(a) The silk routes are a good examples of trade and cultural link between distant parts of the world, it can be explained as follows :
(i) Historians have identified several silk routes, over land and sea, knitting together vast regions of Asia and linking Asia with Europe and Northern Africa.
(ii) Chinese pottery travelled the same route, as did textile and spices from India.
(iii) Precious metals like gold and silver flowed from Europe to Asia.
(iv) Buddhism emerged from India and spread in several directions through intersecting points on the silk route.
OR
(b) Clashes between the weavers and the Gomasthas can be explained as follows :
(i) As we know that earlier merchants had often lived within the weaving village, and had a close relationship with the weavers, looking after their needs but the new Gomasthas were outsiders with no long term social link with the village, they acted arrogantly, marched into villages with sepoys and peons, and punished weavers for delay in supply.
(ii) The weavers lost the space to bargain for prices and sell to different buyers; the price they received from the company was miserably low.