All other coloured people were placed in between depending upon their external features. Hitler's racism borrowed from thinkers like Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer. Darwin was a natural scientist who tried to explain the creation of plants and animals through the concept of evolution and natural selection. Herbert Spencer later added the idea of survival of the fittest. According to this idea, only those species survived on earth that could adapt themselves to changing climatic conditions. We should bear in mind that Darwin never advocated human intervention in what he thought was a purely natural process of selection. However, his ideas were used by racist thinkers and politicians to justify imperial rule over conquered peoples. i. Which race was at the top of the Nazi racial hierarchy? (1) ii. Who were undesirables for the Nazis? (1) iii. What steps did the Nazis take to establish a racial state after coming into power? (2)

i. The Nazi ideology believed in a racial hierarchy. In this view blond, blue-eyed, Nordic German Aryans were at the top, while Jews were located at the lowest rung. They came to be regarded as an anti-race, the arch-enemies of the Aryans. ii. Jews, Gypsies, and blacks living in Nazi Germany were classified as 'undesirables. They were considered as racial inferiors and threatened the purity of the Aryan race. They were widely persecuted. Even Russians and Poles were considered subhuman. iii. Once the Nazis come to power, they wanted to create an exclusive racial community of pure Germans by eliminating those who were seen as 'undesirables'. They wanted a society of pure and healthy Nordic Aryans. They were considered as 'desirables'. It meant even those Germans, who were seen as impure or abnormal had no right, to exist.

All other coloured people were placed in between depending upon t…

Poverty in India also has another aspect or dimension. The proportion of poor people is not the same in every state. Although state-level poverty has witnessed a secular decline from the levels of the early seventies, the success rate of reducing poverty varies from state to state. Recent estimates show while all India Head Count Ratio (HCR) was 21.9 percent in 2011-12 states like Madhya Pradesh,
Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha had above all India poverty level. Bihar and Odisha continue to be the two poorest states with poverty ratios of 33.7 and 32.6 percent respectively. Along with rural poverty, urban poverty is also high in Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh. In comparison, there has been a significant decline in poverty in Kerala, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and West Bengal. States like Punjab and Haryana have traditionally succeeded in reducing poverty with the help of high agricultural growth rates. Kerala has focused more on human resource development. In West Bengal, land reform measures have helped in reducing poverty. In Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, the public distribution of food grains could have been responsible for the improvement.
i. What state has the highest rate of poverty among Bihar, Odisha, Punjab, and Assam? (1)
ii. Is it accurate to say that Kerala has eradicated poverty through the distribution of food at highly subsidized rates? (1)
iii. In which Indian states is poverty most prevalent? (2)

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Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow :

The crimes that Nazis committed were linked to a system of belief and a set of practices. Nazi ideology was synonymous with Hitler’s worldview. According to this there was no equality between people, but only a racial hierarchy. In this view blond, blue-eyed, Nordic German Aryans were at the top, while Jews were located at the lowest rung. They came to be regarded as an anti-race, the archenemies of the Aryans. All other coloured people were placed in between depending upon their external features. Hitler’s racism borrowed from thinkers like Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer.

(a) What was the Nazi ideology ?

(b) What was Charles Darwin’s theory which advanced Hitler’s racism ?

(c) What ideas were added by Herbert Spencer to Charles Darwin’s theory ?

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Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow :

In his Two Treatises of Government, Locke sought to refute the doctrine of the divine and absolute right of the monarch. Rousseau carried the idea forward, proposing a form of government based on a social contract between people and their representatives. In The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu proposed a division of power within the government between the legislative, the executive and the judiciary. This model of government was put into force in the USA, after the thirteen colonies declared their independence from Britain. The American constitution and its guarantee of individual rights was an important example for political thinkers in France.

(a) Who was the author of the book “The Spirit of the Laws” ?

(b) Where did the model of division of power within the government first come into effect ?

(c) What was the central theme of the book ‘Two Treatises of Government’? Who wrote the book ?

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In the spring of 1945, a little eleven-year-old German boy called Helmuth was lying in bed when he overheard his parents discussing something in serious tones. His father, a prominent physician, deliberated with his wife whether the time had come to kill the entire family, or if he should commit suicide alone. His father spoke about his fear of revenge, saying, ‘Now the Allies will do to us what we did to the crippled and Jews.’ The next day, he took Helmuth to the woods, where they spent their last happy time together, singing old children’s songs. Later, Helmuth’s father shot himself in his office. Helmuth remembers that he saw his father’s bloody uniform being burnt in the family fireplace. So traumatised was he by what he had overheard and what had happened, that he reacted by refusing to eat at home for the following nine years! He was afraid that his mother might poison him.

(a) What was the period of the Second World War ?

(b) Who was Helmuth’s father? What did he fear ?

(c) What do you mean by ‘Allies’ ?

