Get here the notes, questions, answers, textbook solutions, summary, extras, and PDF of BSEM or BoSEM (Manipur Board) Class 10 Additional English prose (Chapter 1) “The Need for Religion” by Mahatma Gandhi. However, the provided notes should only be treated as references, and the students are encouraged to make changes to them as they feel appropriate.
Summary
In the essay, Gandhiji laments the lack of religious spirit in the students and the fear that dominates their lives. They fear both temporal and spiritual authority and dare not speak their minds before their priests and pandits. Gandhiji believes that this fear does a disservice to both the students and the authorities. He advocates for fearlessness as the first step towards achieving anything permanent and real. He also emphasises the importance of consciousness and loyalty to the Governor of governors, which supersedes all other loyalties.
Gandhiji also emphasizes the importance of religion in one’s life and asserts that no man can live without religion. He argues that even the rankiest agnostic or atheist acknowledges the need of a moral principle and associates something good with observance and something bad with non-observance. He also acknowledges that a full life is impossible without an immovable belief in a living law in obedience to which the whole universe moves.
He also cautions against mere book reading and advises students to be on their guard and not to read all the literature that is within their reach. He advises teachers to cultivate their hearts and establish a heart-contact with their students. He also laments that teachers today have no time to give to their students outside the classroom, which he believes is the greatest stumbling block in the development of life and characters.
Gandhiji concludes by urging the students to fashion their hearts rather than their brains and to have the same living faith in themselves and God as the greatest men of the world have had. He uses examples from different religions to illustrate his point and encourages the students to take the name of God and seek His help in times of need.
Video tutorial
Word study and use
Exercise 1: Frame sentences to illustrate the use of the following words: indispensable, loyalty, derived, stuffed, invincible, acknowledge, and infinitely.
Answers: i. Fearlessness is the first thing that is indispensable before we can achieve anything permanent and real.
ii. Being loyal to your friends and family means standing by them through thick and thin.
iii. The information derived from a cartload of books will be of little help to you in the afterlife.
iv. Our brains have been stuffed with information that we have not taken the time to truly understand.
v. The prophet had invincible faith in God and knew that with Him on their side, they would never lose.
vi. We acknowledge the need for a moral principle in our lives.
vii. The universe is infinitely vast and complex.
Exercise 2: Frame sentences to illustrate the use of the following phrases: for all time; ceases to fear; lip-profession; heart contact; stumbling block; living faith; insist on; thrown out.
Answers: i. The answer that God is the greatest is true for all time.
ii. If we grasp the fact that there is a divinity within us, we will cease to fear man.
iii. His professed love for her was nothing but a lip-profession, empty words without any genuine feeling behind them.
iv. In this work, a-day-life where teachers and professors work for the wages they get, they have no time to give to the students outside the class room.
v. The greatest stumbling block in the development of the life and character of students today is the lack of time teachers have to give to their students outside the classroom.
vi. They had a living faith in themselves and their God.
vii. Bradlaugh insisted on proclaiming his innermost conviction.
viii. A man without faith is like a drop thrown out of the ocean, bound to perish.
Exercise 3: Rewrite the following sentences into indirect form of narration :
(a) Abu-Bakr, who was accompanying the Prophet in his journey, trembled to think of their fate and said, “Look at the number of enemies that is overtaking us. What shall we two do against those heavy odds?”
Answer: Abu-Bakr, who was accompanying the Prophet in his journey, trembled to think of their fate, exclaimed in fear at the number of enemies overtaking them, and asked what two of them would do against those heavy odds.
(b) “Tell us,” they plaintively ask, “how to get rid of the devil, how to get rid of the impurity, that has seized us”
Answer: They plaintively asked how to get rid of the devil, how to get rid of the impurity that had seized them.
Comprehension
1. What, in Gandhiji’s opinion, is the greatest and most immediate need for India?
Answer: In Gandhiji’s opinion, the greatest and most immediate need for India is a proper religious spirit.
2. Why do we live in a state of perpetual fear?
Answer: According to Gandhiji, we live in a state of perpetual fear because of the dominance of religions in our society.
3. Who are the authorities that we fear?
Answer: The authorities that we fear, according to Gandhiji, are both spiritual and temporal.
4. How can one be free from fear?
Answer: Gandhiji advises developing a courageous attitude to overcome fear, but he also stresses that this shouldn’t come at the expense of respect for others. According to him, loyalty to God should come before all other allegiances since it is only through consciousness and a conviction in the divinity that is inside each individual that one may truly be fearless.
