Read the following passage and answer the questions set on it.
Over a hundred years ago, the carrying of mail was a hazardous venture; and the mail runner or ‘hirkara’ as he was called, had to be armed with a sword or spear. That was before railways and air services made the delivery of mail a routine affair. Though the first public postal service was introduced in India by Warren Hastings in 1774, the kings and emperors of India had always maintained their own personal postal system. Their rule was effective partly due to excellent means of communication by which dispatches were passed on from hand to hand either by runners or horsemen. When Ibn Batuta was travelling in India, in the middle of the 14th century, he found an organised system of couriers established throughout the country by Mohammed Bin Tughlak.
“There is a foot courier at a distance of every mile”, wrote Ibn Batuta, “and at every three miles there is an inhabited village, and outside it three sentry boxes, where the couriers sit. In the hands of each is a whip about two cubits long, and upon the head of this are small bells. Whenever one of the couriers leaves any city, he takes his dispatches in one hand and the whip, which he keeps constantly shaking, in the other. In this manner he proceeds to the nearest foot-courier and as he approaches, shakes his whip, upon this comes another man who takes the dispatches and proceeds to the next. It is for this reason that the Sultan receives his dispatches in so short a time.” This system was of course established for the convenience of the Emperor and was continued with various innovations by successive Moghul emperors in the 18th century. The East India Company established a postal system of its own to facilitate the conveyance of letters between different offices; but it was only during Warren Hastings’ administration that a Post Master General was appointed and the general public could avail of the service, paying a fee on their letter.
Answer the following in a word, a phrase or a sentence each.
(a) What was the mail runner called as?
(b) Who introduced the first postal service in India?
(e) Whom did the kings and emperors prefer to deliver their dispatches?
(d) When did Ibn Batuta travel in India?
(e) What did Mohammed Bin Tughlak establish?
(f) Where do the couriers sit?
(g) Which word in the passage means ‘new ideas or techniques’?
(h) As the courier approaches the nearest foot-courier near an inhabited village/city he
(i) shouts out loudly.
(ii) shakes the whip.
(iii) whistles and sings.
(i) Kings and emperors would successfully (communication/communicate) with each other through couriers.
(j) When was the Post Master General appointed?
