Home · Schooling · CBSE · Class 10 · Social Science · Nationalism in India · Exercises: Discuss
NCERT Class 10 Social Science Nationalism in India: Discuss Solutions
AI-written, checked on 28 Oct 2026
Solutions written by Shishya, checked — not the board's official answers
Point-by-point answers for every question of Exercises: Discuss in NCERT's Class 10 Social Science book, chapter “Nationalism in India”, written by Shishya. Each question is in our own short words; open the NCERT chapter for the exact wording and figures.
How these were checked: the answers were drafted with AI from the NCERT chapter's own text and then read and corrected on 28 Oct 2026. Before an answer was kept, a check confirmed that every name, place, year and number in it appears in the NCERT chapter and that no sentence was copied from the book; multiple-choice, match and fill-in answers are pinned to a reviewed key. Long answers are a model answer, not the only right one. The NCERT textbook is the authority — if something here disagrees with it, follow the book.
Tap “why?” under a step to see the textbook rule it uses — from Shishya's fixed list of NCERT Class 9-10 rules, not written by AI for this page. A step without one has no rule from the list yet.
Stuck on a step?
Ask the AI tutor about this chapter — it gives hints before answers — or snap a photo of your own question to get worked steps. You will be talking to an AI, not a person. For ages 13 and up; the first answer of each is free.
Discuss Q1
List the social groups that joined the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1921. Choose any three and write about their hopes and struggles to show why they joined.
- Groups that joined: the middle class in the towns (students, teachers, headmasters, lawyers), merchants and traders, peasants in Awadh, tribal peasants in the Gudem Hills of Andhra Pradesh, and plantation workers in Assam.
- Middle class in towns: thousands of students left government-controlled schools and colleges, teachers resigned and lawyers gave up their practices; foreign cloth was boycotted and burnt, and merchants and traders refused to trade in foreign goods.
- Peasants in Awadh, led by Baba Ramchandra, rose against talukdars and landlords who demanded very high rents and many other cesses and made them do forced labour; they hoped swaraj would end this oppression.
- Tribal peasants in the Gudem Hills, led by Alluri Sitarama Raju, joined because the colonial government had closed large forest areas, stopping them from grazing cattle and collecting fuelwood and fruits, and forced them to do unpaid labour building roads.
- Plantation workers in Assam, who were not allowed to leave the tea gardens without permission, understood swaraj as the right to move freely and keep a link with their villages; many left the plantations to go home.
Answer: The middle class in towns, merchants, Awadh peasants, Gudem Hills tribals and Assam plantation workers all joined, each reading swaraj as freedom from their own oppression: high rents and forced labour, closed forests, or being tied to the tea gardens.
Discuss Q2
Discuss the Salt March to show why it was an effective symbol of resistance against colonialism.
- Gandhi chose salt because it was an essential food item consumed by both rich and poor, making it a unifying symbol for all classes.
- The salt tax and government monopoly represented the most oppressive aspect of British rule, which exploited the masses economically.
- The march from Sabarmati to Dandi was a 240-mile journey that attracted thousands of people who gathered to hear Gandhi explain swaraj.
- By ceremonially manufacturing salt from sea water at Dandi, Gandhi peacefully defied the law, marking the start of the Civil Disobedience Movement.
- The act inspired people across India to break colonial laws, boycott foreign goods, and refuse to pay taxes, showing widespread resistance.
Answer: The Salt March was effective because it united all social classes against an oppressive tax and demonstrated peaceful defiance of colonial laws.
Discuss Q3
Imagine you are a woman taking part in the Civil Disobedience Movement. Explain what the experience meant to your life.
- Participating in the Civil Disobedience Movement allowed me to step out of my home and join protest marches alongside other women.
- I actively contributed to the struggle by manufacturing salt and taking part in boycott campaigns against foreign goods.
- This experience gave me a sense of unity and shared purpose, as we discovered our strength together in resisting colonial oppression.
Answer: The experience meant gaining agency, participating in public resistance like salt manufacturing, and finding unity in the struggle against colonialism.
Discuss Q4
Why did political leaders differ sharply over separate electorates?
- Dr B.R. Ambedkar argued that separate electorates were necessary to empower dalits and resolve their social disabilities through political representation.
- Mahatma Gandhi opposed separate electorates because he believed they would hinder the integration of dalits into the broader society.
- Jinnah was willing to accept reserved seats instead of separate electorates if Muslims received proportional representation in Muslim-dominated provinces.
- M.R. Jayakar of the Hindu Mahasabha strongly opposed any compromise on the issue, causing negotiations to fail at the All Parties Conference.
- Sir Muhammad Iqbal insisted on separate electorates as a vital safeguard for Muslim minority interests, fearing submersion under Hindu majority domination.
Answer: Leaders differed because dalits and Muslims saw separate electorates as essential for political protection and identity, while Gandhi and Hindu nationalists viewed them as divisive to national unity and social integration.
Other exercises in this chapter
- Exercises: Write in brief — 8 questions
← Nationalism in India: notes, practice and all exercises
Saves these solutions in this browser on this phone. No sign-in; nothing about you is saved or sent. A saved copy is not updated until you save it again. Parts that load from the server when you use them (the AI tutor, adaptive practice, sign-in) still need a connection.