QUESTION 11
GS1
15 marks
To what extent did the role of the Moderates prepare a base for the wider freedom movement? Comment.
WRITE IN
11 min
250 words
What the examiner wants
Comment on how far the Moderates (1885–1905) laid the foundation for the later mass freedom movement.
CommentGive your own view on the statement and back it with facts and examples.
Demand-wise check
- 1Contributions: economic critique of colonial rule (drain theory), political education, an all-India platform (INC), demand for representation and civil rights≈50 words
- 2Methods: petitions, press, constitutional agitation; results like the Indian Councils Act 1892≈50 words
- 3Limits: elite base, faith in British justice, no mass mobilisation≈50 words
- 4Verdict: they built the ideas and organisation that Extremists and Gandhi later turned into mass action≈50 words
Open in about 30 words and close in about 30.
Answer plan
Who the Moderates wereContributionsLimitationsExtent of their roleConclusion
Where marks usually go
- Only criticising Moderates as 'mendicants'
- No answer to 'to what extent'
Draw this
- Flow: Moderates (ideas) → Extremists (assertion) → Gandhi (mass action)
Value addition
- SourceDadabhai Naoroji, 'Poverty and Un-British Rule in India' (1901) set out the drain theory used by later nationalists.Dadabhai Naoroji
- SourceR.C. Dutt's 'Economic History of India' (1902–04) documented de-industrialisation and land revenue burden.R.C. Dutt
Mapped topper copies
Reviewed public-source references related to this PYQ. Same-syllabus references are labelled separately.
- Shakti Dubey · AIR 1 · Page 26 ↗Same syllabus reference
- Shakti Dubey · AIR 1 · Page 7 ↗Same syllabus reference
- Shakti Dubey · AIR 1 · Page 23 ↗Same syllabus reference
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