NCERT Solutions Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 11 End-of-chapter exercise — Questions and activities

In the barter system people exchange goods and services directly for other goods and services, without using money at all.

How it takes place. Two people meet, each holding something the other wants. They agree on how much of one thing equals how much of the other, and they swap. The chapter's example: you have a spare eraser and need a pencil; your classmate has a spare pencil and needs an eraser — one swap satisfies both.

Commodities that were used. The things chosen were always ones that many people wanted and that were reasonably easy to handle:

Barter has not vanished. The Junbeel Mela in Morigaon district of Assam is still a three-day barter fair, and old clothes are still exchanged for new utensils at people's doorsteps.

Five limitations, and every one of them is a reason money was invented.

1. Double coincidence of wants. You must find a person who wants exactly what you are offering and is offering exactly what you want. Such a match is rare.
2. No common standard measure of value. In what proportion should two goods be exchanged? There is no agreed unit, so the value of one good cannot be compared with another, and if either side feels the deal is disadvantageous the exchange fails.
3. Divisibility. You cannot exchange only a part of an ox for a sweater. Many valuable goods cannot be split.
4. Portability. An ox — or a heap of wheat sacks — has to be taken everywhere you might want to buy something.
5. Durability. Wealth held as grain cannot be stored for long; it rots or the rats get it. Value cannot be saved for the future.

The chapter gives six main features.

• Precious metals. They were made from gold, silver and copper, or from alloys of these, which made the coins strong.
• Their names. They were called kārṣhāpaṇas or paṇas.
• Punched symbols. They carried marks punched on to them called rūpas — very probably the ancestor of the word rupee.
• Royal control. The minting and issue of coins was controlled entirely by the rulers, so each kingdom had its own coinage.
• Two decorated faces. The obverse (head) and reverse (tail) carried different symbols and motifs — animals, trees and hills, kings and queens, and deities. Chalukya coins of Kalyana show a Varaha (an avatar of Viṣhṇu) on one side and a decorated three-tiered royal parasol on the other; Chola silver coins (850–1279 CE) show the tiger emblem.
• Wide acceptance. Over time the coins of powerful rulers were accepted well beyond their own kingdoms, which made trade across regions — and across the sea — much easier.

It has moved from things you can eat or wear, to metal, to paper, to nothing you can touch at all.

Alongside the form, the authority behind money changed too. Ancient coins were issued by individual rulers; today the Reserve Bank of India alone may issue currency, and it is not legal for anybody else to do so.

For a coin to be trusted by a stranger in a distant port, the ruler had to make it reliable, recognisable and welcome. The likely steps:

1. Keep the metal content constant. Every paṇa had to hold the same weight and purity of silver or gold, so that a foreign merchant could accept it without testing each coin.
2. Control minting strictly. Because minting was controlled entirely by the ruler, fakes could be punished and the coin's reputation protected.
3. Use a clear, well-known stamp. The punched rūpas — the royal emblem, a Varaha, a tiger — acted like a signature that any trader could learn to recognise.
4. Use durable alloys. Alloying made coins hard enough to survive years of travel without wearing away.
5. Issue standard denominations. A family of small and large coins let both a spice sale and a shipload be paid for in the same currency.
6. Back the coins with real trade. Coins are accepted abroad only if the issuing country has goods people want. India's pepper, spices, textiles, beads and pearls gave its coins their pull.
7. Protect the trade routes and ports. Safe harbours, and treaties or friendly ties with other kingdoms, kept merchants coming.
8. Accept foreign coins in return. Roman gold coins circulating in Pudukkottai show that exchange ran both ways — mutual acceptance is what makes cross-border currency work.

Part 1 — the value of one paṇa. Work out how much grain the year's salary was worth, then divide.

So one paṇa was worth about 18 kg of grain — roughly six days' food for a person (an āḍhaka fed one person for four meals, that is a full day). A paṇa was clearly not small change; it was a substantial coin.

