Match List – I of Pre-Congress organisations with List – II of their leaders and choose answer from the codes given below :
List – I List – II
a. Indian Association i. Dadabh

Question

Match List – I of Pre-Congress organisations with List – II of their leaders and choose answer from the codes given below :
List – I                    List – II
a. Indian Association        i. Dadabhai Naoroji
b. Madras Mahajan Sabha        ii. M. Viraraghavachariar
c. Bombay Presidency Association        iii. Justice Ranade
d. Poona Sarvjanik Sabha        iv. Surendranath Banerjee
Code :
     a     b     c     d

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — C, iv ii i iii. Take the four pairings one at a time and the code assembles itself. The Indian Association was founded in Calcutta in 1876 by Surendranath Banerjee and Ananda Mohan Bose, and is usually described as the first avowedly nationalist organisation in British India, formed to promote by every legitimate means the political, intellectual and material advancement of the people — so a goes to iv. The Madras Mahajana Sabha was formed in 1884, and M. Viraraghavachariar was among its founders alongside G. Subramania Iyer and P. Ananda Charlu — so b goes to ii. The Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, founded around 1870, is the body most closely identified with Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade; it is also the organisation that in 1875 sent a petition to the House of Commons demanding direct Indian representation in the British Parliament — so d goes to iii. That leaves the Bombay Presidency Association, established on 31 January 1885, with Dadabhai Naoroji among its leading figures alongside Pherozeshah Mehta, K. T. Telang and Badruddin Tyabji — so c goes to i, and the code reads a-iv, b-ii, c-i, d-iii, which is option (c). Two features of the answer are worth noticing. First, the last pairing does not have to be recalled at all: with three pairs fixed, the fourth is forced, because a matching question is a one-to-one assignment. Second, only one code survives the three easy pairings — option (a) opens by giving the Indian Association to Dadabhai Naoroji and option (b) gives it to Viraraghavachariar, so each dies on its very first pair, and once (c) is shown to be a consistent assignment the None-of-the-above option has nothing left to catch.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) The most dangerous option, because two of its four pairs are right — it correctly gives the Madras Mahajana Sabha to Viraraghavachariar and the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha to Ranade. It fails on the other two, swapping Calcutta for Bombay: the Indian Association goes to Dadabhai Naoroji and the Bombay Presidency Association to Surendranath Banerjee. A single wrong pair sinks the whole code, which is why partial recognition is more dangerous than none in this format.  (b) Wrong on all four. It hands the Indian Association to Viraraghavachariar, the Madras Mahajana Sabha to Naoroji, the Bombay Presidency Association to Ranade and the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha to Surendranath Banerjee — an assignment in which every leader has been moved to a different presidency from his own. It can be eliminated on the first pair alone.  (d) Correct only if no listed code is a valid assignment. Option (c) is: Indian Association–Banerjee, Madras Mahajana Sabha–Viraraghavachariar, Bombay Presidency Association–Naoroji, Poona Sarvajanik Sabha–Ranade, with each leader used exactly once. In a matching question, a None-of-the-above option is worth taking seriously only when every code contains a demonstrable mismatch, and here one does not.

Concept: The Indian National Congress of 1885 did not appear from nothing. For half a century before it, educated Indians in each presidency had been forming associations to petition the government, and the Congress was in effect their federation. Bengal came first: the Landholders' Society of 1838, then the British Indian Association of 1851 under Raja Radhakanta Deb, both dominated by zamindars, and then in 1876 the Indian Association of Surendranath Banerjee and Ananda Mohan Bose, which deliberately drew in the educated middle class and campaigned on the civil service age limit. Bombay had the Bombay Association from 1852 and, from 31 January 1885, the Bombay Presidency Association. Poona had the Sarvajanik Sabha from about 1870, associated with Ranade and with Ganesh Vasudeo Joshi, remembered as Sarvajanik Kaka. Madras had the Madras Native Association and then, from 1884, the Madras Mahajana Sabha. When the Congress met at Bombay in December 1885 its delegates came largely from these four bodies, which is why the standard tables of 'pre-Congress organisations' are worth learning as a set rather than as isolated names.

State PCS 2025 Q147 — History PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2025 Q147 — History PYQ with Answer