CDS (II) 2020 General Knowledge · Question 47 of 120

Correct — C, T. B. Sapru and M. R. Jayakar. The body the question means is the National Liberal Federation, the party the stem itself labels the Liberal Party. It was created when Moderates who welcomed the Montagu-Chelmsford proposals of 1918 left the Congress rather than join it in condemning them, and it became the constitutionalist party of the interwar decades. Sapru was its leader — the sources describe him plainly as the leader of the Liberal party in British-ruled India — and Jayakar is recorded as a member of the Indian National Liberal Federation. The two are best remembered together for their mediation between the Government and the Congress around 1930 and 1931 and for their work at the Round Table Conferences.

• (a)Motilal Nehru and C. R. Das — The wrong party entirely. These two founded the Swaraj Party in 1923, inside the Congress, to enter the councils and obstruct — the opposite programme to the Liberals' co-operation.
• (b)Muhammad Ali and C. R. Das — Muhammad Ali was a Khilafat leader who worked with Gandhi during Non-Cooperation; neither he nor Das had anything to do with founding a Liberal party.
• (d)M. R. Jayakar and C. R. Das — The near-miss. Jayakar is right, but pairing him with C. R. Das puts a Swarajist into the Liberal camp. Sapru is the name that belongs beside him.

The Liberals were the Moderates after they left the Congress. They held that reform would come by negotiation, expert constitutional drafting and co-operation with the Government, and they refused non-cooperation and civil disobedience. Their numbers were always small, but their weight in constitution-making was large: they sat on committees, went to the Round Table Conferences, and drafted proposals when the Congress was in jail or out of the room.

The stem carries a printed slip that is worth naming. It prints National Liberation Federation, whereas the organisation was the National Liberal Federation of India — and the bracketed words 'Liberal Party' in the same line make the intended body unmistakable, which is presumably why the slip was never noticed. There is a second honesty point. The founder most textbooks name first is Surendranath Banerjea, who led the secession of 1918 and does not appear among the four options at all; of what is offered, only option (c) names Liberals rather than Swarajists or Khilafat leaders.

• The National Liberal Federation was formed by Moderates who left the Congress after it condemned the Montagu-Chelmsford Report of 1918.
• Tej Bahadur Sapru was the leader of the Liberal party in British-ruled India.
• M. R. Jayakar was a member of the Indian National Liberal Federation, and also of the Hindu Mahasabha.
• Sapru and Jayakar mediated between the Government and the Congress and worked together at the Round Table Conferences of 1931 to 1933.
• Surendranath Banerjea is the leader most often named as heading the 1918 secession.

• Reading 'National Liberation Federation' literally and hunting for a revolutionary organisation; the stem's own bracket says Liberal Party.
• Placing Jayakar permanently in one camp — he moved from the Swaraj Party towards the Liberals over the 1920s.
• Confusing the National Liberal Federation with the South Indian Liberal Federation, the Justice Party of Madras.

As a founder-to-party pick, or as a consequence question on what the Moderates did after the Montagu-Chelmsford Report.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Moderates who left the Indian National Congress in 1918 formed which one of the following?

  • (a)Swaraj Party
  • (b)Indian National Liberal Federation
  • (c)Independent Party
  • (d)Justice Party

  Answer(b) Indian National Liberal Federation — they welcomed the Montagu-Chelmsford proposals that the Congress condemned.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Tej Bahadur Sapru and M. R. Jayakar are best remembered together for

  • (a)founding the Swaraj Party
  • (b)mediating between the Government and the Congress around 1930-31
  • (c)leading the Khilafat movement
  • (d)drafting the Communal Award

  Answer(b) mediating between the Government and the Congress around 1930-31 — their efforts fed into the Gandhi-Irwin Pact and the Round Table Conferences.