Why can grazing tax be called a dual tool of revenue and surveillance?

Because it brought money and recorded animal activity

A grazing tax had two connected functions. First, it provided the colonial state with money from pastoralists who used grazing areas. Second, collecting the tax often required officials to identify herders, count or register animals, issue permits, and track where grazing occurred. This produced administrative information and made mobile communities more visible to the government. The tax was therefore not only a financial demand but also part of wider regulation and control.

Option D is correct because it mentions both revenue and recording animal activity. Options A, B, and C describe the opposite of what a grazing tax did: it did not end taxation, give forests to pastoralists, or increase available pasture. The word “dual” is important because the same measure raised money while strengthening surveillance over movement, animals, and access to land.

This is a Class 9 History question. Chapter: Pastoralists in the Modern World. Topic: Colonial Rule and Pastoral Life.