Discuss the causes of the Revolt of 1857. Why did it fail?

One of the primary and severe outbursts of resentment against the British rule came in the form of the Indian revolt of 1857. This revolt followed the battles of Plassey and Buxar and the main cause was resentment against setting up of British rule in Bengal. It is called the first war of independence by many historians though it is a debatable topic. The British historians termed it Sepoy Mutiny and Jawaharlal Nehru called it a feudal revolt which was much more than just a Sepoy Mutiny. Read further about the causes of revolt of 1857 in India.

The revolt was basically started by the soldiers who worked for the East India Company and later was spread across the country by peasants, artisans and soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the sake of others. Different religions of India came together and fought united for one cause. There were many different reasons for the outbreak of the revolt of 1857. Exploitation by the British, imposing of their faith forcefully on Indians, etc. were just some causes. Some of the other causes are discussed below.

Thousands of soldiers were rendered jobless when the northern states were annexed. The able soldiers of kingdoms like Oudh were very frustrated by this move and were waiting to seek revenge.

The Indian soldiers employed under the British were made to use a special type of cartridge that was to be bitten off before being loaded in a rifle. It was rumored that the cartridges were greased with cow and pig fat. This angered the Hindus and Muslims as it hurt their religious sentiments.

The policy of annexation introduced by Lord Dalhousie was received with much discontent among Indians. Due to the introduction of the new policy, Baji Rao's adopted son Nana Sahib was dispossessed of the pension his father was receiving. It was announced that Bahadur Shah Zafar will not be allowed to stay in the Red Fort anymore and they would have to move to a place near Qutub Minar. It was also announced that the successors of Bahadur Shah would not be given the title of king.

The British started to impose Christianity to provoke people further. Taxes were collected form temples and mosques and Hindu and Muslim soldiers were asked to accept the faith of Christianity.

The Revolt of 1857 could not be successful on account of the following factors (reasons):

a) Lack of unity and cohesion:

Many state rulers e.g. the Scindias, Holkars, Nizam of Hyderabad, Nawab of Bhopal, Rajas of Patiala, Nabha, Jind Jodhpur etc., big Zamindars and traders actively supported the British. The Sikh, Rajput and Gorkha Battalions remained loyal to the British to suppress the Revolt.

b) The rising was not widespread:

The Revolt was limited to U.P., Delhi and West Bengal. It did not assume a national character.

c) No common aims and ideals:

The Hindus and the Muslims wanted to establish their separate empires. There was no unified programme.

d) Lack of discipline, resources and organization:

The revolutionaries lacked resources (men and money), discipline and organization. They were brave and patriotic but lacked leadership qualities.

An unplanned early start: An unplanned early start (Much before the scheduled date i.e. May) alerted the British rulers. The revolt was crushed and failed miserably.

Explain the dynamic nature of science with examples.

The new Science curriculum has the 'nature of science' right up there at the top. And why? Because it's so important for people to learn, not just science facts and concepts, but also about what science is: how it's done, the tools and methods scientists use, how they communicate, its history, & how science is a part of everyday life.

Science is dynamic in nature - it's not a fixed set of facts & doesn't simply represent the 'truth' about the natural world, but changes through time as new data are collected. Darwin was alive at a time when scientists were redefining a whole range of concepts ('species', for one). Scientists are constantly coming up with new questions, new interpretations, and new opinions. And because of this, it is eventually self-correcting.

A good (non-evolutionary) example here is the discovery that most stomach ulcers are caused by infection with the bacterium Helicobacter pylori. When this idea was first proposed, biologists laughed at it. But the scientists concerned persisted and demonstrated - by infecting themselves, among other things - that the infection/ulcer link existed. The weight of evidence convinced the scientific community - and the scientists who made the discovery received a Nobel Prize.

 Biology is a quest towards understanding, one that is ever changing and one that has roots not only in the phenomena that we observe, but in the human world that shapes our concerns and questions. And still biology is the vast concept of learning and understanding concept in the field of science.

As a teacher you must have felt some problems in implementation of continuous comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) in your school. Mention those problem and also explain how did you overcome those problem .

