TEXT EXERCISES
RANI GAIDINLIU
Pause to Ponder (pg:4)
1. The tribal people are deeply associated with nature. This is one of the reasons why they
celebrate and worship gods and goddesses that symbolically represent nature
2. The Christian missionaries wanted to spread their religion among these tribes. They
considered any other religion other than Christianity to be uncivilised, hence, they wanted
to follow in the footsteps of their Lord.
3. It was necessary for Jadonang to build the temple for Heraka followers to unite them in
the context of their culture and heritage to resist the influence of Christianity.
4. Jadonang and Gaidinliu abolished the animal sacrifices because the Christian
missionaries were targeting these aspects of their culture and calling them impure. The need
to be pure was pressing, in order to resist the missionaries.
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Intext 4 Questions
Pause to Ponder
1. The future generation will learn about their leaders through the steps taken by the
government. They will be aware of the revolutionaries who dedicated their lives for
their lives for the upliftment of their own country.
2. The gender imbalance in writing history has misinterpreted the events and
contributions of leaders and soldiers, especially women. We have almost forgotten
their roles in the Indian independence struggle. It seems rather unfair and biased.
IV. Think and answer
1.This is a student-specific answer. Answer cues: Rani Gaidinliu was a hero because
despite all the British brutality and the comfort of obedience to the oppressor, she stood up
in the face of her oppressors. She chose the uncomfortable path to protect her culture and
history.
2. The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre marks the context of anger against the oppressor. The
chapter tracks the influence of this decision in the actions of Gaidinliu almost a decade
later. The mention of the tragedy helped the student understand the context of the anger and
the brutality that British rule conferred.
3. This is a student-specific answer. Answer cues: Agreed for the following reasons: -
barely read about women leaders in our history books. - even while reading about
Gaidinliu, we read about two other leaders who are male, it makes an impression that only a
few women had some specific role in history.
roads/stations are mostly named after male leaders.
HOME ASSIGNMENTS (page:10)
1. The North-east Indians are fiercely protective about nature because nature is their
homeland. Their sustenance and nourishment come from these resources and they
are wise enough to understand the importance of nature and human balance.
2. The step taken by the government to build up the Gaidinliu Memorial Hall, a
museum-cum-library in Kohima, the Capital of Nagaland will impact largely in
preserving the memory of Gaidinliu for upcoming geneartions.
3. Haipou Jadonang was Gaidinliu's cousin and she was largely influenced by him. His
ideologies were her first scope to gain awareness about the socio-political scenario.
Without Jadonang, the Heraka Movement might not have initiated that early.
Although I feel that Gaidinliu was a natural leader, without Jadonang, her zest to
revolt might have developed a little later in time.
4. The author wants students to know about the culture and belief of North-East India
and also to understand the passion and history of its ferocious leaders.
IV. Think tank
This is a student-specific answer.
Cues: Propositions: History does not heed the contribution of women leaders as much as it
does of men leaders.
Reason 1: We barely read about the women leaders in our history books. There are few to
which an entire chapter is dedicated to. They are mostly given as references to the
contribution of a man.
Reason 2: Even the Government honoured her with the Tamra Patra much after the
Independence. It took the Indian Government such a long time to acknowledge her as a
leader.
Reason 3: The roads/airports/stations are mainly named under the important male leaders
and in a way, history makes us believe that there were not many women we need to
remember.
LISTENING ACTIVITY (pg:13)
1. Fill in the blanks:
a) wealthy, poor
b) coal, Kahuli
c) hornbill
d) feather
e) hope
f) three
2. Answer the following questions.
a. Chapter - informational, focused on Gaidinliu, could not explore the colourful lives of
the tribal community. Video - Story, explores the folklore separately, could experience the
colourful lives of the tribal community, enjoyed watching this more.
b. The video shows the beautiful folklore through which we get to understand the extent to
which nature and human lives are intertwined.