Part 2 — the fine compared with the salary.

Conclusion about human values. A fine almost twice a year's earnings is crushing — it would ruin a household. Setting it that high says something deliberate about the society the Arthaśhāstra describes:

• Helping a neighbour was a duty, not a favour. It was enforceable by law, like a tax or a debt.
• Community came before the individual. In a world without police, hospitals or insurance, a neighbour's help was the only safety net; refusing it endangered everyone.
• The size of a punishment shows the size of the value. The State chose to make indifference more costly than most crimes against property.
• Compassion, cooperation and social responsibility were treated as the foundations of an orderly kingdom.

What a good skit must contain. Show the problem first, then the idea, then the objection, then the agreement. The audience should be able to name at least three limitations of barter from what they see. Five or six speaking parts, five to seven minutes, one narrator to set the scene.

Cast: Narrator · Meera (potter) · Kanha (fisherman) · Devi (weaver) · Old Gopal (village elder) · Sailor from the coast.

Sample skit — “The Shell that Everyone Wanted”

Scene 1 — the market, morning. Barter fails.

• Narrator: Long ago, in a village by the river, there were no coins. Whatever you needed, you had to swap for.
• Meera: Fish for a pot, Kanha! One good pot for two fish.
• Kanha: But I don't need a pot, Meera. I need cloth. My shirt is torn.
• Meera: Then take my pot to Devi and bring me back her cloth!
• Devi: I have cloth, but I don't want a pot either. I want grain — and no one here has grain until the harvest.
• Kanha (to the audience): So my fish will rot by evening, and I will still have a torn shirt.

Scene 2 — the sailor arrives with an idea.

• Sailor: In the port towns nobody argues like this. We use cowrie shells. (holds up a handful) Whatever you sell, take shells. Whatever you buy, give shells.
• Devi: But a shell cannot be eaten or worn. What use is it?
• Sailor: That is exactly its use. It is small, so you can carry a hundred in one hand. It does not rot, so you can keep it a year. And they are all alike, so we can count them instead of arguing.

Scene 3 — the objection, and the answer.

• Old Gopal: And if I take shells for my grain and nobody accepts them tomorrow? I will have sold my harvest for a bag of pebbles.
• Sailor: Then let us all promise together, today, before the whole village. Once everyone accepts them, no one loses.
• Meera: I agree. Ten shells for a pot.
• Kanha: Three shells for a fish.
• Devi: Twenty shells for a length of cloth.
• Old Gopal: Then it is settled. From today, this village trades in shells. (He gives Kanha shells for fish; Kanha gives Devi shells for cloth; Devi keeps the shells for grain after the harvest.)
• Narrator: Nothing had changed in the market — the same fish, the same pots, the same cloth. Only now there was one thing that everybody would take. That is how money begins.

How to find out: hold a genuine note against the light and tilt it; compare it with the RBI's “Know Your Banknotes” chart (also printed on the back of many bank passbooks); ask a bank cashier to demonstrate.

Main security features of an Indian banknote:

Points for the class discussion: Why is a fake note a crime against everybody, not just against the person who receives it? What should you do if you suspect a note is fake? Why does the law allow only one body — the RBI — to issue currency?

How to do the interview well. Choose six to eight people of different ages and occupations — a grandparent, a parent, a vegetable vendor, a tea-stall owner, a medical shop, an auto driver. Ask permission first, take notes, and ask the same questions to everyone so the answers can be compared. Use open questions (“Why do you prefer that?”), not leading ones.

A record sheet you can use:

What people usually say:

Sample answer: “I interviewed six people. Four of them — all under forty — said they prefer UPI, mainly because it removes the change problem and leaves a record. The two older people preferred cash; my grandmother said she likes to see her money, and the auto driver said he needs cash in hand for petrol. Almost everyone used both. The commonest complaint about UPI was network failure, and the commonest complaint about cash was change.”