Who among the following was the founder of 'Sikkim Praja Mandal'?

Correct — A, Kazi Lhendup Dorji Khangsarpa. He founded the Sikkim Praja Mandal in 1945 and was its first president, at a time when Sikkim was a princely state under the Chogyal with British paramountcy. The Praja Mandal was one of the parties that merged in December 1947 to form the Sikkim State Congress, which he later led as president from 1953. In 1962 he founded the Sikkim National Congress, and after the 1974 election and the merger with India he became the first Chief Minister of Sikkim in 1975. The other three names belong to entirely different movements in the north-east and were never associated with Sikkim.

• (b)Angami Zapu Phizo — Angami Zapu Phizo led the Naga National Council and the Naga separatist movement. His work belongs to Nagaland, not Sikkim.
• (c)Laldenga — Laldenga founded the Mizo National Front and later signed the Mizoram Accord of 1986, becoming Chief Minister of Mizoram. A different state and a different movement.
• (d)Nar Bahadur Bhandari — Nar Bahadur Bhandari was indeed a Sikkim politician and a later Chief Minister, but he belongs to a much later generation and founded the Sikkim Janata Parishad in 1979 — decades after the Praja Mandal.

Praja Mandals were popular associations formed in the princely states during the 1930s and 1940s to demand responsible government from the rulers, and Sikkim's followed that pattern. Founded in 1945, the Sikkim Praja Mandal joined two other groups in 1947 to become the Sikkim State Congress, which pressed for the abolition of landlordism, popular government and accession to India. Sikkim remained a protectorate after 1950, and the sequence of the 1973 agitation, the 1974 election and the 1975 referendum ended with Sikkim becoming the twenty-second state of the Indian Union.

The distractor design here is regional rather than chronological. Three of the four names are leaders of north-eastern movements, and a candidate who recognises Phizo and Laldenga as such may pick either simply because they are famous. The discipline is to attach a state to each name before reading the question again: Phizo to Nagaland, Laldenga to Mizoram, and both Dorji and Bhandari to Sikkim. That reduces the item to a choice between two Sikkim figures, and the deciding cue is the date — a Praja Mandal is a princely-state institution of the 1940s, so it belongs to the older of the two.

• Kazi Lhendup Dorji founded the Sikkim Praja Mandal in 1945 and was its first president.
• The Praja Mandal merged with two other groups in December 1947 to form the Sikkim State Congress.
• He founded the Sikkim National Congress in 1962 and became Sikkim's first Chief Minister in 1975.
• He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 2002.
• Praja Mandals were popular associations that demanded responsible government in the princely states.

• Choosing a famous north-eastern leader without checking which state he belongs to.
• Confusing the 1940s Praja Mandal with the later Sikkim parties of the 1970s and 1980s.
• Assuming Sikkim's political history begins only with the 1975 merger.

Asked as a founder-recall item where three of four options are leaders of unrelated north-eastern movements and the fourth is a later Sikkim politician.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Sikkim Praja Mandal merged in 1947 with other groups to form

  • (a)the Sikkim National Congress
  • (b)the Sikkim State Congress
  • (c)the Sikkim Janata Parishad
  • (d)the Sikkim Democratic Front

  Answer(b) the Sikkim State Congress — the party that pressed for popular government and accession to India.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which constitutional article carries the special provisions with respect to the State of Sikkim?

  • (a)Article 370
  • (b)Article 371A
  • (c)Article 371F
  • (d)Article 371G

  Answer(c) Article 371F — inserted when Sikkim became a state in 1975.