Introduction
Why Social Science
LET’S EXPLORE
--> Observe the picture above. What do you notice?
- Where does the water in the lake come from?
- Who made the road and why?
- What could be the activities of people living in the small house? What could be their history? Their future?
--> Write down your answers and discuss them with your classmates.
--> Now, looking at the picture on the facing page, what questions come to your mind? Write them down.
--> How do you propose to find answers to the questions related to these two images
How are our questions above relevant to Social Science?
We live in the 21st century (if you do not know what this figure
really means, you will soon learn about it). Everyone agrees
that it is a particularly challenging time for humanity. On the one hand, there is rapid progress in technology, which
is changing our lives in many ways. On the other hand, the
world is witnessing multiple wars, armed conflicts and
rising social tensions, and our planet’s natural environment
is under great stress. We live in an age of great possibilities
but also great challenges.
The world over, more and more people wonder, “How do we
solve the problems facing humanity? How can our societies
learn to live in peace and harmony? How can we protect
this beautiful Earth which we all share — and protect it not
only for ourselves but also for all the species that live on it?”
These fundamental questions are simple, but the answers
are not. They cannot be simple, because human societies
are very diverse and complex. If we wish to find answers to
such questions and help build a better future, we first need
to understand our world, and human societies in particular.
That is what Social Science is all about.
You may wonder whether this is a ‘science’ like, say, physics
or chemistry. It is not. The discipline does use scientific methods wherever possible (you will see a few examples
in this textbook), but its focus — human society — is, again,
too diverse to allow the kind of set procedures and fixed
results the sciences come up with.
Social Science has many subdisciplines: geography, history,
political science, economics, sociology, anthropology,
archaeology, psychology and a few more. You need not feel
intimidated by all these terms! While you will study some of
these subdisciplines in the Secondary Stage, in the Middle
Stage we have avoided this classification. Instead, we have
opted for five broad themes. Let us briefly look at them.
(Note that the mind map at the start of this Introduction
includes chapters of both parts of this textbook.)
Theme A – India and the World:
Land and the People
This first theme includes the basics of the geographical
world around us — some of the main features of our planet
and the way to represent them on a map. Why is this
theme important, when today we can get excellent maps
on a mobile phone? Because it deals with much more than
maps. It also asks how geographical features — oceans,
mountains, rivers, etc. — have shaped entire civilisations
throughout their histories. It is also, in India’s case, about
how its natural setting has contributed to giving this ancient
civilisation a unique identity .
Theme B – Tapestry of the Past
A tapestry is a large piece of canvas-like cloth usually
kept as a wall hanging, with pictures and designs on it —
sometimes a historical narrative. Our tapestry is where
we will be painting scenes from the past, beginning with
India’s past. But why should we be at all concerned with the
past? Because it is the key to understanding the present, and
the chapters in this theme will often make this connection clear. The past is a major source for our identities — it
helps us understand who we are and where we come from.
The past is still with us, in other words. And since history is
unfortunately not all about happy developments, it is useful
to understand where people, governments or rulers went
wrong, and why. Only then can we hope to avoid repeating
those errors.
Theme C – Our Cultural Heritage and
Knowledge Tradition
It has often been said that India has a rich and ancient
culture. True, but what are its main characteristics? Its
guiding principles? How has it manifested itself in India’s
history? And how can it help us to deal with issues of our
times? These are some of the questions that this theme is
exploring, with the objective that every student should
understand some of the cultural foundations of our
civilization and learn to appreciate their value .
Theme D – Governance and Democracy
citizens of any country should know how their political
system functions. India, as the world’s largest democracy,
has an elaborate system working at different levels. What
are its chief characteristics and components? How do the
citizens participate in the overall governance? What are
their rights and also their duties or dharma? Are there
different systems in other countries, and, if so, of what
type? How are different countries supposed to interact?
By studying this theme, we can become more responsible
citizens, understand how the organs of the government
function, and learn to have a say in the policies that affect
us all, whether locally or nationally.
Theme E – Economic Life Around Us
No family can be happy without the essentials of daily
living — at least food, clothing, shelter, access to water in a first stage; in a second, livelihood for adults and access to
education for the younger ones. Similarly, no country can
develop harmoniously without a sound economy. But how
does an economy work, especially in a huge country like
India? What exactly is money? Where does it come from?
