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Kerala Plus Two Gandhian Studies (DHSE) study materials
Kerala Plus Two Gandhian Studies (DHSE) study resources

Kerala Plus Two Gandhian Studies (DHSE) practice questions

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Question 1Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

In Gandhian thought, 'Satyagraha' is best understood as which of the following?

  1. Armed rebellion against an unjust ruler
  2. Insistence on truth through non-violent, self-suffering resistance Correct answer.
  3. Legal petitioning of colonial courts for redress
  4. Economic boycott used only against foreign goods

Explanation

Gandhi coined 'Satyagraha' from satya (truth) and agraha (firm insistence), defining it as holding to truth through non-violence and willing self-suffering rather than harming the opponent. He distinguished it from passive resistance because Satyagraha aims to convert the wrongdoer through moral appeal, not to coerce or defeat him.

Question 2Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi's first major Satyagraha campaign on Indian soil took place in 1917 among indigo cultivators of which region?

  1. Dandi in Gujarat
  2. Champaran in Bihar Correct answer.
  3. Kheda in Gujarat
  4. Bardoli in Gujarat

Explanation

The Champaran Satyagraha of 1917 was Gandhi's first civil disobedience campaign in India, undertaken on behalf of peasants forced to grow indigo under the tinkathia system. It established his method of fact-finding, negotiation, and willingness to accept legal penalty.

Question 3Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

The 1930 Dandi March was undertaken primarily to protest which specific colonial measure?

  1. The partition of Bengal and the resulting administrative changes
  2. The tax on salt and the government monopoly on its manufacture Correct answer.
  3. The imposition of the Vernacular Press Act
  4. The Rowlatt Act allowing detention without trial

Explanation

Gandhi marched from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi to make salt from seawater, directly defying the British salt law and its tax. Salt was chosen because it touched every household, making the protest intelligible and participatory for ordinary Indians.

Question 4Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

Which term did Gandhi use for the self-sufficient, self-governing village republic he considered the ideal unit of Indian society?

  1. Satyagraha Ashram
  2. Gram Swaraj Correct answer.
  3. Sarvodaya
  4. Panchayati Raj

Explanation

Gandhi described Gram Swaraj, or village self-rule, as the foundation of political and economic independence, arguing that India lived in its villages. He held that villages should manage their own affairs, produce for local needs, and rely on decentralised governance.

Question 5Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

In Gandhi's formulation of the seven social sins, 'commerce without morality' is paired with which other item in the same list?

  1. Knowledge without character
  2. Worship without sacrifice
  3. Pleasure without conscience
  4. Wealth without work Correct answer.

Explanation

Gandhi's list of seven social sins includes 'wealth without work' alongside 'commerce without morality', both warning that economic activity divorced from labour and ethics corrupts society. The list was published in Young India in 1925 and is often attributed to a sermon Gandhi admired.

Question 6Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi's doctrine of 'trusteeship' primarily asks wealthy individuals to do which of the following?

  1. Transfer all property immediately to the state
  2. Donate a fixed percentage of income to the Congress party
  3. Abandon industry and return to subsistence farming
  4. Hold surplus wealth as trustees for the welfare of society rather than as private property Correct answer.

Explanation

Trusteeship holds that owners should regard their surplus wealth as held in trust for the community, using it for the welfare of all. Gandhi offered this as a non-violent alternative to both unrestrained capitalism and violent expropriation.

Question 7Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

Which of Gandhi's ashrams was founded in 1915 near Ahmedabad and became the base for the Dandi March?

  1. Tolstoy Farm
  2. Sabarmati Ashram Correct answer.
  3. Phoenix Settlement
  4. Sevagram Ashram

Explanation

Gandhi founded the Sabarmati Ashram in 1915 on the banks of the Sabarmati near Ahmedabad, and it served as the starting point of the 1930 Dandi March. It emphasised manual labour, spinning, truth, and non-violence.

Question 8Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi described the Bhagavad Gita as which of the following?

  1. A devotional hymn book meant only for temple recitation
  2. A legal code prescribing caste duties in detail
  3. A historical account of the Kurukshetra war to be taken literally
  4. An allegory of the inner struggle of the soul, to be read as a guide to selfless action Correct answer.

Explanation

Gandhi read the Gita as an allegory of the battlefield within the human heart, where desire and duty contend, and he drew from it the ideal of anasakti, action without attachment to results. He wrote a Gujarati commentary titled 'Anasakti Yoga'.

Question 9Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

The term 'Harijan', which Gandhi popularised for the community then called untouchables, literally means which of the following?

  1. Keepers of the temple
  2. People of the village
  3. Servants of the soil
  4. Children of God Correct answer.

Explanation

Gandhi coined the usage of 'Harijan', meaning people or children of God (Hari), to assert the dignity of those subjected to untouchability. He campaigned against untouchability through the Harijan Sevak Sangh and his journal Harijan.

Question 10Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi's concept of 'Sarvodaya' is closest in meaning to which of the following?

