Which of the following statements about Mahatma Gandhi's anti-untouchability campaign is/are correct? 1. The All India Harijan Sevak Sangh was founded for this purpose. 2. The campaign was to root out untouchability, since it did not enjoy the sanction of the Hindu shastras. Select the correct answer using the code given below:
- A.1 only
- B.2 only
- C.Both 1 and 2
- D.Neither 1 nor 2
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is C, Both 1 and 2. Gandhi set up the All India Harijan Sevak Sangh in 1932 to fight untouchability, and he argued that untouchability had no sanction in the Hindu shastras.
After the Poona Pact of September 1932, Gandhi turned his energy to the removal of untouchability. The Sangh, first called the Anti-Untouchability League, was founded with G. D. Birla as president and Amritlal Thakkar (Thakkar Bapa) as secretary, to open schools, wells, roads and temples to the depressed classes. Gandhi started the weekly Harijan in 1933 and toured India in 1933–34 to collect funds. He held that untouchability was a later corruption, not a part of Hinduism.
A is wrong because statement 2 is also correct.
B is wrong because statement 1 is also correct.
D is wrong because both statements describe the campaign accurately.
Exam tip: Harijan Sevak Sangh – 1932, after the Poona Pact; Birla president, Thakkar Bapa secretary; weekly Harijan from 1933.
Practice Questions
View allThe Ryotwari experiment in land revenue was started by
- A.Henry Dundas
- B.Alexander Reed
- C.David Ricardo
- D.Mountstuart Elphinstone
Show answer
Captain Alexander Read (the name is also spelt Reed) began the Ryotwari experiment in 1792 in the Baramahal region, which the Company had taken from Tipu Sultan, with Thomas Munro as one of his assistants.
Read the full explanation →Who deciphered the Brahmi and Kharoshthi scripts?
- A.Piyadassi
- B.Colin Mackenzie
- C.Alexander Cunningham
- D.James Prinsep
Show answer
Prinsep, an official of the East India Company's mint and secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, deciphered the Brahmi script in 1837 and also made the key breakthrough in reading Kharoshthi.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following statements about the Justice Party is not correct?
- A.It clamoured for the same kind of separate communal representation for the Non-Brahmins as had been granted to the Muslims by the Morley-Minto Reforms.
- B.It was patronized mainly by richer landowning and urban middle class Non-Brahmins.
- C.It succeeded in getting the provision for 28 reserved seats for the Non-Brahmins in the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms.
- D.It supported the call given by the Congress to boycott elections in 1920.
Show answer
The Justice Party did not join the Congress boycott of the 1920 elections; it contested them, won a majority in the Madras Legislative Council and formed the first ministry under the new reforms.
Read the full explanation →Which organization was started at the Haridwar Kumbh Mela in 1915?
- A.Sanatan Dharma Sabha
- B.Dev Samaj
- C.Brahmin Sabha
- D.Hindu Mahasabha
Show answer
The All-India Hindu Mahasabha held its founding session at Haridwar during the Kumbh Mela of 1915, bringing together the provincial Hindu Sabhas that had grown up, first in Punjab, since 1909.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following statements about the All India Depressed Classes Association is not correct?
- A.The All India Depressed Classes Association was formed in Nagpur with M. C. Rajah as its first elected President.
- B.The All India Depressed Classes Association was not attended by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar in 1926.
- C.Ambedkar resigned from the All India Depressed Classes Association and formed his own All India Depressed Classes Congress in 1930.
- D.The All India Depressed Classes Association favoured Ambedkar's demand for separate electorate for the depressed classes.
Show answer
The All India Depressed Classes Association did not back Ambedkar's demand for a separate electorate; under M. C. Rajah it supported joint electorates with seats reserved for the depressed classes.
Read the full explanation →