How can it be increased? What economic activities can
people engage themselves in? How are natural and human
resources best managed? This theme will lay down some of
the important concepts and practices that will enable us to
answer these questions.
You will notice that there are many questions in the
preceding paragraphs. This is as it should be — Social
Science is also about the art of asking the right questions.
Only then can we start looking for the right answers. This
also explains the presence of ‘Big Questions’ at the start of
each chapter in this book.
You may also be intrigued to find a game of chess and
some ancient Tamil poetry in chapters that apparently deal
with geography; a discussion on the uses of the sari in a
chapter on cultural heritage; the concept of sevā and the
mention of festivals in chapters focusing on economics.
This is deliberate. We believe in bringing elements from
diverse fields together (you will learn later that this is
called ‘multidisciplinarity’). This enriches our perspective.
Indeed, life constantly mixes numerous elements together,
so why should we not?
By now, it should be clear that although Social Science
makes constant use of the past, it seeks to make sense of
the present so as to help us prepare a better future. It is an
exploration and an adventure.
chapter -1
Locating Places on the Earth
The Big
Questions?
1. What is a map and how do we use it? What are its main components?
2. What are coordinates? How can latitude and longitude be used to mark any location on the Earth?
3. How are local time and standard time related to longitude?
Imagine that you are visiting a city for the first time. How
would you find the places you want to visit? You might ask
a local person for help, or you might look at a map of the
city. In previous grades, you learnt a little about maps, and
in this chapter, we will study them in more detail.
Let us play a game. Examine the map of this small city
(Fig. 1.1). Imagine that you just got off a train at the railway
station, and you want to visit the bank marked on the
map. Which way would you go? Are there other possible
ways? Can you locate the public garden, the school and
the museum? If you want to proceed from the bank to the
market, which way will you go? This is where a map comes
in handy! A map is like a treasure guide; it shows you where things
are and how to get to them. Notice the four arrows in the top
right corner of the map; we will soon see how they point to
some specific directions and make maps even more helpful.
LET’S EXPLORE
---> On the map in Fig. 1.1 given on page 8 —
1. Mark the hospital.
2. What is the meaning of the blue-coloured areas?
3. Which is farther away from the railway station —
the school, the Nagar Panchayat or the public garden?
---> As a class activity, form groups of three or four students
each. Let each group try to draw a map of your school
and some of the streets or roads that lead to it, and a few
neighbouring buildings. At the end, compare all the maps
and discuss .
A Map and Its Components
From this simple example, we understand that a map is a
representation, or a drawing, of some area — it may be a
small area (a village, a town, etc.), a bigger area (say, your
district or state), or a very large area like India or even the
whole world. In a map, you look at the surface as if you are
viewing it from the top .
An atlas is a book or collection of maps .
As you will discover, there are several kinds of maps —
- physical maps ,which mainly show some natural
features such as mountains, oceans and rivers (see an
example in Fig. 5.2 in this textbook)
- political maps, which show details of countries or
states, boundaries, cities, etc. (for instance, a map of
India with all its States, Union Territories and their
capitals)
- thematic maps, with a specific kind of information
(examples include Fig. 6.3 and Fig. 8.1 in this textbook).
LET’S EXPLORE
--->Draw a simple map of a school’s playground. Let us
assume it is a rectangle, 40 m in length and 30 m in width.
Draw it precisely with your ruler on a scale of 1 cm = 10 m.
--->Now measure the diagonal of the rectangle. How many
centimetres do you get? Using the scale, calculate the real
length of the playground’s diagonal, in metres.
Let us return to the four arrows at the top right
of the small city’s map. They point to four
directions, which are north, at the top, and,
moving clockwise, east, south and west.
These are called the cardinal directions,
also cardinal points. Other than these,
intermediate directions are also used —
northeast (NE), southeast (SE), southwest
(SW) and northwest (NW). Most maps
simply have an arrow marked with the
letter ‘N’, which points to the north direction.
LET’S EXPLORE
--->Consider the map of the small city again. Identify the
correct and incorrect statements in the list below:
1. The market is north of the hospital.
2. The museum is southeast of the bank.
3. The railway station is northwest of the hospital.
4. The lake is northwest of the apartment blocks.
---> Taking your school as the starting point, do you know
approximately in which cardinal direction your home is
located? Discuss with your teacher and your parents .
