Who was the first to put forward the idea of a Constituent Assembly for India, in 1934?
- A.M.N. Roy
- B.Jawaharlal Nehru
- C.Mahatma Gandhi
- D.Subhas Chandra Bose
Show answer
Correct answer: A. M.N. Roy
Explanation
The correct answer is M.N. Roy. Manabendra Nath Roy, a pioneer of the communist movement in India, was the first to put forward the idea of a Constituent Assembly, in 1934. The Indian National Congress took up the idea and made it an official demand in 1935, and the British government accepted the demand in principle in the August Offer of 1940. The Assembly itself was finally formed in 1946 under the Cabinet Mission Plan.
Jawaharlal Nehru is the most tempting wrong answer, because he became closely identified with the demand and later moved the Objectives Resolution in the Assembly on 13 December 1946; but the idea was first put forward by Roy. Mahatma Gandhi and Subhas Chandra Bose are not credited with first proposing it. When a question uses the words "first" or "originally", it is usually testing exactly this: the difference between who proposed an idea and who carried it forward.