The Gandhian era, 1917–1947

Answer: (c) Lala Lajpat Rai

The clues of a stay in America and election to the Central Assembly fit Lala Lajpat Rai, the 'Lion of Punjab'. PIB records that he went to the United States and founded the Indian Home Rule League of America in October 1917, that he was a prolific author, and that he was elected Deputy Leader of the Swaraj Party in the Central Legislative Assembly.

• ✓ (c) Lajpat Rai spent time in the USA and founded the Indian Home Rule League of America in October 1917; he later sat in the Central Legislative Assembly as Deputy Leader of the Swaraj Party. PIB calls him a prolific author who wrote many books, which fits the clue about his writing.
• ✗ (b) Bipin Chandra Pal was, with Lajpat Rai and Tilak, one of the Lal-Bal-Pal trio, but no official page ties him to the stay in America and the Central Assembly seat that PIB records for Lajpat Rai.
• ✗ (d) Motilal Nehru helped found the Swaraj Party in 1923 to win seats in the Central Legislative Assembly (Britannica), but he is not recorded as having lived in America, so the combination of clues does not fit him.

Remember · Lala Lajpat Rai ('Punjab Kesari'): Lal-Bal-Pal leader, a founding figure of Punjab National Bank (NCERT), founded the Indian Home Rule League of America (1917), Deputy Leader of the Swaraj Party in the Central Legislative Assembly, died after the 1928 anti-Simon lathi charge.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 8 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2018, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (c) Joining of peasant unrest to India's National Movement

The Champaran Satyagraha (1917-18) linked a peasant grievance, the harsh treatment of Bihar's peasants by British indigo planters, to the national movement under Gandhi's leadership. Earlier peasant revolts had stayed local and disconnected from the wider freedom struggle.

• ✓ (c) NCERT notes that peasant issues, under Gandhi's leadership, became partially linked to the Independence movement, and names the Champaran Satyagraha as an example.
• ✗ (a) Champaran was a regional peasant struggle in Bihar, not an all-India mobilisation of lawyers, students and women; wider participation of that kind came with the later mass movements.
• ✗ (b) The campaign was about tenants and indigo planters. Dalit and tribal communities were not its defining feature.
• ✗ (d) Gandhi sought security of tenure and freedom for peasants to grow crops of their choice; the campaign did not aim at, or cause, a drastic fall in plantation or commercial crops.

Remember · Champaran (1917), Gandhi's first satyagraha in India, against indigo planters: it tied peasant unrest to the national movement.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Social Change and Development in India, Ch 8 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Themes in Indian History, Part III, Ch 3 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2018, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (a) All India Home Rule League

The All India Home Rule League, the self-government body of the 1916 Home Rule movement, changed its name to Swaraj (Swarajya) Sabha in 1920. Its Joint General Secretary, Jawaharlal Nehru, wrote in October 1920 of 'the Swaraj Sabha (till lately the All-India Home Rule League)'; the new name and new objects were adopted at a members' meeting in Calcutta under President M. K. Gandhi.

• ✓ (a) Nehru's letter of 18 October 1920 says the League's name was altered and its objects changed, and calls it 'the Swaraj Sabha (till lately the All-India Home Rule League)'.
• ✗ (b) The Hindu Mahasabha is a separate organisation; Nehru's letter names the All-India Home Rule League as the body renamed, and no source ties the Mahasabha to the renaming.
• ✗ (c) The South Indian Liberal Federation was the Justice Party of Madras; NCERT mentions the Justice party of Madras province. It was a separate body and not the Home Rule body named in Nehru's letter.
• ✗ (d) The Servants of India Society was founded by G. K. Gokhale (NCERT) for public service and is not the body Nehru's letter says was renamed the Swaraj Sabha.

Remember · The All India Home Rule League of 1916 was renamed Swaraj (Swarajya) Sabha in 1920, when its aim moved from home rule to swaraj.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 8 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), Ch 2 (practise this chapter) · Class 8 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2018, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error