Who among the following is the founder of the Congress Socialist Party?

Correct — A, Acharya Narendra Dev. The Congress Socialist Party was formed in 1934 by a group of younger Congressmen, many of them fresh out of jail after the Civil Disobedience Movement was called off, who wanted the Congress to commit to socialism rather than merely to independence. A preliminary conference met at Patna on 17 May 1934, and the all-India party was constituted at Bombay on 22 and 23 October. Acharya Narendra Deva presided over its formation and became its first president, and he remained its principal theoretician — a Sanskrit and Buddhist scholar who argued for Marxism recast in Indian terms, and later Vice-Chancellor of Lucknow University and of Banaras Hindu University. Jayaprakash Narayan was general secretary and Minoo Masani joint secretary; Ram Manohar Lohia, Achyut Patwardhan and Yusuf Meherally were among the group. The Congress Socialist Party never left the Congress — it worked as a bloc inside it, pressing for the abolition of landlordism, the nationalisation of key industries and a constituent assembly.

• (b)Jawaharlal Nehru — The most tempting wrong answer, because Nehru was the Congress's best-known socialist. He never joined the party, and its members resented that — they read him as a man who would give socialist speeches but not take the organisational risk.
• (c)Motilal Nehru — He had died in 1931, three years before the party existed. His party was the Swaraj Party, founded with C. R. Das in 1923 to fight the legislative council elections.
• (d)Asoka Mehta — A genuine founding member and later a leader of the party and of its successor, the Praja Socialist Party — which is what makes this the sharpest option. He did not found it or head it; that was Narendra Deva, with Jayaprakash Narayan as general secretary.

The Congress Socialist Party was a party within a party. Its members stayed Congressmen and contested nothing separately; the aim was to capture the Congress for socialism from inside. It grew out of the disillusion that followed the suspension of Civil Disobedience in 1934, and out of jail conversations among younger leaders who had read Marx while serving sentences. After independence the group left the Congress in 1948 and became the Socialist Party, merged with J. B. Kripalani's Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party in 1952 to form the Praja Socialist Party, and split again when Lohia founded his own Socialist Party in 1955.

The question is really a test of who belongs to which political generation. Motilal Nehru is a figure of the 1920s and was dead by 1931, so he can be struck at once on chronology. Jawaharlal Nehru is the trap of association: he was socialist in outlook, presided over the Lucknow Congress of 1936 where socialist language entered Congress resolutions, and is therefore the name that comes to mind — but he stayed outside the party, and the socialists' complaint about him is a standard line in the histories. That leaves two men who really were in the room in 1934, and the tie is broken by rank: Narendra Deva presided, Asoka Mehta did not. Note that the framing 'the founder' is looser than the history, which is collective — UPSC itself asked the softer question in 1996, 'a prominent leader of the Congress Socialist Party', and keyed the same man. On the printing, the paper spells the name Narendra Dev; Narendra Deva is the fuller form, and both are in ordinary use.

• The Congress Socialist Party was founded in 1934 — a preliminary conference at Patna on 17 May, the all-India party constituted at Bombay on 22-23 October.
• Acharya Narendra Deva was its president, Jayaprakash Narayan its general secretary and Minoo Masani joint secretary.
• Jawaharlal Nehru never joined the party, though he was the Congress's most prominent socialist voice.
• Motilal Nehru died in 1931; his party was the Swaraj Party, founded with C. R. Das in 1923.
• It functioned as a bloc inside the Congress, left it in 1948, and became the Praja Socialist Party in 1952 after merging with the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party.

• Answering Jawaharlal Nehru because he was a socialist; he never joined this party.
• Confusing the Congress Socialist Party with the Communist Party of India — the socialists stayed inside the Congress and rejected the dictatorship of the proletariat.
• Placing Motilal Nehru in the 1930s; he belongs to the Swaraj Party of 1923 and died in 1931.

Either as founder or prominent leader of the party, or as a statements item on what its programme did and did not include.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Who was the general secretary of the Congress Socialist Party at its formation in 1934?

  • (a)Minoo Masani
  • (b)Jayaprakash Narayan
  • (c)Achyut Patwardhan
  • (d)Yusuf Meherally

  Answer(b) Jayaprakash Narayan — Narendra Deva was president, Jayaprakash Narayan general secretary and Minoo Masani joint secretary.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Swaraj Party was founded in 1923 by C. R. Das along with which one of the following?

  • (a)Motilal Nehru
  • (b)Madan Mohan Malaviya
  • (c)Lala Lajpat Rai
  • (d)Bipin Chandra Pal

  Answer(a) Motilal Nehru — the Swarajists wanted to enter the legislative councils and wreck them from within after non-cooperation was suspended.