Consider the following statements : 1. The first meeting of the All India Depressed Classes Conference was held at Poona in 1926 under the presidency of M. C. Rajah. 2. The All India Depressed Classes Association was formed at Nagpur in 1928 with Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar as its first elected President. 3. The All India Depressed Classes Congress was founded by Dr. B. S. Munje at a conference in Bombay in 1936. Which of the statements given above are correct?

Q: What is the answer to CAPF 2025 Paper I Q51?

D. Correct — D, None. Take statement 2 first, because it settles the item on its own. The All India Depressed Classes Association was created by M. C. Rajah at Nagpur in the mid-1920s, and Rajah — not Ambedkar — was its first president; Ambedkar broke with Rajah's body precisely because it would not press for separate electorates. If statement 2 falls, every option that contains it falls with it, and 1, 2 and 3 together goes as well. Statement 3 is wrong on all three counts: the All India Depressed Classes Congress was Ambedkar's, and it met at Nagpur in August 1930, while B. S. Munje's place in this history is the Rajah-Munje Pact of 1932, an agreement with Rajah on joint electorates with reserved seats. Statement 1 misplaces the venue as well: the Depressed Classes gathering associated with Rajah in these years met at Nagpur, not at Poona, and Poona's fame in this story belongs to the Pact of September 1932. Nothing in the set survives. (Provisional — pending the official UPSC key.)

(a)1 and 2 only
(b)2 and 3 only
(c)1, 2 and 3
(d)None

Answer

Why

Correct — D, None. Take statement 2 first, because it settles the item on its own. The All India Depressed Classes Association was created by M. C. Rajah at Nagpur in the mid-1920s, and Rajah — not Ambedkar — was its first president; Ambedkar broke with Rajah's body precisely because it would not press for separate electorates. If statement 2 falls, every option that contains it falls with it, and 1, 2 and 3 together goes as well. Statement 3 is wrong on all three counts: the All India Depressed Classes Congress was Ambedkar's, and it met at Nagpur in August 1930, while B. S. Munje's place in this history is the Rajah-Munje Pact of 1932, an agreement with Rajah on joint electorates with reserved seats. Statement 1 misplaces the venue as well: the Depressed Classes gathering associated with Rajah in these years met at Nagpur, not at Poona, and Poona's fame in this story belongs to the Pact of September 1932. Nothing in the set survives.

Why the others are wrong

(a)1 and 2 only — Keeps the claim that Ambedkar was the first elected president of Rajah's Association. Rajah founded that body and led it, and their disagreement over separate electorates is one of the better-documented splits of the period.
(b)2 and 3 only — Keeps both of the weakest statements. The Depressed Classes Congress belonged to Ambedkar and met at Nagpur in 1930; attaching it to B. S. Munje at Bombay in 1936 moves the founder, the city and the year together.
(c)1, 2 and 3 — Would need every detail to hold. Two organisations are handed to the wrong leaders and the venues do not match the record, so all three fail.

Concept

Depressed Classes politics in the 1920s and 1930s ran on two tracks that are easy to merge. M. C. Rajah of Madras worked through the All India Depressed Classes Association and, after 1932, through an understanding with the Hindu Mahasabha leader B. S. Munje for reserved seats inside joint electorates. Ambedkar's line ran the other way — towards separate political identity — through the Depressed Classes Congress of 1930, the Independent Labour Party of 1936 and the Scheduled Castes Federation of 1942.

When a statement set uses three organisations with nearly the same name — Conference, Association, Congress — the fastest route is to check who led each, not when it met. Rajah leads the Association; Ambedkar leads the Congress. Once that is fixed, statement 2 has swapped the leaders and the whole item is answered, because there is no option that drops statement 2 and keeps anything else. The venues then confirm it: Nagpur is where this politics repeatedly met, and Poona belongs to 1932 and the Pact that followed Gandhi's fast.

Key facts

M. C. Rajah founded the All India Depressed Classes Association at Nagpur in the mid-1920s and was its first president.
Ambedkar left Rajah's body over separate electorates and convened the All India Depressed Classes Congress at Nagpur in August 1930.
B. S. Munje's link to this history is the Rajah-Munje Pact of 1932 — reserved seats within joint electorates, backed by the Hindu Mahasabha.
The Communal Award of 16 August 1932 offered separate electorates to the Depressed Classes; the Poona Pact of 24 September 1932 replaced them with reserved seats.
Ambedkar founded the Independent Labour Party in 1936 and the Scheduled Castes Federation in 1942.

Which body belonged to whom

All India Depressed Classes Association→M. C. Rajah, founded at Nagpur in the mid-1920s — the question gives it to Ambedkar

All India Depressed Classes Congress→B. R. Ambedkar, Nagpur, August 1930 — the question gives it to B. S. Munje at Bombay in 1936

Rajah-Munje Pact, 1932→Where Munje actually appears: joint electorates with reserved seats

Poona Pact, 24 September 1932→Where Poona actually appears: reserved seats replace the Communal Award's separate electorates

Two organisations, two leaders, and the item swaps both. No option matches what is left.

Study next

The Communal Award and the Poona Pact of 1932Ambedkar's organisations: Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha, Independent Labour Party, Scheduled Castes FederationM. C. Rajah, the Rajah-Munje Pact and the moderate current in Depressed Classes politicsThe Mahad Satyagraha of 1927 and the Kalaram temple entry movementThe Round Table Conferences and the question of separate electorates

Common traps

Merging the Depressed Classes Association, Conference and Congress into one body.
Assuming Ambedkar led every Depressed Classes organisation of the period.
Pulling Poona into any Depressed Classes question because of the Poona Pact.

A statement set built on three similarly named organisations, where getting one leadership right is enough to eliminate every option but one.

Related PYQs

UPSC_2005_GS1_Q752005Open & attempt →

Consider the following statements : 1. In the First Round Table Conference Dr. Ambedkar demanded electorates for the depressed classes. 2. In the Poona Pact, special provisions for representation of the depressed people in the local bodies and civil services were made. 3. The Indian National Congress did not take part in the Third Round Table Conference. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 and 2
(b) 2 and 3
(c) 1 and 3
(d) 1, 2 and 3

Answer(c) 1 and 3

The same politics one step further on, and built the same way. Ambedkar's demand at the First Round Table is the sequel to the split with Rajah's Association, and the false statement there is again a detail quietly widened — the Poona Pact reserved seats in the legislatures, not places in local bodies and the services.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
The Rajah-Munje Pact of 1932 provided for
- (a)separate electorates for the Depressed Classes
- (b)reserved seats for the Depressed Classes within joint electorates
- (c)nomination of Depressed Classes members by the Governor-General
- (d)a separate province for the Depressed Classes
Answer(b) reserved seats within joint electorates — the position Ambedkar opposed at the time.
practice — not a real PYQ
The Poona Pact of September 1932 was signed following Gandhi's fast against which announcement?
- (a)the Rowlatt Act
- (b)the Communal Award
- (c)the Government of India Act 1935
- (d)the Simon Commission report
Answer(b) the Communal Award — announced on 16 August 1932, offering separate electorates to the Depressed Classes.