Q17 of 29 Page 1

Read the passage given below carefully and answer the following questions :

The ‘Cuban Missile Crisis’ was a high point of what came to be known as the Cold War. The Cold War referred to the competitions, the tensions and a series of confrontations between the United States of America and the Soviet Union, backed by their respective allies. Fortunately, however, it never escalated into a ‘hot war’.


(a) Explain the meaning of ‘hot war’.


(b) Why was the ‘Cuban Missile Crisis’ considered as the high point of the Cold War?


(c) ‘‘Ideological conflict was also a cause of the Cold War.’’ How far do you agree with the statement?

(a) War between the two nations or group of nations with active military participation is called a Hot war.

Example: World War 1 was a hot war.


(b) The Soviet Union wanted to convert Cuba into Russian Military base. In 1962 it placed nuclear missiles in Cuba, this angered the US and it ordered its warships to intercept any Soviet ships near Cuba. This is called a Cuban Missile Crisis


The crisis also later came to be known as the Cold war as it created tensions worldwide.


(c) Cold war was not just showcase of military power by it was more like an ideological war. The Western allies were headed by the US, professed liberal democracy and capitalism as their ideology but the eastern alliance under the Soviet Union remained intact to the ideology of Socialism and Communism.


Hence the two major blocs were joined by the smaller nations which more or less was of similar ideology.


So we can say that the Cold war was an ideological conflict.


More from this chapter

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15

Describe any four activities of the Dalit Panthers to promote their interests.

 16

Mention any four Prime Ministers of India and name their respective coalitions that led the Union Government from 1989 to 1999.

 18

Read the passage given below carefully and answer the following questions :

The Congress evolved from its origins in 1885 as a pressure group for the newly educated, professionals and commercial classes to a mass movement in the twentieth century. This laid the basis for its eventual transformation into a mass political party and its subsequent domination of the political system. Thus the Congress began as a party dominated by the English speaking, upper caste, upper middle class, and urban elite. But with every Civil Disobedience Movement, it launched, its social base widened.


(a) What is meant by a pressure group?


(b) Explain the reason for the Congress to be transformed into a rainbow-like social coalition by the time of Independence.


(c) What made the Congress into a mass political party in the twentieth century?

 19

Read the passage given below carefully and answer the following questions :

The Janata Party made the 1977 elections into a referendum on the Emergency. Its election campaign was focused on the non-democratic character of the Congress rule and on the various excesses that took place during this period. In the backdrop of arrests of thousands of persons and the censorship of the Press, the public opinion was against the Congress.


(a) What is meant by ‘referendum’?


(b) ‘‘Acts like arrests of thousands of persons and the censorship of the Press during the Emergency period were non-democratic.’’ Do you agree with the statement? Justify your answer with one suitable argument for/against each act.


(c) In spite of winning the 1977 elections with a thumping majority, why could the Janata Party remain in power only for a short period? Explain.