Question

The Gonds practised____________.
A) Hunting
B) Gathering
C) Shifting cultivation
D) Settled agriculture

Answer 1

Hint: The Gonds are among the largest tribal communities in the entire world. The Gonds used to live in a vast forested region referred to as the Gondwana. ‘Rani Durgavati’, a warrior-queen of Gondwana, who fought against King Akbar, also belonged to the tribe of Gonds. She fought until she died in 1564.

Complete answer:
The Gonds practised shifting cultivation. It refers to a method of rotational farming in which land is cleared by cutting and burning the trees for the purpose of cultivation and then left to regenerate after a few years. When this land becomes infertile, another plot of land is cleared and planted in the same way. Shifting cultivation is locally referred to as jhum in India, and has been frequently blamed for deforestation and environmental degradation.

The Gonds are among the largest tribal communities in the entire world. The term Gond refers to tribal peoples who inhabit the entire Deccan peninsula of India. The Gonds used to live in a vast forested region referred to as the Gondwana, also called “the country inhabited by Gonds”. The large Gond tribe is further split into numerous smaller clans, each having its own raja or rai.

Thus, the correct answer is Option ‘C’ i.e, The Gonds practised shifting cultivation.

Note: During the time when the power of the Delhi Sultanate was decreasing, a few large Gond kingdoms began oppressing the smaller Gond chiefs. The administrative body of these kingdoms was becoming consolidated. The Gond kingdom of Garha Katanga that consisted of 70,000 villages is mentioned in Akbar Nama, a history of Akbar’s reign.