NCERT Solutions for Exploring Society: India and Beyond Chapter 9 India’s Long Road to Independence
Updated on 2026-09-05
About this chapter
After 1857 the British Crown took direct control (1858). The royal proclamation promised to respect the ‘rights, dignity and honour of native Princes’ and to leave religion alone — but a ‘Resident’ was posted in almost every princely state, missionary work continued with official support, heavy land taxes fed famines, and the Arms Act and Vernacular Press Act of 1878 disarmed and gagged Indians. Promises on paper, control in practice. Reform and culture came before politics. The Brahmo Samaj (1828), Arya Samaj (1875), Vidyasagar, Syed Ahmed Khan and the Phules attacked child marriage, the treatment of widows, caste discrimination and the lack of schooling. Bankim’s Bande Mataram (composed 1875) and Vivekananda’s call to “Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached” gave the coming
- –37Chapter opener
- Introduction to the chapter
- A Royal Proclamation
- Other Influences (Swami Vivekananda)
- The Nationalist Agenda (the Bande Mataram daily)
- India as the ‘Mother’ (Fig. 2.14 and Fig. 2.15)
- DON’T MISS OUT: Freedom Struggle in the North-East
- The Revolutionaries (Tilak’s sedition trial)
- The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre and its Aftermath
- The Quit India Movement
Exercises
- –37Chapter opener — The Big Questions Page 36
- Introduction to the chapter — LET’S EXPLORE Page 38
- A Royal Proclamation — LET’S REMEMBER Page 39
- Other Influences (Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and Bande Mataram) — LET’S EXPLORE Page 42
- Other Influences (Swami Vivekananda) — LET’S EXPLORE Page 43
- The Nationalist Agenda (the Bande Mataram daily) — LET’S EXPLORE Page 50
- India as the ‘Mother’ (Fig. 2.14 and Fig. 2.15) — LET’S EXPLORE Page 52
- DON’T MISS OUT: Freedom Struggle in the North-East — LET’S EXPLORE Page 55
- The Revolutionaries (Tilak’s sedition trial) — LET’S EXPLORE Page 56
- The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre and its Aftermath — LET’S EXPLORE Page 63
- Purna Swaraj and Civil Disobedience (the Lahore resolution, December 1929) — LET’S EXPLORE Page 69
- The Quit India Movement — THINK ABOUT IT Page 76
- Partition, Turmoil, and Independence — THINK ABOUT IT Page 80
- Partition, Turmoil, and Independence (closing paragraph) — In-text Questions Page 80
- –84End of chapter — Questions and activities Page 81