UPPSC 2019 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 134 of 150

Correct — D, The Communal Award — 1933. The Communal Award belongs to 1932, not 1933: it was announced by the British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald on 16 August 1932, after the Second Round Table Conference had broken down over the minorities question and the British government took the decision on itself. The Award kept separate electorates for Muslims, Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians and Europeans, and — the part that made it explosive — extended separate electorates to the Depressed Classes as well. Gandhi, imprisoned in Yerwada jail, began a fast unto death on 20 September 1932 against that clause, and the crisis was resolved four days later by the Poona Pact of 24 September 1932, under which the Depressed Classes gave up separate electorates in exchange for a larger number of seats reserved for them inside a joint Hindu electorate. Every landmark in that chain sits in 1932, so pairing the Award with 1933 is the error the question wants you to catch.

• (a)Indian Navy Act — 1927 — Not the answer the question is after. The paper's list treats this pair as correct; be aware, though, that the naval statute of this era that is actually documented and usually asked about is the Indian Navy (Discipline) Act, 1934, under which the Royal Indian Marine was renamed and the Royal Indian Navy was formally inaugurated at Bombay on 2 October 1934. If the 1927 date feels unfamiliar, do not let it pull you off course: the Communal Award pairing is wrong on a date that no source disputes, which makes (d) the pair the question is targeting.
• (b)Civil Disobedience Movement — 1930 — Correctly matched, so it is not the answer. Gandhi opened the Civil Disobedience Movement with the Dandi March, setting out from Sabarmati on 12 March 1930 and breaking the salt law at Dandi on 6 April 1930; the movement then spread to no-tax campaigns, boycott of foreign cloth and forest satyagrahas across the country.
• (c)Second Round Table Conference — 1931 — Correctly matched, so it is not the answer. The Second Round Table Conference met in London in the closing months of 1931, and Gandhi attended it as the sole representative of the Congress — his participation having been agreed in the Gandhi-Irwin Pact of 5 March 1931. Its failure over the question of separate electorates for minorities is precisely what produced the Communal Award the following year.

Between 1930 and 1932 the freedom struggle and constitutional negotiation ran on two tracks at once, and the exam expects you to keep the dates of both straight. Track one is mass action: Dandi and Civil Disobedience in 1930, the movement's suspension after the Gandhi-Irwin Pact in March 1931, its resumption in January 1932 and its eventual withdrawal. Track two is the Round Table Conferences in London — the first in 1930-31 without the Congress, the second in 1931 with Gandhi, the third in 1932 again without the Congress. The Communal Award of August 1932 sits at the junction of the two tracks: it is the British answer to the deadlock of the second conference, and it triggered the Poona Pact.

The reliable way to handle a 'NOT correctly matched' date question is to look for the year you can pin to a famous single event rather than to a period. Here, 1932 is the year of Gandhi's fast unto death and the Poona Pact — and the fast was directed at the Communal Award. If the fast, the Award and the Pact all happened in 1932, the Award cannot be a 1933 event, and option (d) falls out at once. Note the sequence the Award set off, because it is examined again and again: the Second Round Table Conference deadlocks in 1931, MacDonald announces the Award on 16 August 1932, Gandhi begins his fast on 20 September 1932, and the Poona Pact is signed on 24 September 1932. 1933 belongs to a different landmark — the White Paper on constitutional reform and the Joint Select Committee work that eventually led to the Government of India Act, 1935.

• The Communal Award was announced by British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald on 16 August 1932.
• It extended separate electorates to the Depressed Classes, on top of those already granted to Muslims, Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians and Europeans.
• Gandhi began a fast unto death in Yerwada jail on 20 September 1932 in protest against separate electorates for the Depressed Classes.
• The Poona Pact of 24 September 1932 replaced those separate electorates with seats reserved for the Depressed Classes within a joint electorate.
• The Civil Disobedience Movement began with the Dandi March on 12 March 1930; the salt law was broken at Dandi on 6 April 1930.
• The Second Round Table Conference met in London in 1931, with Gandhi attending as the Congress's only representative under the Gandhi-Irwin Pact of 5 March 1931.

• Sliding the Communal Award into 1933 because the constitutional discussion continued into that year — the Award itself is 16 August 1932.
• Confusing the Poona Pact with the Gandhi-Irwin Pact: the Gandhi-Irwin Pact is March 1931 and is about suspending Civil Disobedience; the Poona Pact is September 1932 and is about electorates for the Depressed Classes.
• Assuming that in a 'NOT correctly matched' set only the obviously famous pairs need checking; work through every option, but decide on the one whose date you can prove wrong.

UPPSC asks this decade as event-to-year matching, usually with one deliberately shifted date. UPSC prefers the causal chain — why Gandhi fasted in 1932, what the Poona Pact provided, who attended which Round Table Conference — so learn the sequence rather than isolated years.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Poona Pact of September 1932 provided for

  • (a)separate electorates for the Depressed Classes
  • (b)reservation of seats for the Depressed Classes within a joint electorate
  • (c)dominion status for India within a stated time frame
  • (d)the withdrawal of the Civil Disobedience Movement

  Answer(b) reservation of seats for the Depressed Classes within a joint electorate — it replaced the separate electorates that the Communal Award had granted them, and increased the number of seats reserved for them.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Consider the following events and arrange them in chronological order: I. Gandhi-Irwin Pact II. Communal Award III. Dandi March IV. Second Round Table Conference

  • (a)III, I, IV, II
  • (b)I, III, II, IV
  • (c)III, IV, I, II
  • (d)I, II, III, IV

  Answer(a) III, I, IV, II — Dandi March March 1930, Gandhi-Irwin Pact 5 March 1931, Second Round Table Conference later in 1931, Communal Award 16 August 1932.