MPPSC 2019 Prelims Paper-I · Question 2 of 99

Correct — C or D (both accepted). This is a grace question: the commission's key credits two answers. C, Mahatma Gandhi — in his last testament (early 1948) he urged that the Indian National Congress be dissolved and reconstituted as a Lok Sevak Sangh, reflecting his vision of a service-based, non-party 'Ram Rajya'/Gram Swaraj polity above power-party politics. D, Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) — in his 1959 tract 'A Plea for the Reconstruction of Indian Polity' he explicitly argued for a communitarian, party-less (partyless) democracy built from village councils upward. Because both men are associated with the idea, marks were given for C or D.

• (a)S. A. Dange — Shripad Amrit Dange was a founder-leader of the Communist Party of India — a committed party politician, not an advocate of party-less democracy.
• (b)Ram Manohar Lohiya — Lohia was a socialist thinker known for 'Chaukhambha Raj' (four-pillar state) and anti-Congressism, but he worked through and built political parties; 'party-less democracy' is not attributed to him.

'Party-less democracy' is the idea that genuine, decentralised self-rule should rest on organic community/village bodies rather than on competing political parties. In Indian political thought it is linked to Gandhi (who wanted the Congress to give up power and become a body of servants) and, most explicitly, to Jayaprakash Narayan's blueprint for a bottom-up, communitarian polity.

The pairing that traps students is the socialists (Lohia) and communists (Dange), who dominate this era of thought but were emphatically party men. Grace was granted here precisely because the phrase fits both Gandhi's dissolve-the-Congress idea and JP's formal 'partyless democracy' proposal.

• Jayaprakash Narayan wrote 'A Plea for the Reconstruction of Indian Polity' (1959)
• Gandhi's last testament proposed disbanding the Congress into a Lok Sevak Sangh
• JP later led the 'Sampoorna Kranti' (Total Revolution) movement, 1974-75
• Both visions favour village/community bodies over party competition

• Picking Lohia or Dange because they dominate socialist/communist thought — both were party politicians
• Treating the question as single-answer; the commission's key accepts both Gandhi and JP

Asked as 'who propounded/associated with concept X'. Tie 'party-less democracy' to JP Narayan (1959) and to Gandhi's plan to dissolve the Congress.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  'A Plea for the Reconstruction of Indian Polity' (1959), advocating a communitarian, party-less democracy, was written by:

  • (a)Ram Manohar Lohia
  • (b)Jayaprakash Narayan
  • (c)M. N. Roy
  • (d)S. A. Dange

  Answer(b) Jayaprakash Narayan.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In his last days, Mahatma Gandhi suggested that the Indian National Congress should be:

  • (a)merged with the Muslim League
  • (b)disbanded and reorganised as a Lok Sevak Sangh
  • (c)renamed the Ruling Party
  • (d)converted into a trade union

  Answer(b) disbanded and reorganised as a Lok Sevak Sangh.