T, New Delhi
Seema S. Ojha, Lecturer, DESS, NCER T, New Delhi

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Themes in Indian History, Part I emerged out of several discussions

within the team amongst subject experts/ authors from universities,
school teachers and professionals from NCERT. We would like to
thank all those who participated enthusiastically and pooled
together their intellectual resources and experience to produce this
book.
Several people commented extensively on draft chapters, helping
us improve on the text and clarify issues. We are particularly grateful
to our young readers, Meera and Sandhya Visvanathan whose
suggestions and comments helped us sharpen the presentation,
and to Baisakh Chakrabarti for his encouragement. The suggestions
of the members of the Monitoring Committee, Prof. J. S. Grewal and
Ms Shobha Bajpai, were very useful.
Prof. B.D. Chattopadhyaya made time for the project inspite of
several pressing personal problems, and offered critical advice.
Others who offered valuable suggestions include Prof. Ranabir
Chakravarti, Prof. Upinder Singh and Dr Supriya Varma. We are
also grateful to Dr Naseem Akhtar, Mr Virendra Bangroo and Dr
Suresh Mishra for advice on specific visuals and texts. Ms Samira
Verma provided unfailingly prompt support for visual and textual
research.
We would like to thank all the institutions and individuals who
provided the visual resources for the book: the American Institute
of Indian Studies, Gurgaon, the Archaeological Survey of India, the
Centre for Cultural Resources and Training, the Indira Gandhi
National Centre for the Arts, the National Manuscript Mission, and
the National Museum. We are particularly grateful to Prof. Gregory
L. Possehl for visual material used in Theme One, and to Mr. R.R.S.
Chauhan and Mr. J.C. Grover, National Museum, as also to
Mr. R.C. Das, CIET, NCERT for photographs from the National
Museum. Mr. K. Varghese, Jawaharlal Nehru University, provided
the maps.
Ms Shyama Warner copyedited and proof read the book while
Ms Ritu Topa and Mr. Animesh Roy of Arrt Creations, New Delhi,
designed it. We would like to thank them all for the patience, care,
and passion they brought to the task.
We would also like to thank Mr. Albinus Tirkey and Mr. Manoj
Haldar for technical support and assistance.
Finally, we look forward to feedback from the users of the book,
which will help us improve it in subsequent editions.
The review committe members for the rationalisation of the
content of this textbook are Umesh Ashok Kadam, Centre for
Historical Studies, JNU, New Delhi; Sunil Kumar Singh, PGT History,
Kendriya Vidyalaya; Krishna Ranjan, PGT History, Kendriya
Vidyalaya; Archana Verma, Dept. of History, Hindu College,
University of Delhi; Shruti Mishra, PGT History, HoD, History, Delhi
Public School; Gouri Srivastava, Head, DESS; Pratyusa K. Mandal,
DESS, NCERT; Mily Roy Anand, Seema S. Ojha, Sharad K. Pandey,
DESS, NCERT.

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PART I

THEME ONE ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ 1
BRICKS, BEADS AND BONES
The Harappan Civilisation

THEME TWO ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ 28
KINGS, FARMERS AND TOWNS
Early States and Economies
(c.600 BCE-600 CE)

THEME THREE ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ 53
KINSHIP, CASTE AND CLASS
Early Societies
(c. 600 BCE-600 CE)

THEME FOUR ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ 82 ○ ○

THINKERS, BELIEFS AND BUILDINGS

Cultural Developments
(c. 600 BCE-600 CE)

PART II*

THEME FIVE
THROUGH THE EYES OF TRAVELLERS:
Perceptions of Society
(c. tenth to seventeenth centuries)

THEME SIX
BHAKTI –SUFI TRADITIONS:
Changes in Religious Beliefs and Devotional Texts
(c. eighth to eighteenth centuries)

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THEME SEVEN
AN IMPERIAL CAPITAL: VIJAYANAGARA
(c. fourteenth to sixteenth centuries)

THEME EIGHT
PEASANTS, ZAMINDARS AND THE STATE:
Agrarian Society and the Mughal Empire
(c. sixteenth-seventeenth centuries)

PART III*

THEME NINE
COLONIALISM AND THE COUNTRYSIDE:
Exploring Official Archives

THEME TEN
REBELS AND THE RAJ:
1857 Revolt and its Representations

THEME ELEVEN
MAHATMA GANDHI AND THE
NATIONALIST MOVEMENT:
Civil Disobedience and Beyond

THEME TWELVE
FRAMING THE CONSTITUTION:
The Beginning of a New Era

*Parts II and III will follow

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How to use this book
This is Part I of Themes in Indian History, Parts II and III will follow.
R Each chapter is divided into numbered sections and
subsections to facilitate learning.
R You will also find other material enclosed in boxes.

These contain:

Short Additional More elaborate

meanings Information definitions

These are meant to assist and enrich the learning process,

but are not intended for evaluation.

R Each chapter ends with a set of timelines. This is to be treated as

background information, and not for evaluation.
R There are figures, maps and sources numbered sequentially through
each chapter.
(a) Figures include illustrations of artefacts such as tools, pottery, seals,
coins, ornaments etc. as well as of inscriptions, sculpture, paintings,
buildings, archaeological sites, plans and photographs of people and
places; visual material that historians use as sources.
(b) Each chapter has maps.

(c) Sources are enclosed within separate boxes: these contain

Sources excerpts from a wide variety of texts and inscriptions. Both
visual and textual sources will help you acquire a feel for the
clues that historians use. You will also see how historians
analyse these clues. The final examination can include
excerpts from and/or illustrations of identical/similar
material, providing you with an opportunity to handle
these.

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 R There are two categories of intext questions:
(a) those within a yellow box, which may be used for practice for evaluation.

(b) those with the caption Ü Discuss... which are not for evaluation

R There are four types of assignments at the end of each chapter:

These include:

short questions short essays

map work projects

These are meant to provide practice for the final assessment and evaluation.

Hope you enjoy using this book.

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