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The Age of Industrialisation: Class 10 Important Questions with Answers

23 important questions for Class 10 Social Studies Chapter 4, The Age of Industrialisation, the way they come in the board exam: MCQs, assertion–reason, case-based and short and long answer questions, with answers. Taken from our Class 10 Social Studies notes for 2026-27.

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Jump to: Short answerLong answer12 MCQsAssertion–Reason

Short answer (2–3 marks)

1. Who were the gomasthas? Why did weavers clash with them? [3]

Paid servants of the East India Company who supervised weavers, collected supplies and checked quality. They were outsiders with no social link to the village, acted arrogantly, came with sepoys and punished weavers for delays (beating, flogging), so weavers clashed with them.

2. Why did merchants in Europe shift production to the countryside? [2]

Town guilds held monopolies and restricted entry; in villages poor peasants, short of land after enclosures, needed extra income.

3. Explain any three problems faced by Indian weavers in the 19th century. [3]

Loss of export markets (British import duties); local markets flooded by cheap Manchester goods; scarcity of good raw cotton (exported to Britain, especially during the American Civil War); later competition from Indian mills.

4. Describe the role of jobbers in Indian factories. [3]

They recruited workers from their villages, ensured jobs, helped them settle and gave loans; gradually they demanded money and gifts and controlled workers' lives.

5. How did advertisements help in creating a market for new products? [3]

Labels ("Made in Manchester") assured quality; images of gods gave divine approval; calendars reached even those who could not read; Indian manufacturers used nationalist appeals (swadeshi) – ads made products desirable and created new needs.

Long answer (5 marks)

6. "Industrialisation in India was different from that in Britain." Explain.

Britain: factories after cotton inventions and steam; industrialisation driven by its own entrepreneurs and markets. India: colonial rule; weavers ruined by Manchester imports and Company control; early mills (1854 Bombay, 1855 jute) produced yarn, avoided competing with Manchester; European managing agencies dominated; growth slow till WWI; small-scale and handloom production remained predominant (only 5–10 per cent workers in factories).

12 MCQs

  1. The Spinning Jenny was devised by
    (a) Arkwright (b) Hargreaves (c) Watt (d) Boulton
  2. James Watt patented his improved steam engine in
    (a) 1764 (b) 1781 (c) 1801 (d) 1854
  3. The first cotton mill in Bombay came up in
    (a) 1854 (b) 1855 (c) 1862 (d) 1874
  4. The first jute mill in Bengal was set up in
    (a) 1855 (b) 1854 (c) 1917 (d) 1912
  5. Elgin Mill was started in
    (a) Ahmedabad (b) Kanpur (c) Madras (d) Surat
  6. The paid servant of the Company who supervised weavers was the
    (a) jobber (b) gomastha (c) stapler (d) fuller
  7. The first Indian jute mill in Calcutta (1917) was set up by
    (a) G. D. Birla (b) Seth Hukumchand (c) J. N. Tata (d) Dinshaw Petit
  8. Surat's trade fell to Rs 3 million by the
    (a) 1640s (b) 1740s (c) 1840s (d) 1940s
  9. Early Indian cotton mills mostly produced
    (a) fine cloth (b) coarse yarn (c) silk (d) jute bags
  10. The fly shuttle helped
    (a) spinners (b) handloom weavers (c) miners (d) printers
  11. Most Bombay mill workers in 1911 came from
    (a) Kanpur (b) Ratnagiri (c) Surat (d) Poona
  12. Cotton piece-goods production in India doubled between
    (a) 1854–1862 (b) 1900–1912 (c) 1914–1918 (d) 1931–1941

1 (b) · 2 (b) · 3 (a) · 4 (a) · 5 (b) · 6 (b) · 7 (b) · 8 (b) · 9 (b) · 10 (b) · 11 (b) · 12 (b)

Assertion–Reason (5)

(a) Both true, R explains A. (b) Both true, R does not explain A. (c) A true, R false. (d) A false, R true.

  1. A: Indian cotton exports to Britain rose in the 1860s. R: The American Civil War cut cotton supplies to Britain.
  2. A: Industrial production in India boomed during the First World War. R: Manchester imports into India declined.
  3. A: Upper classes in Britain preferred machine-made goods. R: Machine goods were uniform and standardised.
  4. A: Weavers in Bengal deserted villages in the late 18th century. R: Gomasthas punished them and paid low prices.
  5. A: Large factories dominated Indian industrial employment by 1931. R: Only 10 per cent of the industrial labour force worked in registered factories in 1931.

Key: 1 (a) · 2 (a) · 3 (d) · 4 (a) · 5 (d)

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