Symbols are another important component of maps. Our
map has small drawings of actual buildings and a few
other elements, but there would not be enough space on the
map of a large city or a country to draw them all. Instead,
a symbol is used to represent these features — symbols for
different kinds of buildings (for instance a railway station,
a school, a post office), for roads and railway lines, and for
natural elements such as a river, a pond or a forest. In that
way, numerous details can be shown in the limited space
available on a map.
To make maps more easily understood by a variety of users,
map makers use specific symbols. Different countries use
different sets of symbols. The Survey of India, a government
body, has fixed a set of symbols for maps of India (or parts
of India). A small selection of them is shown in Fig. 1.2 on
page 12.
LET’S EXPLORE
Railway Line: broad gauge,
metre gauge, railway station 
Roads: metalled, unmetalled 
Boundary: international,
state, district 
River, well, tank, canal,
bridge 
Temple, church, mosque,
chhatri 
Post Office, Post & Telegraph
Office, Police Station PO PTO PS
Settlement, graveyard 
Trees, grass 
Mapping the Earth
Mapping the Earth is a little more difficult because our
planet is not a flat surface. It nearly has the shape of a
sphere. (We say ‘nearly’ because it is not a perfect sphere,
but is slightly flattened at the poles. However, in practice,
we will consider it to be spherical.) Representing a sphere
accurately on a flat sheet of paper is not possible. To
understand why, peel an orange in such a way that you
have just three or four large pieces of the skin; then try and
flatten them on a table — you will see that you cannot do it
without tearing them at the edges.
Now, consider a globe, which is a sphere on which a map
is drawn. This may be a map of the Earth, the Moon, the
planet Mars, the stars and constellations in the sky, etc.
The physical object, like the one shown in the drawing on
the next page, is a sphere that is generally made of metal,
plastic or cardboard. Here we will study the globe representing
the Earth’s geography. Because the globe
and the Earth have the same spherical
shape, a globe will better represent the
geography of the Earth than a flat map.
Let us now explore some of its features.
a) Understanding coordinates
Imagine a big market in a city or town, with
neat rows of shops, all the same size. You
want to meet a friend at a stationery shop
inside the market. But your friend does
not know where the shop is. So you would give directions
like, “Meet me at 6 pm at the 7th shop in the 5th row from
the entrance.” This will allow your friend to precisely
determine your location. Now, consider a chessboard.
To record moves by advanced
players, letters are placed
alongside the main pieces
(from ‘a’ to ‘h’, see the image)
and numbers (from 1 to 8) in
between the two sides. This
simple system allows players
to mark each square and
record every move. Here, the
white side has just opened the
game by moving the queen’s
pawn two squares forward (a
very common opening). So,
the pawn is said to have moved from d2 to d4.
LET’S EXPLORE
Using the same terms, write down your move if you play black
and respond with the same move.
The system used in these two examples may be called a
system of coordinates. Thanks to their two coordinates,
the stationery shop as well as the chess square on the
chessboard can be precisely determined.
A similar system of coordinates is used in the world of maps
to determine the location of any place on a map. Let us see
how this system works.
b) Latitudes
Let us return to the globe. It is easy to identify the North
Pole and the South Pole on it. Rotate the globe; while it
rotates, the fixed points at the top and bottom are the two
poles. Halfway between them is the Equator; note the circle
marking it (see Fig. 1.3).
Imagine that you stand on the Equator and travel towards
one of the poles; your distance from the Equator increases.
Latitude measures this distance from the Equator. At any
point of this travel, you can draw an imaginary line that
runs east and west, parallel to the Equator. Such a line is
called a parallel of latitude and it draws a circle around
the Earth. Again, it is easy to note on the globe that the
largest circle is the Equator, while the circles marked by the
parallels of latitude grow smaller as we move northward or
southward (Fig. 1.3).
Latitudes are expressed in degrees; by convention, the
Equator is latitude 0° (zero degree), while the latitudes of
the two poles are 90° North and 90° South respectively; this
is noted 90°N and 90°S.