{TO BE WRITTEN IN NOTEBOOK:}
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II. Read the extracts and answer the questions that follow.
1. a. Sustenance
1. b. Nature is an integral part of tribal culture. Their gods and goddesses represent the
elements of nature like the rivers, mountains, trees, birds are all part of their religion.
1. c. The North-east was under the influence of Christian missionaries who were constantly
critiquing their culture in the context of Christianity. They were influenced and
manipulated to convert their religion. Their culture faced a threat of extinction under
British rule.
1. d. This is a student-specific answer. Sample answer: Rani Gaidinliu was a fierce and
passionate woman. She would have been an activist passionately working for some other
cause if not the same. Her zeal to protect the tribal community and their culture came from
the context she was born into.
2 a. The author finds monotheism necessary to resist the influence of Christianity by the
missionaries.
2. b. The North-east is full of diverse tribal groups. Each of them has their own cultures
and practices. There is a history of violence between these tribal groups. The missionaries
targeted these differences to manipulate them against each other.
2. c. effect/impact
2. d. The religious belief of the tribal people differed from the Christian missionaries in the
following ways:
Christian missionaries-Monotheism, Jesus as their God
Tribal culture-Polytheism, nature a symbolic part of religion
3. a. Mahatma Gandhi's Non-Cooperation Movement inspired Gaidinliu to protest against
the British by not paying the tax.
b. Tax is the central mode of income of the government. When people don't pay taxes, the
government is deprived of that revenue.
c. This act against the British Government made her a prominent and immediate threat in
the eyes of the rulers. An arrest warrant leading to her capture also halted her active
participation in this revolt.
d. She was not compliant with her rulers.
{TO BE WRITTEN IN NOTEBOOK:}
III. Read the extract and answer the questions that follow. (pg:11)
1. a. Captain MacDonald launched a surprise attack because he wanted to arrest Gaidinliu
when she was not prepared. She was on the run for a long time and was becoming more of
a threat each day.
1. b. Gaidinliu was building this fortress as the camping station for all the Heraka
volunteers who were ready to take up arms against the British.
1. c. Gaidinliu was arrested. This brought a pause in her active participation in the rebellion
against the British Government. She was not freed from prison before Independence.
1. d. From the point of view of Captain MacDonald, Gaidinliu was not only a threat against
the Government, but was also influencing others to participate in her act of rebellion. She
was inspiring people to stop paying taxes, which was also directly harming the revenue
aspect of the rulers. Hence it was necessary to capture her.
2. a. It was a necessary step taken by Jadonang and Gaidinliu to battle the tags of
‘uncivilised’ and ‘impure ‘that was given to them by the Christian missionaries. They chose
the name Heraka or ‘pure’ in Zemei to establish their purity and non-violent approach
towards religion.
2. b. The tradition of gathering and performing hymns was a crucial step because it gave
them a situation to come together and celebrate their culture. This happy union on a daily
basis made them strong as a community, and it meant that they would stand up to their
oppressors.
2. c. Tingkao Ragwang was represented as the Goddess of life, benevolence, kindness and
justice to the Heraka members.
2.. d. Events
3.a. It was justified because despite cooperative deals from the Congress, the British took to
acting in such a violent way by killing and injuring hundreds of lives.
3. b. The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre led the Indian leaders to take the final decision to
break all cooperative bonds with the British. The chapter uses this as a turning point, where
the entire country follows a similar method of protest against the oppressor. Gaidinliu got
her inspiration from this event, almost a decade later.
3. c. The British were facing strong rebellion from each and every part of the country.
They were feeling threatened by these protests and were afraid to lose their power over
these people. The Jallianwala Bagh gathering made them feel that it was necessary to curb
the power of the Indians and remind them of the supremacy of the British.
3. d. This section clearly brings out the British as the oppressive rulers, as they choose to
kill innocent people, based on the assumption that they are conspiring against them.
