CBSE Class 10 · India and the Contemporary World-II · All 5 chapters · Very difficult (HOTS)
Subject: History (Social Science)Class: XMaximum Marks: 45Suggested Time: 1 hr 30 min
General Instructions
1. This practice paper covers the complete History syllabus (India and the Contemporary World-II, Chapters 1–5) in the CBSE Social Science format.
2. Section A (Q1–10) carries 1 mark each — multiple-choice and assertion–reason.
3. Section B (Q11–14) carries 2 marks each — very short answers (≤40 words).
4. Section C (Q15–17) carries 3 marks each — short answers (≤60 words).
5. Section D (Q18–19) carries 5 marks each — long answers (≤120 words).
6. Section E (Q20–21) are source-based, 4 marks each (sub-parts 1+1+2).
7. These questions are deliberately set harder than the board paper. Attempt all, then open "Show answer". Assertion–Reason key: (a) Both A and R true and R is the correct explanation of A; (b) Both true but R is not the correct explanation; (c) A true, R false; (d) A false, R true.
Section A — Objective (10 × 1 = 10)
Multiple-choice and assertion–reason. Each distractor is a specific misconception — read carefully.
1Q1. In Frédéric Sorrieu's 1848 print, the United States and Switzerland lead the procession to the Statue of Liberty while Germany follows carrying a flag. What does Germany's presence (with a flag but not yet a nation) signify?
Germany was already a unified nation-state in 1848
The liberal hope of unifying the German principalities into a nation-state
Germany had rejected nationalism
Switzerland ruled the German states
Show answer
(b) The flag expressed the liberal hope of 1848 to unify the German-speaking principalities — Germany was not yet a nation-state (so (a) is wrong).
1Q2.Assertion (A): The Napoleonic Code is remembered for abolishing privileges based on birth. Reason (R): It restored the feudal system and serfdom in conquered territories.
Show answer
(c) A is true, R is false. The Code established equality before the law and the right to property, and Napoleon abolished feudalism and serfdom — the opposite of R.
1Q3. Who among the following gave the call of satyagraha and organised it first at Champaran, Ahmedabad and Kheda?
1Q4. Gandhiji withdrew the Non-Cooperation Movement in February 1922 mainly because:
The Chauri Chaura incident turned violent
The British granted Purna Swaraj
The Simon Commission arrived
The salt tax was abolished
Show answer
(a) After Chauri Chaura turned violent, Gandhiji felt the movement was becoming violent and satyagrahis needed training.
1Q5. The most powerful ‘weapon’ of the Spanish conquest of the Americas was:
Germs such as smallpox, to which natives had no immunity
Superior cannons
The silk route
The potato
Show answer
(a)Smallpox — America's isolated peoples had no immunity, so the disease decimated communities ahead of the conquerors.
1Q6.Assertion (A): The Bretton Woods system was based on fixed exchange rates. Reason (R): National currencies were pegged to the US dollar, which was anchored to gold at $35 an ounce.
Show answer
(a) Both true and R explains A. Currencies were pegged to the dollar and the dollar to gold at $35/ounce — that is precisely what made the system one of fixed exchange rates.
1Q7. Why did the East India Company appoint a gomastha?
To supervise weavers, collect cloth and eliminate other traders
To invent new weaving machines
To represent weavers' interests to London
To set up cotton mills in Bombay
Show answer
(a) The gomastha was a paid Company servant who supervised weavers, collected supplies and checked quality — removing independent traders/brokers.
1Q8. ‘Proto-industrialisation’ refers to:
Large-scale production for an international market, not based on factories
The first factory-based mass production
Steam-powered mill production
Production only inside urban guilds
Show answer
(a) It was large-scale production for world markets carried out in the countryside by peasants/artisans, before factories.
1Q9. Johann Gutenberg built his printing press (1430s) by adapting which existing devices?
The olive press and metal moulds for casting type
The spinning jenny and fly shuttle
The steam engine and railway
The woodblock and the camera
Show answer
(a) He adapted the olive press (for the press) and metal moulds (to cast movable type). The first book was the Bible.
1Q10. The Vernacular Press Act (1878) was passed because:
Vernacular newspapers had become assertively nationalist after 1857
English papers were criticising India
Printing had just arrived in India
Literacy had become too high
Show answer
(a) After the Revolt of 1857, the nationalist vernacular press alarmed the government, which passed the Act to censor it (modelled on the Irish Press Laws).
Section B — Very Short Answer (4 × 2 = 8)
Answer in about 40 words each.
2Q11. What was the zollverein, and how did it promote German nationalism?Show answer
The zollverein (1834) was a customs union started by Prussia and joined by most German states. It abolished tariff barriers and cut currencies from over thirty to two; with railways it bound economic interests together, awakening a shared national sentiment.
2Q12. Why was the Rowlatt Act (1919) opposed by Indians?Show answer
It was passed despite united Indian opposition and gave the government power to repress political activities and detain prisoners without trial for two years — denying basic legal rights. Gandhiji launched a nationwide satyagraha (hartal from 6 April) against it.
2Q13. How did refrigerated ships change the nineteenth-century meat trade?Show answer
Earlier live animals were shipped (costly; many died), so meat was a luxury. Refrigerated ships let animals be slaughtered at source (America, Australia, NZ) and shipped as frozen meat, cutting prices so even Europe's poor could add meat to their diet.
