Political Science · Political Institutions in India
UGC NET Dec 2018 Political Science
Who among the following described the nationalist movement before the arrival of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi as 'a movement representing the classes' as opposed to the masses?
AJudith Brown
BRavinder Kumar ✓ Correct
CMichael Brecher
DBipin Chandra
Correct answer: (B) Ravinder Kumar — The historian who described the pre Gandhian nationalist movement as a movement of the classes rather than the masses was Ravinder Kumar, which is option (2).
Explanation
★The historian who described the pre Gandhian nationalist movement as a movement of the classes rather than the masses was Ravinder Kumar, which is option (2).
★His argument was that before Gandhi the Indian National Congress drew mainly from an educated, professional and propertied elite and lacked broad popular roots.
★In this reading the early Congress, from 1885 to about 1918, was a movement of the classes, articulate but narrow in its social base.
★Mahatma Gandhi is credited with transforming it into a mass movement, drawing in peasants, workers and ordinary people through campaigns like Non Cooperation, Civil Disobedience and Quit India.
★Ravinder Kumar was a political scientist and historian known for his work on Gandhi and on Indian social history.
★He served as a former vice chancellor of Chaudhary Charan Singh University and wrote on Gandhian thought.
★The phrase classes versus masses captures the shift in the social character of the freedom struggle that Gandhi brought about after 1919.
★The early Congress is often called the era of the Moderates, led by figures such as Dadabhai Naoroji, Surendranath Banerjee and Gopal Krishna Gokhale.
★The Moderates relied on petitions, prayers and constitutional methods rather than mass mobilisation.
★The option Judith Brown is wrong here, though she is a major historian of Gandhi, author of Gandhi's Rise to Power and Gandhi: Prisoner of Hope.
★The option Michael Brecher is wrong, since he is best known for his political biography Nehru: A Political Biography, not for this characterisation.
★The option Bipin Chandra is wrong here, though he too wrote extensively on the national movement, including India's Struggle for Independence.
★The Extremist or Garam Dal leaders such as Tilak, Lajpat Rai and Bipin Chandra Pal had already widened the appeal before Gandhi, but it was Gandhi who achieved a truly mass scale.
★The classes to masses transition is a standard theme linking the Moderate phase, the Extremist phase and the Gandhian phase of the freedom struggle.
★For NET, connect the scholars to their themes: Ravinder Kumar on classes versus masses, Judith Brown on Gandhi, Michael Brecher on Nehru, and Bipin Chandra on the struggle for independence.
Want more like this? Create a free account to practise a full test, track your progress, and get spaced-repetition review.
Shared by Mcqkart · via Mcqkart.in