BPSC 70th CCE Re-exam Prelims General Studies · Question 147 of 142

Correct — C, iv ii i iii. Take the four pairings one at a time and the code assembles itself. The Indian Association was founded in Calcutta in 1876 by Surendranath Banerjee and Ananda Mohan Bose, and is usually described as the first avowedly nationalist organisation in British India, formed to promote by every legitimate means the political, intellectual and material advancement of the people — so a goes to iv. The Madras Mahajana Sabha was formed in 1884, and M. Viraraghavachariar was among its founders alongside G. Subramania Iyer and P. Ananda Charlu — so b goes to ii. The Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, founded around 1870, is the body most closely identified with Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade; it is also the organisation that in 1875 sent a petition to the House of Commons demanding direct Indian representation in the British Parliament — so d goes to iii. That leaves the Bombay Presidency Association, established on 31 January 1885, with Dadabhai Naoroji among its leading figures alongside Pherozeshah Mehta, K. T. Telang and Badruddin Tyabji — so c goes to i, and the code reads a-iv, b-ii, c-i, d-iii, which is option (c). Two features of the answer are worth noticing. First, the last pairing does not have to be recalled at all: with three pairs fixed, the fourth is forced, because a matching question is a one-to-one assignment. Second, only one code survives the three easy pairings — option (a) opens by giving the Indian Association to Dadabhai Naoroji and option (b) gives it to Viraraghavachariar, so each dies on its very first pair, and once (c) is shown to be a consistent assignment the None-of-the-above option has nothing left to catch.

• (a)i ii iv iii — The most dangerous option, because two of its four pairs are right — it correctly gives the Madras Mahajana Sabha to Viraraghavachariar and the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha to Ranade. It fails on the other two, swapping Calcutta for Bombay: the Indian Association goes to Dadabhai Naoroji and the Bombay Presidency Association to Surendranath Banerjee. A single wrong pair sinks the whole code, which is why partial recognition is more dangerous than none in this format.
• (b)ii i iii iv — Wrong on all four. It hands the Indian Association to Viraraghavachariar, the Madras Mahajana Sabha to Naoroji, the Bombay Presidency Association to Ranade and the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha to Surendranath Banerjee — an assignment in which every leader has been moved to a different presidency from his own. It can be eliminated on the first pair alone.
• (d)None of the above — Correct only if no listed code is a valid assignment. Option (c) is: Indian Association–Banerjee, Madras Mahajana Sabha–Viraraghavachariar, Bombay Presidency Association–Naoroji, Poona Sarvajanik Sabha–Ranade, with each leader used exactly once. In a matching question, a None-of-the-above option is worth taking seriously only when every code contains a demonstrable mismatch, and here one does not.

The Indian National Congress of 1885 did not appear from nothing. For half a century before it, educated Indians in each presidency had been forming associations to petition the government, and the Congress was in effect their federation. Bengal came first: the Landholders' Society of 1838, then the British Indian Association of 1851 under Raja Radhakanta Deb, both dominated by zamindars, and then in 1876 the Indian Association of Surendranath Banerjee and Ananda Mohan Bose, which deliberately drew in the educated middle class and campaigned on the civil service age limit. Bombay had the Bombay Association from 1852 and, from 31 January 1885, the Bombay Presidency Association. Poona had the Sarvajanik Sabha from about 1870, associated with Ranade and with Ganesh Vasudeo Joshi, remembered as Sarvajanik Kaka. Madras had the Madras Native Association and then, from 1884, the Madras Mahajana Sabha. When the Congress met at Bombay in December 1885 its delegates came largely from these four bodies, which is why the standard tables of 'pre-Congress organisations' are worth learning as a set rather than as isolated names.

A four-pair matching question with a code block is scored as one mark and can be lost on one pairing, so the efficient method is elimination on certainty rather than recall of everything. Work out the pairs you are sure of, strike every code that contradicts one of them, and only then look at what is left. Here three pairs are secure for most candidates — Banerjee with the Indian Association, Viraraghavachariar with the Madras Mahajana Sabha, Ranade with the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha — and each of those alone is enough to kill at least one code. The fourth pair, Dadabhai Naoroji with the Bombay Presidency Association, is the one a candidate is least likely to know, and the point is that it never has to be known: in a one-to-one assignment the last pair is determined by the other three. That property is what makes matching questions safer than they look, provided the elimination is done pair by pair rather than by scanning the codes for a familiar-looking line. Region is a useful cross-check throughout — Banerjee is Calcutta, Naoroji and Mehta are Bombay, Viraraghavachariar is Madras, Ranade is Poona — and any code that moves a leader out of his own presidency is almost certainly wrong.

• Indian Association — founded at Calcutta in 1876 by Surendranath Banerjee and Ananda Mohan Bose, described as the first avowedly nationalist organisation in British India
• Madras Mahajana Sabha — formed in 1884, with M. Viraraghavachariar among its founders alongside G. Subramania Iyer and P. Ananda Charlu
• Bombay Presidency Association — established on 31 January 1885, with Dadabhai Naoroji among its leading figures together with Pherozeshah Mehta, K. T. Telang and Badruddin Tyabji
• Poona Sarvajanik Sabha — dated to about 1870 and identified with Justice M. G. Ranade and with Ganesh Vasudeo Joshi, known as Sarvajanik Kaka
• It was the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha that petitioned the House of Commons in 1875 for direct Indian representation in the British Parliament
• Earlier Bengal bodies in the same line were the Landholders' Society of 1838 and the British Indian Association of 1851, whose first president was Raja Radhakanta Deb

• Confusing the Madras Mahajana Sabha (1884, Viraraghavachariar) with the earlier Madras Native Association — UPSC has set precisely that trap
• Assuming the Bombay Presidency Association belongs to Surendranath Banerjee because he is the most famous pre-Congress name; he is Calcutta, not Bombay
• Reading only the first entry of a code and matching on a familiar pairing; every pair has to be checked, because one mismatch invalidates the whole option

BPSC prints List-I, List-II and a code block and puts a None-of-the-above at the end, so the safe route is to eliminate codes on the pairs you are sure of rather than to reconstruct all four. UPSC asks the same material as separate statement pairs to be judged correct or incorrect, which lets it plant one very precise error — the Madras Native Association standing in for the Madras Mahajana Sabha — instead of testing the whole set at once.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which pre-Congress organisation petitioned the House of Commons in 1875 demanding direct Indian representation in the British Parliament ?

  • (a)The Indian Association
  • (b)The Poona Sarvajanik Sabha
  • (c)The Madras Mahajana Sabha
  • (d)The Bombay Presidency Association

  Answer(b) The Poona Sarvajanik Sabha — founded around 1870 and associated with Justice Ranade; the Indian Association (1876), the Madras Mahajana Sabha (1884) and the Bombay Presidency Association (1885) all came later.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Indian Association was founded in 1876 by

  • (a)Dadabhai Naoroji and Pherozeshah Mehta
  • (b)Surendranath Banerjee and Ananda Mohan Bose
  • (c)M. G. Ranade and G. V. Joshi
  • (d)G. Subramania Iyer and P. Ananda Charlu

  Answer(b) Surendranath Banerjee and Ananda Mohan Bose — at Calcutta, drawing in the educated middle class rather than the zamindars who dominated the earlier British Indian Association.