  1. The pursuit of maximum material production
  2. The uplift and welfare of all, including the weakest Correct answer.
  3. The rule of the majority through elected assemblies
  4. The victory of the working class over owners

Explanation

Sarvodaya, literally the rise or welfare of all, is Gandhi's ethical goal in which the good of the weakest member is central. He applied it to economics and society, opposing systems that leave any section behind.

Question 11Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

Which of the following best captures Gandhi's idea of 'Swaraj'?

  1. Complete transfer of power to a centralised Indian state
  2. Independence achieved through armed struggle
  3. Replacement of British rulers by Indian industrialists
  4. Self-rule that begins with self-discipline and moral self-government Correct answer.

Explanation

For Gandhi, Swaraj meant self-rule in the sense of self-mastery and self-discipline, not merely the exit of the British. Political freedom was to be built on individual and community self-governance.

Question 12Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi's philosophy of education, presented at Wardha in 1937, is commonly known as which of the following?

  1. Mass Education
  2. Higher Education
  3. Basic Education Correct answer.
  4. National Education

Explanation

The Wardha scheme of 1937 proposed 'Basic Education', in which productive handicraft such as spinning or weaving forms the medium of instruction and helps cover the school's costs. Gandhi saw it as education for life, integrating head, heart, and hand.

Question 13Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

In the 1931 Second Round Table Conference in London, Gandhi represented which of the following?

  1. The Muslim League
  2. The Indian National Congress Correct answer.
  3. The British Labour Party
  4. The Indian princely states

Explanation

Gandhi attended the Second Round Table Conference as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress, following the Gandhi-Irwin Pact. The conference failed to resolve the communal question, which the British addressed through the Communal Award.

Question 14Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

Which of Gandhi's fasts did he undertake in September 1932 to oppose separate electorates for the Depressed Classes?

  1. The Ahmedabad mill fast
  2. The Poona Pact fast
  3. The Rajkot fast
  4. The Yerwada fast Correct answer.

Explanation

Gandhi began a fast in Yerwada jail in September 1932 against the Communal Award's separate electorates for the Depressed Classes, which he feared would permanently divide Hindu society. The fast led to the Poona Pact between Gandhi and Ambedkar, which replaced separate electorates with reserved seats.

Question 15Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi's concept of 'Satyagraha' differs from passive resistance chiefly because Satyagraha does which of the following?

  1. Seeks to convert the opponent through moral appeal and willing suffering Correct answer.
  2. Requires the sanction of a recognised political party
  3. Relies on the opponent's fear of economic loss
  4. Avoids any form of confrontation or protest

Explanation

Gandhi argued that passive resistance is a weapon of the weak that aims to coerce, whereas Satyagraha is the strength of the strong who seek to win over the opponent by truth and self-suffering. The goal is conversion, not humiliation or defeat.

Question 16Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi's principle of 'Ahimsa' in its positive sense is best described as which of the following?

  1. A legal right to refuse military service
  2. Active goodwill and compassion toward all beings Correct answer.
  3. A rule against eating cooked food
  4. The mere absence of physical violence

Explanation

Gandhi insisted that ahimsa is not merely non-injury but an active, positive love and compassion that seeks the good of others, including opponents. He extended it to thought, speech, and economic relations, not only to physical acts.

Question 17Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

In the Gandhian economic order, 'Swadeshi' primarily calls for which of the following?

  1. State ownership of all heavy industry
  2. Preference for locally produced goods and local self-reliance Correct answer.
  3. Rapid mechanisation of village production
  4. A complete ban on all international trade

Explanation

Swadeshi asks people to use goods produced in their own neighbourhood and region, sustaining local artisans and reducing dependence on distant or colonial industry. Gandhi paired it with khadi and village industries as instruments of economic and moral self-reliance.

Question 18Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi's 'Constructive Programme' was intended mainly to do which of the following?

  1. Organise industrialists into a funding body
  2. Build social and economic self-reliance as the positive counterpart to political agitation Correct answer.
  3. Replace the Congress with a new political party
  4. Recruit soldiers for an Indian national army

Explanation

The Constructive Programme listed tasks such as communal unity, removal of untouchability, khadi, village sanitation, and basic education, which Gandhi regarded as the substance of Swaraj. It was the positive social work that made political struggle meaningful.

Question 19Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi's 1909 work 'Hind Swaraj' is written in which form?

  1. A collection of poems
  2. A formal legal treatise
  3. An autobiography in chronological chapters
  4. A dialogue between an editor and a reader Correct answer.

Explanation

Hind Swaraj is cast as a dialogue between the Editor, who voices Gandhi's views, and a Reader who raises objections. This form lets Gandhi answer criticisms of modern civilisation, machinery, and parliamentary politics.

Question 20Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

According to Gandhi, the proper relationship between means and ends in political action is that which of the following holds?