There is a connection between latitude and climate. Around
the Equator, the climate is generally hot (it is also called
‘torrid’). As you travel away from the Equator towards one
of the two poles (in other words, as your latitude increases),
the climate becomes more moderate (or ‘temperate’). And
closer to the North or South Pole, the climate grows colder
(or ‘frigid’). You will learn in Science why this is so, and also why we experience different seasons in the course of
a year.
c) Longitudes
Imagine now that you travel from the North Pole to the South
Pole by the shortest possible line. Observe the globe: you
will see that instead of passing through Europe and Africa,
you could just as well pass through Asia — the distance
would be the same. These lines are called meridians of
longitude (Fig. 1.3). They are all half-circles running from
one pole to the other.
You will also learn in Science that the Earth spins on its
axis. To put it simply, let’s place a desk lamp a little away
from our globe, focused on it, and imagine that this is the Sun illuminating the Earth. Slowly rotating the globe
eastward, we can note that for some places on the Earth it
is morning, while for others it is mid-day, evening or night
— when it’s breakfast time in one country, it’s lunchtime in
another and in a third country people are fast asleep! That
is why by measuring the longitude of a place, we will also
be measuring the time at that place. Let us see how.
To measure longitudes, we need to define a reference point
called the Prime Meridian (Fig. 1.3 on page 15). It is also
called Greenwich Meridian because, in the year 1884,
some nations decided that the meridian passing through
Greenwich, an area of London in England, would become
the international standard for the Prime Meridian. It is
marked as 0° longitude.
Just as latitude is a measure of the distance from the
Equator if you travel towards one of the poles, longitude is
a measure of the distance from the Prime Meridian if you
travel along the Equator. Longitude, too, is measured in
degrees. Westward or eastward, it increases in value from
0° to 180°, with the letter ‘W’ or ‘E’ added. For instance,
using round figures, New York’s longitude is 74°W, while
Delhi’s is 77°E and Tokyo’s is 140°E.
DON’T MISS OUT
As you can see on the globe of meridians of longitudes, 180°W
and 180°E are the same longitude; so this longitude is noted
180°, omitting the letter W or E.
Latitude and longitude together are the two coordinates of
a place. With them, you are now able to locate any place on
Earth! You can now understand a statement such as “Delhi
lies at 29°N latitude and 77°E longitude” (these values are
rounded off, not exact).
Fig. 1.3 on page 15 shows the parallels of latitude and the
meridians of longitude together on the globe as blue lines. All these lines together constitute a grid for the globe; they
are also called grid lines
LET’S EXPLORE
If the globe or atlas in your class has well-marked latitudes
and longitudes, try to note down approximate values for the
latitude and longitude of (1) Mumbai, (2) Kolkata, (3) Singapore,
(4) Paris .
DON’T MISS OUT
The Greenwich Meridian is not the first prime meridian.
There were others in the past. In fact, many centuries before
Europe, India had a prime meridian of its own! (Fig. 1.5) It
was called madhya rekhā (or ‘middle line’) and passed through
the city of Ujjayinī (today Ujjain), which was a reputed centre
for astronomy over many centuries. Varāhamihira, a famous
astronomer, lived and worked there some 1,500 years ago.
Indian astronomers were aware of concepts of latitude and
longitude, including the need for a zero or prime meridian.
The Ujjayinī meridian became a reference for calculations in
all Indian astronomical texts. The map shows a few ancient Indian cities close to the Ujjayinī
meridian. Some are very close to it, while others are a little
away. That is because measuring longitude required accurate
timekeeping, which was not as precise then as it is today.
Understanding Time Zones
Let’s make the globe rotate again from west to east —
that is how our planet spins around its axis, making a full
turn every 24 hours. A full turn is 360°, so this means 15°
per hour (15 x 24 = 360). Let us now mark the meridians
of longitude every 15°. Moving eastward from the Prime
Meridian, we get 0°, 15°E, 30°E, 45°E, and so on every 15°
up to 180°E. It is the same as adding one hour of local time
with each meridian — if it is 12 pm or noon at Greenwich, it
is 1 pm local time at 15°E, 2 pm at 30°E, and so on. But going
westward, it is the other way round — 11 am local time at
15°W, 10 am at 30°W, etc
LET’S EXPLORE
Two friends, one sitting in Porbandar (Gujarat) and the other
in Tinsukia (Assam), are speaking on the phone late afternoon.
