During the Indian freedom struggle, the National Social Conference was formed. What was the reason for its formation?
Answer & explanation
Answer: (b) Indian National Congress did not want to include social reforms in its deliberations and decided to form a separate body for such a purpose.
In its early years the Indian National Congress confined itself to all-India political questions and kept social reform out of its deliberations. Reformers led by M.G. Ranade therefore set up a separate body in 1887, the National Social Conference, to take up social reform.
- ✗ (a) The Conference was not a merger of Bengal reform groups. It was founded in 1887 by M.G. Ranade of the Bombay Presidency, and it met alongside the annual Congress sessions.
- ✓ (b) Congress presidents Dadabhai Naoroji (1886) and Badruddin Tyabji (1887) held that social reform should stay off the Congress agenda. Their reasoning was that Congress spoke for all communities, whereas a social reform question affects only some particular part or community of India. Reformers therefore needed a separate forum.
- ✗ (c) The Conference was not formed simply to bring the country's reform groups under one organisation. It was formed because the Congress platform excluded social questions. Its founder was Ranade.
- ✗ (d) Option (b) is correct, so 'none of the above' cannot be right.
Remember · Congress stayed political, so Ranade founded the (Indian) National Social Conference in 1887 as a separate social reform forum that met alongside Congress sessions.
Sources
- Britannica – Mahadev Govind Ranade ↗ · reference work “He regularly voiced views on social and economic reform at the annual sessions of the Indian National Social Conference, which he founded in 1887.”
- Presidential Address of Badruddin Tyabji, Indian National Congress, Madras, 1887 (text) ↗ · reference work “Whereas any question of Social Reform must of necessity affect some particular part or some particular community of India only”
Question: UPSC Civil Services (Preliminary) 2012, General Studies Paper I. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 25 Oct 2026 (how we verify). ·
