Kerala +2 History flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Harappan weights

Standardised cubical stone weights in binary ratios (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32) were used across Harappan cities, indicating shared measurement standards and regulated exchange within the urban network.

Great Bath

A large burnt-brick tank with steps and bitumen lining at Mohenjodaro, interpreted as a site of ritual bathing; it shows Harappan engineering and the importance of water in urban ritual life.

Dhamma-mahamattas

Special officers appointed by Ashoka to promote dhamma, mediate disputes, and report on welfare among subjects and frontier peoples, as recorded in his edicts.

Allahabad pillar prashasti

Harishena's eulogy of Samudragupta inscribed on an Ashokan pillar, listing his conquests and tributary rulers; it is a Gupta-period source requiring caution because it is panegyric.

Uttaramerur inscription

A Chola-period inscription of Parantaka I describing the election of village committee members by drawing lots (kudavolai), evidence for local self-government in brahmadeya villages.

Zabt revenue system

Todar Mal's Mughal land-revenue arrangement under Akbar, fixing cash demand on measured cultivated land using ten-year yield and price data, replacing rough annual assessments.

Amara-nayaka system

Vijayanagara's military-administrative arrangement in which commanders (nayakas) held territory and revenue rights in return for troops and tribute, later tending toward hereditary local power.

Permanent Settlement

Cornwallis's 1793 revenue system in Bengal fixing the land tax permanently with zamindars as proprietors; failure to raise revenue and zamindar distress were its noted outcomes.

Drain of wealth

The unrequited transfer of Indian resources to Britain through home charges, salaries, pensions, and trade surpluses, analysed by Naoroji and R.C. Dutt as economic exploitation.

Chauri Chaura

February 1922 incident in Gorakhpur district where a crowd burned a police station; Gandhi withdrew the Non-Cooperation Movement, arguing the masses were not ready for non-violence.

Poona Pact 1932

Agreement between Gandhi and Ambedkar replacing separate electorates for Depressed Classes with reserved seats within joint electorates, following Gandhi's fast against the Communal Award.

Lahore Congress 1929

Congress session under Jawaharlal Nehru that adopted complete independence (Poorna Swaraj) as its goal and authorised the tricolour hoisting on 26 January 1930.

Rowlatt Act

The 1919 law allowing detention without trial for suspected sedition; widespread protest against it culminated in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre at Amritsar in April 1919.

Bastille

A royal fortress-prison in Paris stormed on 14 July 1789 by a Parisian crowd; the event symbolised the collapse of royal authority and is commemorated as France's national day.

Tennis Court Oath

June 1789 pledge by Third Estate deputies, locked out of their meeting hall, not to disperse until France had a constitution; it marked the start of national assembly politics.

Reign of Terror

The 1793–94 phase of the French Revolution when the Committee of Public Safety under Robespierre executed thousands of suspected counter-revolutionaries before his own fall and execution.

Treaty of Versailles

The 1919 settlement ending war with Germany, imposing territorial losses, disarmament, reparations and the war-guilt clause; its terms are often linked to later German resentment.

Bolshevik slogan 1917

'Peace, Land, Bread' summarised Bolshevik promises to end the war, redistribute land to peasants, and secure food, helping Lenin's party win support in October 1917.

Munich Agreement

The 1938 pact in which Britain and France allowed Hitler to annex the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia, an example of appeasement that failed to prevent war.

Bismarck's blood and iron

Bismarck's phrase describing German unification through military strength and statecraft, achieved via wars with Denmark, Austria and France and completed in 1871.

Edakkal caves

Rock shelters in Wayanad, Kerala, bearing Neolithic petroglyphs and later Brahmi inscriptions; they are key archaeological evidence for Kerala's Stone Age and early historic past.

Muziris

An ancient port on the Kerala coast, identified with Pattanam near Paravur, exporting pepper and receiving Roman trade as described in the Periplus and classical sources.

Battle of Colachel

The 1741 defeat of the Dutch by Travancore's forces under Martanda Varma near Colachel, ending Dutch power in the region and strengthening Travancore's expansion.

Vaikom Satyagraha

The 1924–25 agitation in Travancore demanding access to roads around the Vaikom temple for avarna communities, led by Congress and social-reform leaders including Gandhi's support.

Temple Entry Proclamation

The 1936 proclamation by Chithira Thirunal of Travancore opening state temples to all Hindus, a landmark in Kerala's social-reform and anti-discrimination struggles.

Kunjali Marakkars

The naval commanders of the Zamorin of Kozhikode who resisted Portuguese fleets along the Malabar coast in the sixteenth century, remembered for maritime resistance.

External criticism

The historian's test of a source's authenticity: date, authorship, provenance, and physical condition are examined before its content is trusted.

Subaltern historiography

An approach associated with Ranajit Guha that writes history from the perspective of peasants and marginal groups, recovering agency ignored by elite-focused nationalist and colonial accounts.

Prashasti as source

A eulogistic inscription praising a ruler's lineage and deeds; useful for ideology and self-representation but needing corroboration because it exaggerates achievements.

Numismatics

The study of coins: legends, symbols, metal content and find-spots, used to date rulers, trace trade networks and assess economic conditions in the absence of written records.

Hampi

The capital of Vijayanagara on the Tungabhadra river, known for its temple complexes, bazaars and fortifications, and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka.

Dandi March

Gandhi's 1930 walk from Sabarmati Ashram to the Gujarat coastal village of Dandi, where he made salt in defiance of the salt law, launching Civil Disobedience.