SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 12 September 2024, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 11 of 100

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 6 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Who was the Viceroy of India when Mahatma Gandhi started Dandi March on 12 March 1930?

(a)Lord Chelmsford
(b)Lord Minto II
(c)Lord Irwin
(d)Lord Willingdon

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Lord Irwin was Viceroy from 1926 to 1931, so he was in office on 12 March 1930, the day Gandhi walked out of Sabarmati Ashram for the coast.

The march reached Dandi on 6 April 1930, where Gandhi broke the salt law by picking up natural salt. Irwin is the Viceroy of the whole Civil Disobedience episode — the mass arrests, the first Round Table Conference, and then the Gandhi-Irwin Pact of March 1931 that suspended the movement.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Lord Chelmsford — Lord Chelmsford was Viceroy from 1916 to 1921 — the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms, the Rowlatt Act and Jallianwala Bagh belong to his years, a decade before Dandi.
(b)
Lord Minto II — Lord Minto II served from 1905 to 1910 and is remembered for the Morley-Minto reforms of 1909 and separate electorates, not for Civil Disobedience.
(d)
Lord Willingdon — Lord Willingdon followed Irwin in 1931 — the second and third Round Table Conferences and the Communal Award fall in his term, after the march.

Concept

The Dandi March opened the Civil Disobedience Movement. Salt was chosen because the government monopoly touched every household, rich or poor, and breaking it needed no weapon and no money — only a walk to the sea and a handful of salt.

The Viceroy matters for the exam because the movement is bracketed by his name. Irwin's declaration that dominion status was India's goal, his talks with Gandhi and the pact that carries both their names all sit inside his term.

Dates rather than events decide this one. Fix the four viceregal terms — Minto 1905-10, Chelmsford 1916-21, Irwin 1926-31, Willingdon 1931-36 — and any national-movement date sorts itself into the right column.

Key facts

Lord Irwin was Viceroy of India from 1926 to 1931.
The Dandi March began on 12 March 1930 from Sabarmati Ashram and reached Dandi on 6 April 1930.
The Gandhi-Irwin Pact was signed in March 1931 and took Gandhi to the second Round Table Conference.
Lord Willingdon succeeded Irwin as Viceroy in 1931.

Study next

The Civil Disobedience Movement — phases, participation and its suspensionThe three Round Table Conferences and what each settledViceroys from Curzon to Mountbatten with the events tied to each term

Common traps

Placing Chelmsford in 1930 because Jallianwala Bagh feels close to the Gandhian decade
Not recognising that Lord Irwin and Lord Halifax are the same man under a later title
Confusing the Viceroy with the Governor-General of the years before 1858

The pact that closed this movement is asked at 13 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q2, where the keyed answer is 1931. The Round Table thread continues at 17 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q14, on the party Gandhi represented at the second conference.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.