NCERT Solutions For Class 9 History Chapter 8 Clothing: A Social History (As per NEW Syllabus)
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is an autonomous body of the Indian government that formulates the curricula for schools in India that are governed by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and certain state boards. Therefore, students who will be taking the Class 10 tests administered by various boards should consult this NCERT Syllabus in order to prepare for those examinations, which in turn will assist those students to get a passing score.
When working through the exercises in the NCERT textbook, if you run into any type of difficulty or uncertainty, you may use the SWC NCERT Solutions for Class 9 History Chapter 8 as a point of reference. While you are reading the theory from the textbook, it is imperative that you always have notes prepared. You should make an effort to understand things from the very beginning so that you may create a solid foundation in the topic. Use the NCERT as your parent book to ensure that you have a strong foundation. After you have finished reading the theoretical section of the textbook, you should go to additional reference books.
NCERT Solutions For Class 9 History Chapter 8 – (Textbook Questions)
Q. 1. Explain the reasons for the changes in clothing patterns and materials in the eighteenth century.
Ans. The clothing patterns and materials in the 18th century changed drastically. This was brought up due to the following reasons:
(i) Colonisation of most of the world by Europe: Trade and scientific explorations by Europeans led to the discoveries of tradable lands like India. This gave encouragement to the European governments to support traders. The resources were exploited to the fullest. And these resulted into new raw materials for the cloth of Europeans.
(ii) Cotton: This was the most important and cheap raw material used by Europeans for their dresses. Other qualities like light, easy to maintain and durability also added to the change in clothing.
(iii) Spread of democratic ideals: European society became aware of their democratic rights; the realization of women’s voting rights was another goal that highly influenced the clothing. The French Revolution gave birth to various clubs where clothes became the symbol of showing resistance to aristocracy.
(iv) Education/Women’s Magazines and Role of Doctors: New school curriculums included games like gymnastics to be played by girls. This led to wearing of clothes that allowed free body movement. Gradually, corsets, basks and stays were abolished from women’s dresses.
Q. 2. What were the Sumptuary Laws in France?
Ans. (i) The Sumptuary Laws were the laws defining demarcation between superior and inferior people of society.
(ii) These laws tried to control the behaviours of those considered social inferiors, preventing them from wearing certain clothes, consuming certain foods and beverages and hunting game in certain areas.
(iii) These laws also controlled the clothing of people in a deferential society.
Q. 3. Give any two examples of the ways in which European dress codes were different from Indian dress codes.
Ans.1. In Europe, even after the French Revolution differences between social strata remained, the poor could not dress like the rich, nor eat the same food. But laws no longer barred people’s right to dress in the way they wished. Whereas in India apart from social status and income, regionalism, castes, tradition, community rituals and social bindings also remained powerful as far as clothing and notions of beauty were concerned.
2. As per the European dress codes, the turban or the hat had to be taken off before socially superior persons as a sign of respect. But there was no such binding under Indian dress codes. Apart from the protection from the heat, it seemed to be a sign of respectability and could not be removed at will.
Q.4. In 1805, A British official, Benjamin Hayne, listed the manufactures of Bangalore which included the following:
(a) Women’s cloth of different musters and names.
(b) Coarse Chintz.
(c) Muslins
(d) Silk Clothes.
Of this list, which kind of cloth would have definitely fallen out of use in the early 1800s and why?
Ans. (a) Of the mentioned lists, coarse chintz would have definitely fallen out of use in the early 1800s.
(b) This had the following reasons:
(i) This was difficult to clean.
(ii) As a result of Industrial Revolution artificially fibre clothes became cheaper and easier to wash and maintain.
Q. 5. Suggest reasons why women i= nineteenth century India were obliged to continue wearing traditional Indian dress even when men switched over to the more convenient Western clothing. What does this show about the position of women in society?
Ans. (i) In 19th century, the position of women in Indian society remained miserable. They were not allowed to do whatever they liked to do. They had to follow the social codes especially their castes and communities codes of dresses and clothing.
(ii) Men switched over to the western clothing especially to please their colonial masters. While women were generally confined to home, so, there was no need to change their clothing.
(iii) The dress for women, i.e., saree was already very comfortable. So, there was no need felt by women to change their clothing.
(iv) Men also changed their clothing because western clothing was seen as a sign of modernity and progress. But the woman was a symbol of sacrifice in Indian society, so she did not feel to change the clothing and to give extra financial burden on the family.
Q.6. Winston Churchill described Mahatma Gandhi as a “Seditious Middle Temple Lawyer now “posing as a half naked fakir”.
What provoked such a comment and what does it tell you about the symbolic strength of Mahatma Gandhi’s dress?
Ans. When Mahatma Gandhi went to attend the Round Table Conference in London, he wore a loin cloth of khadi. This was to show the resistance to mill-made clothes of London. This also symbolized the poverty and national movement in India. At this time, Winston Churchill said for Mahatma Gandhi ‘seditious middle temple lawyer now posing as a half naked fakir”. This comment by Churchill asserts and confirms the power of symbolic strength of Mahatma’s dress.
Q.7. Why did Mahatma Gandhi’s dream of clothing the nation in khadi appeal only to some sections of Indians?
Ans. Mahatma Gandhi’s dream of clothing the nation in khadi appealed only to some sections of the Indian society due to the following reasons:
(i) Diversified society: Indian society was a highly diversified society. There lived men and women of different castes, classes, religions and they followed their customs and laws of dresses. Therefore, they did not adopt khadi as their dress.
(ii) Attraction of western clothes: Most of the well to do Indians adopted western clothes as their dress. They believed that western clothes symbolized progress and modernity
(iii) Indian traditions and customs: Mainly women, willing to change to khadi, were troubled by Indian customs and traditions of long sarees. If they tried to adopt khadi, they were not allowed to do so by elderly women.
(iv) White khadi: White is the colour of dead in India. The dead body is covered in white clothes and widows wear white sarees. This was one of the so many causes of not changing to khadi clothes.
(v) Cost of khadi: The cost of khadi was higher. A common man, however, willing to wear khadi clothes, could not purchase it as it was an export item and was exclusively under British control.
Conclusions of NCERT Solutions Class 9 History Chapter 8
SWC academic staff has developed NCERT answers for this chapter of the ninth grade SST curriculum. We have solutions prepared for all the ncert questions of this chapter. The answers, broken down into steps, to all of the questions included in the NCERT textbook’s chapter are provided here. Read this chapter on theory. Be certain that you have read the theory section of this chapter of the NCERT textbook.