The latter remarks that the sun has set in Assam and it’s
now dark. The former is surprised and says, “But it’s still full
daylight here!” Explain why. And, as a class activity, calculate
the difference in local time between those two cities. (Hint: for
now, consider the difference in longitude between Porbandar
and Tinsukia to be 30°; later, you can find out the precise value.)
The same method can be used to calculate the local time
of any place on the Earth. But it would not be convenient
for a country to use many local times! That is why most
countries adopt a standard time based on a meridian
passing through them. Indian Standard Time (IST) is 5
hours 30 minutes (also noted 5.5 hours) ahead of the local
time at Greenwich (called Greenwich Mean Time or GMT).
LET’S EXPLORE
Return to the two friends sitting in Gujarat and Assam. Use
this example to explain the difference between local time and
standard time.
All these standard times are organized in time zones, which
broadly follow the zones of 15° in the graph (Fig. 1.7). But let
us consider the world map below (Fig. 1.8). We can see that
the lines dividing the time zones are not fully straight. This
is because they have to respect each country’s standard time
and, therefore, tend to follow international borders. The
numbers written inside some countries are the numbers of
hours to be added to GMT to get their standard times if they
have a positive sign, or subtracted from GMT if they have a
negative sign
DON’T MISS OUT
From the above explanation, it may seem as if every country
has one standard time. That is not always the case. Some
countries, like Russia, Canada or the USA, are too large to have
a single time zone. The USA has six time zones and Russia has
11 — which means that travelling across Russia from east to
west, you will need to readjust your watch 10 times to align
with the local time!
Similarly, the globe in Fig. 1.9, centred on India, shows
standard times with respect to GMT for a few countries.
Finally, while the Prime Meridian was fixed at Greenwich,
the opposite line — at approximately 180° longitude — is
called the International Date Line.
As you can see on the map, the +12 and the –12 time zones
touch each other at this line. If you cross it by ship or plane,
you need to change the date in your watch. If you cross it
travelling eastward, you subtract a day (say, from Monday
to Sunday); if you cross it travelling westward, you add a day
(from Sunday to Monday). We said that the International
Date Line is ‘approximately’ at 180° longitude, as it deviates
in places to avoid dividing some countries into two different
days!
Before we move on ..
- Maps are a very useful tool to represent an area of the Earth,
whether small or large. The main components of maps are
distance, direction and symbols.
- Every place on the Earth has a location which can be precisely defined with the help of a grid of latitudes and longitudes — imaginary lines running from east to west (parallel to the Equator) and north to south (from pole to pole) respectively.
- Longitude also marks the time and defines the time zones.
- The International Date Line is located approximately at 180 degrees longitude, opposite the Prime Meridian. Crossing the International Date Line changes the date by one day.
Questions, activities and projects
1. Returning to page 10 and to Fig. 5.2 in Chapter 5 of this
textbook, taking the scale to be 2.5 cm = 500 km, calculate
the real distance from the estuary of the Narmada River
to the estuary of the Ganga river. (Hint: round off your
measurement on the map to an easy number.)
2. Why is it 5:30 pm in India when it is 12 pm or noon in London?
3. Why do we need symbols and colours in the map?
4. Find out what you have in the eight directions from your home or school.
5. What is the difference between local time and standard time? Discuss it in groups, with each group writing an answer in 100 to 150 words. Compare the answers.
6. Delhi’s and Bengaluru’s latitudes are 29°N and 13°N; their
longitudes are almost the same, 77°E. How much will be
the difference in local time between the two cities?
7. Mark the following statements as true or false; explain your answers with a sentence or two .
- All parallels of latitude have the same length.
- The length of a meridian of longitude is half of that of the Equator.
- The South Pole has a latitude of 90°S.
- In Assam, the local time and the IST are identical.
- Lines separating the time zones are identical with meridians of longitude.
- The Equator is also a parallel of latitude.
- Solve the crossword below.
Locating places on Earth
Across
1. Lets you squeeze a huge area into your map
4. A convenient sphere
5. The longest parallel of latitude
6. The place the Prime Meridian is attached to
8. So convenient to find your way
10. A measure of the distance from the Equator
Down
2. A measure of the distance
from the Prime Meridian
3. These two together allow
us to locate a place
6. What latitudes and
longitudes together create
7. The time we all follow in
India
9. These two are poles apart
11. An abbreviation for a
line across which the
day and date change