CDS (II) 2021 General Knowledge · Question 79 of 120

Correct — D, 1870. The Poona Sarvajanik Sabha was founded in 1870 at Poona, with Mahadev Govind Ranade as its intellectual force and Ganesh Vasudev Joshi among its organisers. It was one of the earliest bodies in India to claim to speak for a public rather than for a caste, a sect or a princely interest — the word sarvajanik in its name means precisely 'of all the people' — and it worked by collecting evidence, drafting memorials and petitioning. Its best-remembered act came five years later, in 1875, when it sent a petition signed by tens of thousands of Indians to the House of Commons asking for direct Indian representation in the British Parliament. That 1875 date is what makes option (b), 1876, and option (a), 1884, so tempting.

• (a)1884 — 1884 belongs to a different body — the Madras Mahajana Sabha, founded that year and one of the immediate forerunners of the Indian National Congress.
• (b)1876 — 1876 is the year the Indian Association was founded in Calcutta by Surendranath Banerjea and Ananda Mohan Bose. The Sabha's famous petition to the House of Commons went in 1875, one year earlier.
• (c)1869 — 1869 is close enough to look right and is a common misremembering; the Sabha dates from 1870, and the Prarthana Samaj, the other Poona-and-Bombay body Ranade is associated with, was founded in 1867.

The two decades before 1885 saw a series of regional associations that trained Indians in constitutional agitation and supplied the Congress with its methods and much of its leadership. The Poona Sarvajanik Sabha of 1870, the Indian Association of Calcutta in 1876, the Madras Mahajana Sabha in 1884 and the Bombay Presidency Association in 1885 all worked the same way: gather facts, publish them, petition the government and, when that failed, petition Parliament in London.

This is a pure year question, and the reliable way to hold it is to keep a short chronology rather than four isolated dates. Ranade is the thread — he joined the Prarthana Samaj founded in 1867, was central to the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha from 1870, and later founded the Indian National Social Conference in 1887. The Sabha's own most famous year, 1875, sits between the founding and the Congress, and separating the founding year from the petition year is exactly the discrimination this item is testing.

• The Poona Sarvajanik Sabha was founded in 1870; the word sarvajanik means 'of all the people'.
• Mahadev Govind Ranade was its leading figure, and Ganesh Vasudev Joshi one of its organisers.
• In 1875 it petitioned the House of Commons for direct Indian representation in the British Parliament.
• The Indian Association was founded at Calcutta in 1876 and the Madras Mahajana Sabha in 1884.
• Ranade also joined the Prarthana Samaj, founded by Atmaram Pandurang in 1867, and founded the Indian National Social Conference in 1887.

• Dating the Sabha to 1875 because that is the year of its famous petition to the House of Commons.
• Attributing the founding of the Prarthana Samaj to Ranade; Atmaram Pandurang founded it in 1867 and Ranade joined later.
• Confusing the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha with the Sarvajanik Sabha's later Congress-linked successors in Bombay.

As an organisation-to-year pairing, an organisation-to-founder pairing, or a chronological ordering of pre-Congress associations.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Indian Association, founded at Calcutta in 1876, is associated with which one of the following leaders?

  • (a)Surendranath Banerjea
  • (b)Mahadev Govind Ranade
  • (c)Dadabhai Naoroji
  • (d)Badruddin Tyabji

  Answer(a) Surendranath Banerjea — he founded it with Ananda Mohan Bose six years after the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Indian National Social Conference, which met alongside the Congress sessions from 1887, was founded by

  • (a)Gopal Krishna Gokhale
  • (b)Mahadev Govind Ranade
  • (c)Bal Gangadhar Tilak
  • (d)Pherozeshah Mehta

  Answer(b) Mahadev Govind Ranade — social reform was for him the necessary companion of political reform.