5. What is the opinion of Gandhiji about mere book reading?
Answer: Gandhiji disapproves of merely reading books; he issues warnings about the risks of excessive book study and the harm it may do to students’ mental and emotional health. He contends that true education requires a pure heart and a belief in God, and that education that pulls a person away from God will not be helpful or beneficial to that person or the rest of the world..
6. What is the advice of Gandhiji to students and teachers?
Answer: Gandhiji counsels students to exercise caution and refrain from consuming all available literature. He also suggests that rather than only imparting knowledge to their pupils, teachers cultivate their hearts and build relationships with them on a personal level. This effort should be done outside of the classroom.
7. What, according to Gandhiji, is the greatest stumbling block in the development of the life and character of students?
Answer: According to Gandhiji, the greatest stumbling block in the development of the life and character of students is the fact that the teachers remain occupied with their day-to-day work and therefore have no time for the students outside the classroom.
8. What does Gandhiji say about the greatest men of the world?
Answer: Gandhiji holds the belief that the most esteemed figures throughout history have stood alone, yet were fortified by an unwavering faith in themselves and a higher power. He cites the likes of Zoroaster, Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammed, Abu Bakr and Prahlada, as exemplars of individuals who possessed an unyielding conviction in the presence of God in their lives.
9. Why does Gandhiji say that no man can live without religion?
Answer: Gandhiji says that no man can live without religion because Whether by reason or by instinct, or by superstition, man acknowledges some sort of relationship with the divine. The rankest agnostic or atheist does acknowledge the need of a moral principle, and associates something good with its observance and something bad with the non-observance.
10. What does Gandhiji think of a man without faith?
Answer: Gandhiji believes that a man without faith is like a drop tossed out of the ocean, doomed to perish; he stresses that following to this living law is important for leading a meaningful life; and a person with faith is like the ozone that surrounds us, bringing life and vigour to everything.
11. What does Gandhiji say of the truth?
Answer: In his teachings, Gandhiji stresses the significance of speaking the truth and advocating for oneself. He also cites Charles Bradlaugh, an agnostic who was well-known for his unwavering commitment to speaking his mind regardless of the consequences, and who ultimately found happiness in his suffering because of the closeness he felt to the divine as a result. He thinks the pursuit of truth is rewarded in and of itself, and that the happiness one has as a result of living a truthful life is not temporal but rather a direct outcome of one’s connection with the divine. If you want to have a fulfilling life, he says, you have to tell the truth.
Composition
1. Name some of the religions in India. Who are the people professing those religions?
Answer: Some of the major religions in India are Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Christianity, among others which are followed by people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
2. India is a secular state where there is freedom of worship, where religions are allowed to be followed. Do you think that it is good?
Answer:India is a secular state that upholds religious freedom; this is important as it encourages diversity and toleration by letting people practise their own religion without interference or prejudice.
3. Write the importance of religion in Manipur.
Answer: The people of Manipur place a high value on religion. It is a crucial component of their tradition and culture. Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, and indigenous animistic religions are just a few of the many religions practised by the people of Manipur. They practise their religion in their own temples and other houses of worship.
4. Write a brief essay on Gandhiji as a great leader of the world.
Answer: Mahatma Gandhi was a renowned leader of the world who is remembered for his leadership during the Indian independence movement and his ideology of nonviolence and civil disobedience. He is also regarded as the “Father of the Nation” in India.
Gandhiji was born in 1869 in India under British control and later completed his legal education in England. He started a prosperous law practise when he got back to India, but he was soon sucked into the struggle for Indian independence. His satyagraha, or “truth force,” doctrine served as the cornerstone of the Indian independence struggle since it advocated nonviolence and civil disobedience as the only means of achieving independence.
The leadership of Gandhiji was crucial to India’s war for independence. He planned and oversaw several effective actions, notably the Salt March of 1930 and the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1920–1922. Additionally, he stood up for the rights of the underprivileged and oppressed, and through his leadership, the heterogeneous population of India was brought together in the pursuit of freedom.
Gandhiji’s influence, however, extends well beyond India. Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela, for example, were inspired by Gandhiji’s nonviolent activism and civil disobedience principles and used them in their own struggles for freedom and civil rights.
People who desire a just and peaceful world continue to find inspiration in Gandhiji’s leadership and ideology. He is regarded as a great global leader who stood up for civil disobedience, the truth, and nonviolence. He was a leader who believed in the strength of the populace and in the capacity of the people to effect peaceful change.
5. Describe how Gandhiji affirms his faith in God.
Answer: Gandhiji demonstrated his faith in God by affirming the divinity within each individual and the idea that a living law governs the cosmos. He exhorted people to pray to God and invoke Rama by reciting his name. He held that leading a meaningful life requires submission to this living law.
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