The Gandhian era, 1917–1947

Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

All three pairs are correct. The Anti-Untouchability League (later the Harijan Sevak Sangh) grew out of Gandhi's 1932 fast and was guided by him; Swami Sahajanand Saraswati led the Kisan Sabha movement and became the first president of the All India Kisan Sabha formed in 1936; Periyar E. V. Ramaswami Naicker started the Self-Respect Movement in 1925.

• ✓ 1. The All-India Anti-Untouchability League, soon renamed Harijan Sevak Sangh, was founded in September 1932 after Gandhi's fast against separate electorates, to carry out his campaign against untouchability (G. D. Birla was its president).
• ✓ 2. Sahajanand Saraswati founded the Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha (1929) and was the leading figure of the All India Kisan Sabha set up at the Congress's Lucknow session in 1936, becoming its first president.
• ✓ 3. E. V. Ramaswami Naicker (Periyar) started the Self-Respect Movement in 1925 against caste hierarchy and Brahmin domination.

Remember · 1925 Self-Respect Movement (Periyar); 1929 Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha and 1936 All India Kisan Sabha (Sahajanand Saraswati); 1932 Anti-Untouchability League/Harijan Sevak Sangh (Gandhi).

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Social Change and Development in India, Ch 8 (practise this chapter) · Class 12 Politics in India since Independence, Ch 7 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (b) 1 and 3 only

Statements 1 and 3 are correct. Gandhi led the all-India agitation of 1916–17 that forced the government to stop indentured emigration, and during the Civil Disobedience Movement that began with the Salt March the Congress was declared illegal. Statement 2 is wrong: at Chelmsford's War Conference in Delhi (April 1918) Gandhi supported the recruitment resolution.

• ✓ 1. Gandhi had petitioned against indenture since 1894 and campaigned for its abolition, and a Congress resolution called for abolition; the government officially abolished indentured emigration on 13 March 1917, and NCERT records the system as abolished in 1921.
• ✗ 2. At the War Conference held in Delhi in April 1918, Gandhi spoke one sentence in Hindustani supporting the resolution on recruiting, and later ran a recruitment campaign in Kheda.
• ✓ 3. When Gandhi returned from the Second Round Table Conference (1931), he found Nehru and Ghaffar Khan in jail and the Congress declared illegal, as the government cracked down on civil disobedience.

Remember · Gandhi: anti-indenture campaign (1917); backed WWI recruitment at Chelmsford's Delhi War Conference (April 1918); Congress banned during Civil Disobedience (1930–32).

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 10 India and the Contemporary World – II, Ch 3 (practise this chapter) · Class 10 India and the Contemporary World – II, Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error

Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3

All three pairs are correct in UPSC's key. K. C. Neogy was elected to the Constituent Assembly from Bengal; the other two details are not explained here because we could not confirm them from an official source.

• ✓ 1. Moderates who left the Congress formed the (Indian) National Liberal Federation in 1918-19. UPSC's official key treats this pair as correct; we could not confirm the detail about its presidency from an official source, so we do not explain it here.
• ✓ 2. Kshitish Chandra Neogy was elected to the Constituent Assembly from Bengal on a Congress ticket; he later sat in Nehru's first cabinet and chaired the First Finance Commission (1951).
• ✓ 3. UPSC's official key treats this pair as correct; we could not confirm the detail from an official source, so we do not explain it here.

Remember · Liberal Federation (1919, moderates); K. C. Neogy - Constituent Assembly member, 1st Finance Commission chairman.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 12 Politics in India since Independence, Ch 2 (practise this chapter)

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). Permalink · Report an error