Who called the Congress Conferences as the "Annual National Festival of Educated Indians"?

Question

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Correct — A, Lala Lajpat Rai. Reflecting on the early, Moderate-phase Congress, Lajpat Rai characterised its annual sessions as little more than a once-a-year, ceremonial gathering of the educated elite rather than a real mass movement — a critique that fed into the broader Extremist push for more assertive politics after 1905.

Why the other options are wrong — (b) A leading Extremist known for mass mobilisation ('Swaraj is my birthright') — remembered for a different critique of Moderate methods, not this specific remark.  (c) The foremost Moderate leader himself — an architect of those very sessions, not their critic.  (d) Another Extremist of the Lal-Bal-Pal trio, known for radical, mass-agitation politics rather than this particular characterisation.

Concept: In its first two decades (1885-1905), the Indian National Congress under Moderate leadership relied on annual sessions, resolutions and petitions to the British government rather than mass agitation. Contemporaries — including Lajpat Rai, who later moved toward the Extremist camp — criticised this approach as elitist and largely ceremonial, a critique that contributed to the rise of Extremist politics after 1905.

State PCS 2021 Q53 — History PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2021 Q53 — History PYQ with Answer