Match List-I with List-II and select the correct answer using the code given below the Lists : List-I (Political idea) A. Human beings, unlike all other objects, possess dignity B. It is Swaraj when we learn to rule ourselves C. Freedom implies not only emancipation from political bondage but also equal distribution of wealth D. For me real freedom is freedom from fear List-II (Thinker) 1. Aung San Suu Kyi 2. Subhas Chandra Bose 3. Immanuel Kant 4. Mahatma Gandhi Code:
- (a)A-3, B-2, C-4, D-1
- (b)A-1, B-4, C-2, D-3
- (c)A-3, B-4, C-2, D-1
- (d)A-1, B-2, C-4, D-3
Correct — C, A-3, B-4, C-2, D-1. Every one of the four lines is quoted or paraphrased from the NCERT Class XI Political Theory textbook, which is why the pairing can be settled exactly rather than guessed. The chapter on Social Justice says in so many words that according to the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, human beings possess dignity, giving A-3. The chapter on Freedom carries a box on Swaraj quoting Gandhi's Hind Swaraj — 'It is Swaraj when we learn to rule ourselves' — giving B-4. The same chapter reproduces Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's Lahore address of 19 October 1929, in which freedom 'implies not only emancipation from political bondage but also equal distribution of wealth, abolition of caste barriers and social iniquities', giving C-2. And it introduces Aung San Suu Kyi through her book Freedom from Fear, quoting her: 'for me real freedom is freedom from fear' — D-1.
- (a)A-3, B-2, C-4, D-1 — Gets Kant and Aung San Suu Kyi right but swaps the two Indians, handing Swaraj to Bose and the redistribution of wealth to Gandhi. Swaraj is Gandhi's word from Hind Swaraj, and the passage on equal distribution of wealth is Bose's.
- (b)A-1, B-4, C-2, D-3 — Correct on the two Indians but swaps Kant and Aung San Suu Kyi. Dignity is the Kantian idea; freedom from fear is the title of Aung San Suu Kyi's book of essays.
- (d)A-1, B-2, C-4, D-3 — Swaps both pairs at once — the mirror image of the key, and the option you land on if you match by nothing more than the order in which the names are printed.
Dignity is the pivot of Kant's moral philosophy: things have a price and can be exchanged for something equivalent, whereas persons have dignity and may never be treated merely as a means. Swaraj in Gandhi's hands is not only self-government for a nation but rule over the self by the individual. Bose's argument is that political independence without economic and social levelling is incomplete. Aung San Suu Kyi's is that fear, not merely law, is what corrupts a society and unfits people for a dignified life.
Matching items collapse quickly once you find the one pairing you are certain of and use it to eliminate. Here, 'Swaraj' is a signature word — it belongs to Gandhi and to nobody else in the list — so B-4 is fixed at a glance, which kills options (a) and (d) together. Then 'dignity' points to Kant rather than to Aung San Suu Kyi, and option (c) is all that survives. Two further cautions are worth carrying. First, the Bose quotation is from a student conference address at Lahore in October 1929, well before the Indian National Army years for which he is usually remembered, and it shows him as a social radical rather than only a military figure. Second, Aung San Suu Kyi is the only living person in List-II and her political standing has changed a great deal since the essays were written — the exam is testing the authorship of an idea, not an endorsement of a career.
- NCERT Class XI Political Theory, chapter on Social Justice: 'According to the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, human beings possess dignity.'
- Gandhi in Hind Swaraj (1909): 'It is Swaraj when we learn to rule ourselves.'
- Subhas Chandra Bose, Presidential Address to the Students' Conference, Lahore, 19 October 1929 — freedom implies 'not only emancipation from political bondage but also equal distribution of wealth, abolition of caste barriers and social iniquities'.
- Aung San Suu Kyi's collection of essays is titled Freedom from Fear; in it she writes that for her real freedom is freedom from fear.
- Matching by the printed order of the two lists instead of by content.
- Giving 'Swaraj' to any nationalist leader rather than to Gandhi specifically — Tilak's famous line is about Swaraj being his birthright, which is a different claim.
- Assuming a quotation about the equal distribution of wealth must be socialist in origin and therefore not Bose's.
As a four-by-four match of idea to thinker, or as a single 'who said this' item — the source pool is usually the NCERT Political Theory text, so read its quotation boxes closely.
Who among the following wrote the famous text 'A Discourse on Political Economy'?
- (a) Montesquieu
- (b) Voltaire
- (c) Rousseau
- (d) Adam Smith
Answer(c) Rousseau
Same pool of European political thinkers, tested by text rather than by idea. Kant, Rousseau and Mill recur across NDA and CDS papers, so they are worth learning as a set.
CDS_GK_2021_I_Q382021Who among the following said that Democracy means a system of 'Government by Consent'?
- (a) John Locke
- (b) J.S. Mill
- (c) Jeremy Bentham
- (d) J.J. Rousseau
Answer(a) John Locke
The same skill in single-pair form — attaching a political idea to the thinker who owns it, from the standard Political Theory reading list.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The line 'It is Swaraj when we learn to rule ourselves' appears in which work?
- (a)The Discovery of India
- (b)Hind Swaraj
- (c)The Indian Struggle
- (d)Gitanjali
Answer(b) Hind Swaraj — Gandhi's 1909 tract, in which Swaraj means rule over the self as much as self-government.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which thinker is associated with the argument that human beings, unlike things, possess dignity and may never be treated merely as a means?
- (a)Jeremy Bentham
- (b)Immanuel Kant
- (c)Thomas Hobbes
- (d)John Rawls
Answer(b) Immanuel Kant — dignity, as against price, is the core of his moral philosophy.