CDS (I) 2022 General Knowledge · Question 96 of 120

Correct — B, Vithalbhai Patel. He was a Swarajist, not a No-Changer. When Gandhi called off Non-Cooperation after Chauri Chaura and was jailed in 1922, the Congress split into two camps over what to do with the councils the Government had set up. The Pro-Changers, or Swarajists, wanted to contest the elections and wreck the councils from within; the No-Changers wanted to stay out and carry on the constructive programme of khadi, national schools and social work. Chittaranjan Das and Motilal Nehru founded the Swaraj Party on 1 January 1923 to fight the elections, and Vithalbhai Patel went with them — he entered the Central Legislative Assembly on that ticket and became its President in 1925, which is about as far inside the councils as an Indian could get. The other three names in the list stayed with Gandhi's line.

• (a)M.A. Ansari — M. A. Ansari, the Delhi physician who had led the Medical Mission to Turkey and worked through the Khilafat years, stood with the Gandhian wing that opposed council entry. He is counted among the No-Changers, so he is not the odd one out.
• (c)Chakravarti Rajagopalachari — C. Rajagopalachari was one of the sharpest opponents of council entry and among the best-known No-Changers of the period, arguing that legislative work would drain the constructive programme. He is squarely inside the group the question asks about.
• (d)Kasturi Ranga Iyengar — Kasturi Ranga Iyengar, the proprietor and editor of The Hindu, backed the Gandhian position against contesting the councils. He too belonged to the No-Changer camp.

The Non-Cooperation Movement was suspended in February 1922 after the killings at Chauri Chaura, and the Congress spent the next two years arguing about the boycott of the legislatures. The Pro-Changers held that the councils should be entered so that they could be obstructed and exposed; Gandhi's followers, the No-Changers, held that entering them would legitimise the reforms and pull workers away from village work. The Swaraj Party, formed by Chittaranjan Das and Motilal Nehru on 1 January 1923 out of the Congress-Khilafat Swarajya Party of December 1922, took the first position and did well in the 1923 elections. The two wings patched up at the Belgaum session of 1924, with Gandhi conceding the Swarajists the right to work the councils in the Congress's name.

Odd-one-out questions on this split are common because the two lists are short and stable. The reliable anchors on the Swarajist side are Chittaranjan Das, Motilal Nehru and Vithalbhai Patel; on the No-Changer side, Vallabhbhai Patel, Rajendra Prasad, C. Rajagopalachari and M. A. Ansari. The trap in this particular set is the surname. Vallabhbhai Patel was a No-Changer and his elder brother Vithalbhai was a Swarajist, so a candidate reading fast sees 'Patel' and puts him in the wrong camp. The other useful test is office: a man who sat in and presided over the Central Legislative Assembly cannot have been arguing that Indians should stay out of it.

• The Swaraj Party was founded on 1 January 1923 by Chittaranjan Das and Motilal Nehru, growing out of the Congress-Khilafat Swarajya Party formed in December 1922.
• Pro-Changers or Swarajists wanted to enter the legislative councils and obstruct them from inside; No-Changers wanted to boycott them and continue the constructive programme.
• Vithalbhai Patel was a Swarajist and became President of the Central Legislative Assembly in 1925.
• Vallabhbhai Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru and Rajendra Prasad are the names Gandhi's biographers place in the No-Changer camp.
• The two wings were reconciled at the Belgaum session of the Congress in December 1924, which Gandhi presided over.

• Placing Vithalbhai Patel with his brother Vallabhbhai. The elder brother was a Swarajist and the younger a No-Changer.
• Assuming every senior Gandhian of the 1920s was a No-Changer — Motilal Nehru was a leading Swarajist while his son Jawaharlal was not.
• Treating the Swaraj Party as a rival to the Congress. It contested elections as a wing within it and was reconciled at Belgaum in 1924.

As an odd-one-out between the two camps, as a founding-date and founders question on the Swaraj Party, or as a statements item on what the Pro-Changers wanted to do inside the councils.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Swaraj Party was founded in 1923 by

  • (a)Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel
  • (b)Chittaranjan Das and Motilal Nehru
  • (c)Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Annie Besant
  • (d)Subhas Chandra Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru

  Answer(b) Chittaranjan Das and Motilal Nehru — formed on 1 January 1923 to contest the legislative councils and obstruct them from within.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The principal demand of the Pro-Changers within the Congress after 1922 was

  • (a)an immediate return to the Non-Cooperation Movement
  • (b)entry into the legislative councils in order to obstruct them
  • (c)the boycott of foreign cloth and the promotion of khadi
  • (d)the launching of an armed struggle against British rule

  Answer(b) entry into the legislative councils in order to obstruct them — the No-Changers argued instead for staying out and pursuing the constructive programme.