Gandhian Mass Movements MCQs for UPSC Prelims

Correct answer: C - Joining of peasant unrest to India's National Movement

The Champaran Satyagraha (1917) was Gandhi's first civil disobedience experiment in India, where indigo cultivators' grievances under the oppressive tinkathia system were linked to the wider national movement, so (c) is correct. Broad all-India participation of lawyers, students and women (a) and large-scale involvement of Dalit and tribal communities (b) became prominent in later movements like Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience, not specifically Champaran. There was no drastic decline in plantation cropping as a defining feature (d); the significance lay in mobilising peasant discontent into the freedom struggle.

Correct answer: B - 1 and 3 only

Gandhi campaigned vigorously against the indentured emigration system, and his pressure contributed to its abolition around 1917-1920, so statement 1 is correct. Statement 2 is incorrect because at the Delhi War Conference of 1918 convened by Viceroy Chelmsford, Gandhi actually supported the recruitment resolution and even worked as a recruiting agent in Kheda, a phase often called his 'recruiting sergeant' episode. Statement 3 is correct: after the Salt Satyagraha of 1930 spread, the government outlawed the Congress and its working committee and arrested its leadership. Hence statements 1 and 3 only are correct.

Correct answer: A - The Quit India Resolution was adopted by the AICC.

On 8 August 1942 the All India Congress Committee, meeting in Bombay, passed the Quit India Resolution and Gandhi gave his 'Do or Die' call, so the first statement is correct. The Congress ministries had resigned earlier in 1939 over India's involvement in the war, not in 1942. The Cripps Mission with its Dominion Status offer came in 1942 but earlier in the year (March-April) and is a separate event. Expansion of the Viceroy's Executive Council to include more Indians belongs to other dates, so all three remaining options are wrong.

Correct answer: C - Ramsay Macdonald announced the Communal Award

British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald's Communal Award of August 1932 granted separate electorates to the Depressed Classes (Dalits), which Gandhi feared would permanently split Hindu society. He responded with a fast unto death in Yerawada jail, and the standoff was resolved through the Poona Pact with Dr. Ambedkar, which replaced separate electorates with reserved seats within the general electorate. The Round Table Conferences and Congress-League disagreements were broader political issues, not the immediate trigger of the 1932 fast, so options (a) and (b) are wrong; since (c) is clearly correct, option (d) is also wrong.

Correct answer: A - 1 only

The Kheda Satyagraha of 1918 was launched because the crops failed due to drought, yet the colonial administration refused to suspend or remit the land revenue, pressing the distressed peasants to pay in full; statement 1 is therefore correct. Statement 2 is incorrect: there was no proposal to introduce the Permanent Settlement in Gujarat, which had a ryotwari-type arrangement; the Permanent Settlement was a Bengal-Bihar phenomenon. Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Correct answer: B - imprisonment without trial and summary procedures for trial

The Rowlatt Act of 1919 (Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act) empowered the government to imprison suspects without trial and to hold trials without juries or normal judicial safeguards, so option (b) is correct. It was not about economic war support, was passed before the Khilafat agitation as a general repressive measure rather than to crush that specific movement, and press restrictions were governed by separate press legislation, so (a), (c) and (d) are wrong.

Correct answer: B - Madan Mohan Malaviya and Krishna Kant

After the Chauri Chaura incident of February 1922, in which 22 policemen were killed, the sessions court sentenced a very large number of accused to death; Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, assisted by Krishna Kant, argued their defence in the Allahabad High Court and saved most of them from the gallows, so (b) is correct. C. R. Das is celebrated for defending Aurobindo Ghosh in the Alipore Bomb Case, not the Chauri Chaura accused, so (a) is wrong. Saifuddin Kitchlew was himself a nationalist leader associated with Punjab politics and the Jallianwala Bagh episode, making (c) incorrect, and Jinnah had no role in this trial, ruling out (d).

Correct answer: B - attainment of Poorna Swaraj was adopted as the goal of the Congress

At the Lahore Session of 1929, presided over by Jawaharlal Nehru, the Congress adopted Purna Swaraj (complete independence) as its goal and resolved to observe 26 January 1930 as Independence Day, so option (b) is correct. Self-government had been the earlier moderate demand, the Non-Cooperation Movement was launched in 1920, and the decision on the Round Table Conference is unrelated, so (a), (c) and (d) are wrong.