Continuous and comprehensive evaluation is an education system newly introduced by Central Board of Secondary Education in India, for students of sixth to tenth grades. The main aim of Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation is to evaluate every aspect of the child during their presence at the school. This is believed to help reduce the pressure on the child during/before examinations as the student will have to sit for multiple tests throughout the year, of which no test or the syllabus covered will be repeated at the end of the year, whatsoever. The Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation method is claimed to bring enormous changes from the traditional chalk and talk method of teaching provided it is implemented accurately.

As a teacher we do have faced many problems in the implementation of such systems. Problems faced under this method are.

Time Constraints:

Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation requires us to spend more time evaluating individual students. While the advantages of this include a broader view of the child's progress and more interaction with the child's parents, it can put additional strain on us that negatively influences their ability to assess students. Student conferences are more frequent under this system, requiring us to add more hours to their work day. This disadvantage can easily be remedied if parents avail themselves for conferences with the teacher during school hours and if classroom sizes are limited. We have to adjust our timings and schedule as per the system. So we request parents to avail themselves for the conference so that time constraints can be avoided and be maintained well.

Potential for Inconsistencies:

Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation requires all of us to be trained and adhere to the same assessment methods. However, the system is liable to suffer from many inconsistencies. We teachers are charged with assessing cognitive abilities as well as health habits, work habits, cleanliness and cooperation. While a general standard of health habits and cleanliness, for example, may be assumed, the truth is such personal standards can be surprisingly subjective. Training teachers in assessing these values  may not provide any more consistent results than standardized testing.

Potential for Prejudice:

Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation is aimed at grooming students academically as well as shaping their attitudes, beliefs and values. The potential for prejudice against minority groups or sectarian religious groups is a great risk in a system based on teacher-only assessment. Standardized tests allow students whose grades may be negatively influenced by teacher prejudice to prove their capability outside of the classroom.

The Ghost of Classrooms Past:

Kindergarten through high school portfolio assessment may set students up for continued poor performance. Traditionally, students have started each new school year without any known predetermined expectations by teachers. This can be liberating for students who wish to leave their poor performance behind and apply themselves anew. However, carrying records of poor performance in elementary through high school may engender in students a low expectation of their ability to overcome that history of performance. A teacher's ability to read a student's entire history may unintentionally establish expectations of poor performance that prevents teachers from applying different methods of teaching subjects to struggling students.

Student scoring better marks:
A downside of the CCE system is the grading system. This is because the bracket is very wide, for example students that score between 90 and 100 will get an A* grade. You may see this as a positive scheme because it gives the chance for more students to receive a higher grade, however, a student that scores 8 more points than someone else but doesn't receive a better grade may seem unfair. Though * more points does matter a lot. But that student also stands in the same line as of the student who scored 90. Which is a problem for us that how to get a good grade for that particular student.

Stress on Students as well:

Despite the system aiming to lessen stress, the grading system may in fact cause more stress for the students.. For example, a student may feel more pressure to get a higher grade because the grade margin is substantially larger than you would expect. As a teacher it puts a stress on us also to note how a student is doing and what is his requirement to complete is grade goal

INITIAL REACTIONS: 
As a teacher it aggrieves me to share that CCE has created more chaos rather than being welcomed by the schools. The bewilderment it has generated is equivocal amongst school managements, teachers, students, parents, publishers and other agencies working in the field of education. Therefore, there are schools demanding intensive CCE

training for different stakeholders there are Students who feel that it will mean more assessments for them on an ongoing basis. Teachers feel that their work has increased tremendously with assessments having additional ‘descriptive indicators’.

Hence we face more than the above mentioned problems in the continuous comprehensive evaluation system but as teacher we have to get over all the above problems and get a systematic solution to it. If we do not get a solution its ultimately us who suffers because it’s not a system followed by school or college this system is run by whole education system, all over the world and not only in India.

Though the method is problematic its good for the students to achieve marks not only on the basis of class studies but also on the basis of their class behavior also. Students who score well do not think about their behavior and have much attitude in them just because they score well. Because of continuous comprehensive evaluation this thing has almost vanished from the class rooms thus ultimately this method is helpful to teachers like us who now don’t have to tolerate the burden of student’s behavior as they are already cleaned up through continuous comprehensive evaluation. They behave well to get the best possible grades. Hence it’s a very helpful concept of studies and maintaining class discipline too.