WBCHSE HS History flashcards

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

Great Bath

A large rectangular tank of burnt brick and bitumen at Mohenjo-daro in the mature Harappan phase, interpreted as a ritual bathing pool, indicating public architecture and civic planning.

Arthashastra

A Sanskrit treatise on statecraft attributed to Kautilya, covering taxation, espionage, diplomacy and royal duty; a key source for Mauryan administration, though its date is debated.

Allahabad pillar prashasti

A eulogistic inscription by the court poet Harishena recording the conquests and virtues of Gupta ruler Samudragupta; it is the principal source for his reign and must be read with caution.

Iqta system

A Delhi Sultanate arrangement in which nobles received revenue assignments from territory in return for military service; the holder, the muqti, collected revenue and maintained troops.

Amara-nayaka system

A Vijayanagara institution in which military chiefs held revenue rights over territory in exchange for maintaining troops and remitting tribute to the ruler, shaping the empire's decentralised polity.

Mansabdari system

A Mughal ranking system assigning nobles a zat (personal) and sawar (cavalry) rank, determining salary, military obligation and status; jagirs were assigned to meet the obligations.

Permanent Settlement

The 1793 Bengal revenue arrangement by Cornwallis that fixed land revenue permanently with zamindars as proprietors, transforming them into landlords and creating a class of revenue intermediaries.

Doctrine of Lapse

A Dalhousie-era policy refusing to recognise adopted heirs as legitimate successors, used to annex states such as Satara and Jhansi, and a major grievance behind the 1857 revolt.

Dandi March

Gandhi's 1930 march to the Gujarat coast to make salt in defiance of the salt law, launching the Civil Disobedience Movement and drawing mass participation across India.

Treaty of Versailles

The 1919 settlement ending the First World War with Germany, imposing territorial losses, disarmament, reparations and a war-guilt clause, and creating the League of Nations.

April Theses

Lenin's 1917 programme rejecting support for the provisional government and demanding Soviet power, land to peasants and an end to the war, guiding the Bolshevik seizure in October.

Marshall Plan

A 1948 American programme of economic aid to rebuild Western Europe, intended to counter communist influence and stabilise markets, a central instrument of early Cold War containment.

Non-Aligned Movement

A grouping of states founded at Belgrade in 1961 that refused alignment with either Cold War bloc, promoting sovereignty and development; Nehru, Nasser and Tito were prominent founders.

Permanent Settlement in Bengal

The 1793 Cornwallis measure fixing revenue with zamindars in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, creating a landlord class, securing Company income and reshaping rural society for generations.

Bakhtiyar Khalji

A Turkish commander whose raids around 1204 established Muslim political power in Bengal, destroying Buddhist monasteries such as Nalanda and Odantapuri and beginning the Bengal Sultanate's foundations.

Subaltern Studies

A historiographical school associated with Ranajit Guha that seeks to recover the agency and consciousness of peasants and other subordinate groups, challenging elite-centred narratives of Indian history.

Internal criticism

A historical method assessing a source's meaning, reliability, bias and consistency by examining the author's purpose, audience and context, after authenticity has been established externally.

Kushana coinage

Gold and copper coins of the Kushana rulers, notably Kanishka, bearing royal portraits and deities, indicating Silk Road trade wealth and the blending of Greek, Iranian and Indian iconography.

Dhamma policy

Ashoka's post-Kalinga programme of moral instruction, tolerance and welfare, propagated through edicts in Prakrit and local scripts, and administered by officers called dhamma-mahamattas.

Dagh and huliya

Alauddin Khalji's military reforms branding horses (dagh) and recording descriptive rolls of soldiers (huliya) to prevent fraud and ensure an effective standing army paid in cash.

Talikota

The 1565 battle in which an alliance of Deccan sultanates defeated Vijayanagara, leading to the empire's decline, the abandonment of Hampi and the rise of successor states.

Drain theory

Dadabhai Naoroji's argument that colonial rule transferred India's wealth to Britain through home charges, salaries and trade imbalances, explaining India's poverty and underpinning nationalist economic critique.

Poona Pact

The 1932 agreement between Gandhi and Ambedkar replacing separate electorates for Depressed Classes with reserved seats in joint electorates, following Gandhi's fast against the Communal Award.

Brest-Litovsk

The March 1918 treaty in which Bolshevik Russia ceded vast western territory to Germany to exit the First World War, a controversial concession that fuelled opposition during the Russian Civil War.

Zabti system

Akbar's Mughal revenue system assessing land tax on measured produce and ten-year price data, with the Dahsala settlement fixing rates, associated with Raja Todar Mal's reforms.

Glasnost

Gorbachev's policy of openness from the mid-1980s permitting greater public criticism and information, which weakened Communist Party control and contributed to the USSR's collapse in 1991.

Cuban missile crisis

The 1962 confrontation over Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, resolved by withdrawal in exchange for US pledges, the closest the Cold War came to nuclear war and a spur to détente.

Tebhaga movement

A 1946–47 Bengal peasant struggle demanding two-thirds of the harvest for sharecroppers, led by the Bengal Provincial Kisan Sabha, and a significant episode of agrarian mobilisation before partition.

Damodarpur copper plates

Gupta-era inscriptions from Bengal recording land grants and local administrative transactions, key evidence for Gupta rule and rural administration in the region during the fifth century.

Numismatics

The study of coins, examining legends, metal content, weight standards and find-spots to reconstruct dynastic chronology, trade networks and economic conditions in the absence of written records.

Prashasti

A Sanskrit eulogistic inscription praising a ruler's lineage, conquests and virtues, such as Harishena's Allahabad pillar text; valuable but must be read critically for exaggeration.