2Q14. State any two reasons why nineteenth-century British industrialists often preferred hand labour to machines.Show answer
(i) Labour was abundant and cheap, so there was no need for costly machines; and many industries had seasonal demand. (ii) The market wanted goods with intricate designs and specific shapes needing human skill, and the upper classes preferred handmade products.
Section C — Short Answer (3 × 3 = 9)
Answer in about 60 words each. At least one question joins two chapters.
3Q15. Explain how culture (art, poetry, music and language) helped create a sense of nationalism in nineteenth-century Europe.Show answer
Romanticism stressed a shared heritage: Herder celebrated das volk and the volksgeist in German folk songs, poetry and dance; the Grimm Brothers collected folktales as an authentic German spirit. In Poland, music (Kurpinski) and the Polish language used in Church kept nationalism alive against Russian rule, and Delacroix's painting roused sympathy for the Greeks.
3Q16.(Joins Ch 2 & Ch 3.) Explain how the Great Depression affected Indian peasants and deepened unrest on the eve of the Civil Disobedience Movement.Show answer
During the Depression India's exports and imports nearly halved (1928-34) and agricultural prices crashed (wheat ~50%, jute >60%). Yet the colonial government refused to lower revenue, so peasants (e.g. Bengal jute growers) fell deep into debt, mortgaged land and sold gold. This left rural India seething with unrest when Gandhiji launched the Civil Disobedience Movement (salt satyagraha) in 1930-31.
3Q17. How did the First World War create a new situation for Indian industries?Show answer
British mills were busy with war production, so Manchester imports into India declined, giving Indian mills a vast home market. Indian factories also supplied war needs — jute bags, uniforms, tents, boots, saddles. New factories were set up, old ones ran multiple shifts, more workers were hired and industrial production boomed; after the war Manchester never recovered its Indian market.
Section D — Long Answer (2 × 5 = 10)
Answer in about 120 words each. Each needs more than one concept.
5Q18. ‘Swaraj meant different things to different social groups in the national movement.’ Examine with reference to at least four groups.Show answer
(1) Urban middle class: swaraj = end of British institutions — they left schools, colleges and legal practice and boycotted foreign goods. (2) Rich peasants (Patidars, Jats): a fight against high revenue — upset when 1931 brought no revenue cut. (3) Poor peasants: wanted unpaid rent remitted ('no rent'), but Congress's reluctance kept ties uncertain. (4) Business classes: freedom from colonial trade restrictions — they funded the movement but grew wary after the Round Table failure. (5) Plantation workers and tribals read swaraj as freedom of movement and restoration of forest rights. So a single call united groups whose ideas of freedom differed — which is why unity often broke down.
5Q19. Explain how colonialism first expanded and then destroyed India's handloom textile industry, and how Indian industry finally revived.Show answer
Before the 1760s India dominated the world textile market. After gaining power the East India Company kept exporting Indian cloth and controlled weavers through gomasthas and advances. Destruction: as Manchester grew, Britain put duties on Indian cloth and flooded India with cheap machine-made imports (piece-goods exports fell from 33% to 3%); weavers faced a collapsed export market and a glutted home market, and the American Civil War starved them of raw cotton. Revival: Indian entrepreneurs (from the China trade — Tata, Birla, Tagore) set up mills, shifted from yarn to cloth after 1906, and the First World War gave Indian mills the home market and war orders, after which they consolidated their hold.
Section E — Source-Based (2 × 4 = 8)
Read each source and answer the sub-parts (1 + 1 + 2 marks).
4Q20.
Friedrich List, Professor of Economics, wrote in 1834: ‘The aim of the zollverein is to bind the Germans economically into a nation. It will strengthen the nation materially … It ought to awaken and raise national sentiment through a fusion of individual and provincial interests. The German people have realised that a free economic system is the only means to engender national feeling.’
(20.1) In which year was the zollverein formed and by whose initiative? (1) (20.2) Name one concrete economic effect of the zollverein. (1) (20.3) ‘An economic measure served a political end.’ Explain using the source. (2)Show answer
(20.1)1834, at the initiative of Prussia. (20.2) It abolished tariff/customs barriers (and reduced currencies from over thirty to two). (20.3) By creating a single economic territory for the free movement of goods, people and capital, the zollverein fused individual and provincial interests and awakened a shared national sentiment — so an economic step (a customs union) advanced the political goal of German unification, exactly as List argues.
4Q21.
Erasmus, a Latin scholar, wrote in Adages (1508): ‘To what corner of the world do they not fly, these swarms of new books? … the very multitude of them is hurtful to scholarship, because it creates a glut … [printers] fill the world with books … stupid, ignorant, slanderous, scandalous, raving, irreligious and seditious books …’
(21.1) What was Erasmus's attitude towards the printed book? (1) (21.2) Name one fear he expresses about printed books. (1) (21.3) Why did religious authorities share such fears, and how did the Roman Church respond? (2)Show answer
(21.1) He was anxious and critical of printing (despite being a reformer). (21.2) That the multitude/‘glut’ of books harmed scholarship, or that many were ‘irreligious and seditious’. (21.3) Authorities feared that uncontrolled printing would spread rebellious and irreligious ideas and let ordinary people reinterpret the Bible (e.g. Menocchio), undermining the Church's authority. In response, the Roman Church repressed dissent through the Inquisition and maintained an Index of Prohibited Books from 1558.
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