BPSC 70th CCE Re-exam Prelims General Studies · Question 120 of 142

Correct — D, More than one of the above. On 8 April 1929 Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw two bombs into the chamber of the Central Legislative Assembly in the Council House at New Delhi, rushing forward from the Visitors' Gallery, shouting 'Inquilab Zindabad' and showering leaflets as the smoke filled the hall. Both men are named in the option list, at (a) and (c), and both statements are true at the same time — which is exactly the test an option reading 'More than one of the above' has to satisfy. The nominal grievance was the Public Safety Bill and the Trade Disputes Act, which the Assembly had rejected and which the Viceroy was enacting through his special powers; the real object, as the plan was framed inside the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, was for the two men to be arrested so that the trial could be used as a platform. That is why they made no attempt to escape. The stem's word 'harmless' reflects the design rather than the outcome: the bombs were made not to kill, and were thrown where no one was seated, but some members were injured, among them George Ernest Schuster, the finance member of the Viceroy's Executive Council. Dutt was sentenced to transportation for life under section 307 of the Indian Penal Code and section 4 of the Explosive Substances Act and sent to the Cellular Jail in the Andamans; Bhagat Singh went on to the Lahore Conspiracy Case and the gallows in 1931.

• (a)Bhagat Singh — True, but incomplete — and on a question offering 'More than one of the above' an incomplete truth is a wrong answer. Bhagat Singh did throw a bomb that day; so did Batukeshwar Dutt, standing beside him. Picking the more famous of two men who acted together is the precise error the option set is built to catch.
• (c)Batukeshwar Dutt — Equally true and equally incomplete. Dutt threw a bomb alongside Bhagat Singh and was sentenced to transportation for life for it, and a candidate who names only him has the same problem as one who names only Bhagat Singh: the stem asks who threw the bombs, and two men did. When two separate options are each true, the option that says so is the answer.
• (b)Jatin Das — Jatindra Nath Das was not in the Assembly. He belonged to the same Hindustan Socialist Republican Association and was tried in the Lahore Conspiracy Case, and he is remembered for what happened in jail rather than in the chamber: he died on 13 September 1929 after a hunger strike of 63 days demanding decent treatment for political prisoners, and his funeral drew enormous crowds.

The Assembly bomb case belongs to the second phase of revolutionary nationalism, which differs from the first in method as much as in politics. The Hindustan Republican Association, formed in 1924 and renamed the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association in 1928, had a declared socialist aim and used spectacle as much as violence — the Kakori train action of 1925, the shooting of Saunders in December 1928 in retaliation for the assault on Lala Lajpat Rai during the Simon Commission protest, and then the Assembly bombs, whose whole purpose was publicity and arrest rather than casualties. Bhagat Singh's leaflet carried the phrase that explains the action: it takes a loud noise to make the deaf hear. The trial that followed did exactly what it was designed to do — the accused refused to recognise the court's authority and turned the proceedings into a platform, and the prison hunger strike over the treatment of political prisoners, in which Jatin Das died, extended the campaign into the jails.

Two habits answer this question. The first is factual: store revolutionary episodes as episode, participants, date and outcome, because the option sets always mix participants across episodes — here Jatin Das is moved from a Lahore jail into a Delhi chamber. The second is procedural, and it applies to every question on this paper that offers 'More than one of the above': the option is correct only when you can name at least two other options that are simultaneously true of the stem. That is a positive test, not a hedge. Run it here and it passes cleanly, because Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw the bombs together and the question asks who threw them. Run it on a question where only one option can be true — a founding year, a first holder of an office — and it fails at once. Getting into the habit of applying the test explicitly is worth more than any number of remembered facts, — the test is what decides the option, not how often it appears.

• On 8 April 1929 Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw two bombs into the Central Legislative Assembly chamber in the Council House, New Delhi, from the Visitors' Gallery, shouting 'Inquilab Zindabad' and throwing leaflets
• The nominal protest was against the Public Safety Bill and the Trade Disputes Act, which the Assembly had rejected and the Viceroy was enacting by special powers; the real intention was to be arrested and use the trial as a platform
• The bombs were designed not to kill, but some members were injured, including George Ernest Schuster, finance member of the Viceroy's Executive Council
• Batukeshwar Dutt was sentenced to life imprisonment under section 307 of the Indian Penal Code and section 4 of the Explosive Substances Act, and was deported to the Cellular Jail in the Andamans
• Jatindra Nath Das, tried in the Lahore Conspiracy Case, died on 13 September 1929 after a 63-day hunger strike over the treatment of political prisoners
• The action was planned within the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, the body renamed from the Hindustan Republican Association in 1928

• Naming only Bhagat Singh when the act was carried out by two men and the option set explicitly allows for both
• Placing Jatin Das in the Assembly; his part of the story happened in a Lahore jail, and his 63-day hunger strike is what he is remembered for
• Treating 'harmless' as meaning nobody was hurt — the bombs were built not to kill, but injuries did occur

BPSC uses 'More than one of the above' heavily and expects you to test it rather than avoid it, which is what makes this question a training exercise as much as a history question. UPSC asks the same revolutionary decade as matched pairs — episode against leader, event against consequence — so the events have to be stored with every participant attached, not just the famous one.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The bombs thrown in the Central Legislative Assembly on 8 April 1929 were intended primarily to

  • (a)kill the members of the Viceroy's Executive Council
  • (b)secure the arrest of the throwers so that the trial could be used as a platform
  • (c)destroy the Council House building
  • (d)free political prisoners held in Delhi

  Answer(b) secure the arrest of the throwers so that the trial could be used as a platform — the bombs were built not to kill, and neither man attempted to escape.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Jatindra Nath Das died in 1929 as a result of

  • (a)a police firing during the Simon Commission protest
  • (b)execution after the Lahore Conspiracy Case
  • (c)a 63-day hunger strike over the treatment of political prisoners
  • (d)injuries sustained in the Assembly bombing

  Answer(c) a 63-day hunger strike over the treatment of political prisoners — he died on 13 September 1929, and his funeral became a mass demonstration.