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There were a number of causes for the widespread poverty in India. One historical reason is the low level of economic development under the British colonial administration. The policies of the colonial government ruined traditional handicrafts and discouraged the development of industries like textiles. This resulted in fewer job opportunities and a low growth rate of incomes. This was accompanied by a high growth rate of population. The two combined to make the growth rate of per capita income very low. The failure at both the fronts: promotion of economic growth and population control perpetuated the cycle of poverty. Unable to find proper jobs in cities, many people started working as rickshaw pullers, vendors, construction workers, domestic servants, etc. With irregular small incomes, these people could not afford expensive housing. They started living in slums on the outskirts of the cities and the problems of poverty, largely a rural phenomenon also became the feature of the urban sector. Another feature of high poverty rates has been the huge income inequalities. One of the major reasons for this is the unequal distribution of land and other resources. Major policy initiatives like land reforms which aimed at the redistribution of assets in rural areas have not been implemented properly and effectively by most of the state governments. Since lack of land resources has been one of the major causes of poverty in India, proper implementation of policy could have improved the lives of millions of rural poor. Many other socio-cultural and economic factors also are responsible for poverty. In order to fulfill social obligations and observe religious ceremonies, people in India, including the very poor, spend a lot of money. Small farmers need money to buy agricultural inputs like seeds, fertilizer, pesticides, etc. Since poor people hardly have any savings, they borrow. Unable to repay because of poverty, they become victims of indebtedness. So the high level of indebtedness is both the cause and effect of poverty.
i. What are the reasons behind the huge income inequalities in rural areas?
ii. What are the economic and socio-cultural causes of poverty?
iii. What was the root cause of India's poverty historically?

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The year 1904 was a particularly bad one for Russian workers. Prices of essential goods rose so quickly that real wages declined by 20 per cent. The membership of workers’ associations rose dramatically. When four members of the Assembly of Russian Workers, which had been formed in 1904, were dismissed at the Putilov Iron Works, there was a call for industrial action. Over the next few days over 110,000 workers in St Petersburg went on strike demanding a reduction in the working day to eight hours, an increase in wages and improvement in working conditions.

(a) Why the year 1904 is considered unfortunate for Russian workers ?

(b) Why did thousands of workers in St Petersburg favour strike ?

(c) What were the demands of the Industrial workers in Russia during the beginning of the twentieth century ?

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India is one of the most ancient civilizations in the world. It has achieved multifaceted socio-economic progress during the last five decades. It has moved forward displaying remarkable progress in the field of agriculture, industry, technology, and overall economic development. India has also contributed significantly to the making of world history. India is a vast country. Lying entirely in the Northem hemisphere the mainland extends between latitudes $8^{\circ} 4^{\prime} N$ and $37^{\circ} 6^{\prime} N$ and longitudes $68^{\circ} 7^{\prime} E$ and $97^{\circ} 25^{\prime} E$. The Tropic of Cancer divides the country into almost two equal parts. To the southeast and southwest of the mainland, lie the Andaman and Nicobar islands and the Lakshadweep islands in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea respectively.
i. What is the latitudinal position of India?
ii. What is the longitude-wise location of India?
iii. Which latitudinal line divides India into approximately two equal parts? What is the latitudinal value of this line?

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Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantec Act, 2005 aims to provide
100 days of wage employment to every household to ensure livelihood security in rural areas. It also aimed at sustainable development to address the cause of drought, deforestation and soil erosion. One-third of the proposed jobs have been reserved for women. Prime Minister Rozgar Yozana is another scheme which was started in 1993. The aim of the programme is to create self-employment opportunities for educated unemployed youth in rural areas and small towns. They are helped in setting up small business and industries. Rural Employment Generation Programme was launched in 1995. The aim of the programme is to create self-employment opportunities in rural areas and small towns. A target for creating 25 lakh new jobs has been set for the programme under the Tenth Five Year plan. Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana was launched in 1999. The programme aims at bringing the assisted poor families above the poverty line by organising them into self help groups through a mix of bank credit and government subsidy. Under the Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yozana launched in 2000, additional central assistance is given to states for basic services such as primary health, primary education, rural shelter, rural drinking water and rural electrification. The results of these programmes have been mixed. One of the major reasons for less effectiveness is the lack of proper implementation and right targeting. Moreover, there has been a lot of overlapping of schemes. Despite good intentions, the benefits of these schemes are not fully reached to the deserving poor, Therefore, the major emphasis in recent years is on proper monitoring of all the poverty alleviation programmes.
i. Explain any one cause for the less effectiveness of poverty alleviation programmes? (1)
ii. Explain any two features of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantec Act 2005? (1)
iii. What objectives did SGSY have? (2)

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The proportion of people below the poverty line is also not the same for all social groups and economic categories in India. Social groups, which are most vulnerable to poverty are Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe households. Similarly, among the economic groups, the most vulnerable groups are the rural agricultural labour households and urban casual labour households. The average for people below the poverty line for all groups in India is 22 . The double disadvantage of being a landless casual wage labour household in the socially disadvantaged social groups of the scheduled caste or the scheduled tribe population highlights the seriousness of the problem. Some recent studies have shown that except for the scheduled tribe households, all the other three groups (i.e. scheduled castes, rural agricultural labourers and the urban casual labour households) have seen a decline in poverty in the 1990s. Apart from these social groups, there is also inequality of incomes within a family. In poor families all suffer, but some suffer more than others. In some cases, women, elderly people and female infants are denied equal access to resources available to the family.
i. How are women, children, and the elderly the poorest of the poor?
ii. Which social and economic groups are the most vulnerable to poverty?
iii. How do inequities in income occur within a family?

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Youth organisations were made responsible for educating German youth in the ‘the spirit of National Socialism’. Ten-year-olds had to enter Jungvolk. At 14, all boys had to join the Nazi youth organisation ‘Hitler Youth’ where they learnt to worship war, glorify aggression and violence, condemn democracy, and hate Jews, communists, Gypsies and all those categorised as ‘undesirable’. After a period of rigorous ideological and physical training they joined the Labour Service, usually at the age of 18. Then they had to serve in the armed forces and enter one of the Nazi organisations.

(a) According to which concept Hitler believed that new territories had to be acquired ?

(b) What do you mean by Jungvolk ?

(c) What do you understand by the term 'Gypsies' ?

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