  1. Means and ends are inseparable, so impure means corrupt the end Correct answer.
  2. Means matter only when they are legally permitted
  3. Any means is justified if the final outcome is good
  4. Ends are irrelevant because only intention counts

Explanation

Gandhi famously held that means and ends are convertible terms, so a good end cannot be reached through violence or deceit. He compared the process to a tree: the end grows out of the means as a tree grows from its seed.

Question 21Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi's 1893 experience at Pietermaritzburg railway station in South Africa is significant because it did which of the following?

  1. Prompted his decision to stay and fight racial discrimination rather than return to India Correct answer.
  2. Led directly to the founding of the Indian National Congress
  3. Marked the start of his legal career in London
  4. Convinced him to abandon non-violence

Explanation

Gandhi was ejected from a first-class carriage because of his race, and the humiliation led him to remain in South Africa and organise resistance to discriminatory laws. This experience is widely regarded as the beginning of his political awakening.

Question 22Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

In the Gandhi-Irwin Pact of 1931, the British government agreed to which of the following?

  1. Release political prisoners and permit salt manufacture by coastal residents Correct answer.
  2. Withdraw all British troops from Indian soil
  3. Grant complete independence to India immediately
  4. Abolish the salt tax permanently across India

Explanation

Under the pact, the government released Satyagraha prisoners not convicted of violence and allowed coastal people to make salt for local use, while Gandhi agreed to suspend civil disobedience and attend the Second Round Table Conference.

Question 23Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi's 'Quit India' resolution of August 1942 was adopted by which body?

  1. The Round Table Conference in London
  2. The All India Congress Committee in Bombay Correct answer.
  3. The Muslim League Council in Lahore
  4. The Chamber of Princes in Delhi

Explanation

The All India Congress Committee passed the Quit India resolution in Bombay in August 1942, demanding an orderly British withdrawal. Gandhi gave the call for 'Do or Die' and was arrested soon afterwards.

Question 24Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi's economic thinking is often described as 'bread labour', which refers to which of the following?

  1. The duty of every person to perform useful bodily labour for daily sustenance Correct answer.
  2. A form of indentured labour in the colonies
  3. A tax levied on agricultural produce
  4. A government scheme for subsidised food grain

Explanation

Bread labour is Gandhi's principle, drawn from Ruskin's 'Unto This Last', that everyone should earn their bread by physical labour. He practised it through spinning, farming, and manual sanitation work at his ashrams.

Question 25Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

Which of the following statements is most consistent with Gandhi's view of the relationship between religion and politics?

  1. Politics should be guided by the moral principles of religion while respecting all faiths Correct answer.
  2. Political leaders should be exempt from moral scrutiny
  3. Religion and politics must be kept entirely separate
  4. Only one religion should guide the affairs of the state

Explanation

Gandhi said those who believe religion has nothing to do with politics misunderstand both, yet he opposed a state religion and championed equal respect for all faiths, or sarva dharma sambhava. He sought a politics saturated with ethics rather than communal partisanship.

Question 26Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi returned to India from South Africa in January 1915. Which of the following best explains why he spent his first year travelling across India rather than launching any political campaign?

  1. He was negotiating the transfer of his South African assets to Indian trustees
  2. He was instructed by Gopal Krishna Gokhale to observe conditions firsthand before speaking publicly Correct answer.
  3. He was legally barred from political activity for a year under the Defence of India Act
  4. He was completing a lecture tour funded by the Indian National Congress

Explanation

Gandhi's political mentor Gopal Krishna Gokhale advised him to spend a year travelling with his ears open and mouth shut, learning Indian conditions before entering public life. This apprenticeship year explains his silence on political questions in 1915 and his focus on listening to peasants, workers and local leaders.

Question 27Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

In his writings on the Gita, Gandhi reinterpreted the battlefield of Kurukshetra chiefly as which of the following?

  1. An allegory for the moral struggle within the individual self Correct answer.
  2. A historical event whose military details must be accepted literally
  3. A metaphor for the conflict between Indian nationalism and colonial rule
  4. A symbolic account of the rivalry between the Pandavas and the British

Explanation

Gandhi read the Gita as an allegory of the inner battlefield, where the self must fight greed, fear and desire rather than external enemies. He therefore treated the text as a guide to self-discipline and non-attachment, not as a justification for war.

Question 28Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

A village panchayat wants to settle a land dispute using Gandhian methods. Which course of action is most consistent with his approach to conflict resolution?

  1. Refer the dispute to the district court and accept its verdict as final
  2. Persuade both parties to accept a mutually agreed arbitrator and honour the outcome Correct answer.
  3. Impose a settlement on the weaker party to restore order quickly
  4. Threaten a social boycott of the party that refuses to compromise

Explanation

Gandhian arbitration rests on voluntary acceptance of an impartial arbitrator and on the moral obligation to abide by the agreed award. Gandhi favoured persuasion and appeal to conscience over coercion, and he insisted that both sides consent to the process in advance.

Question 29Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

Which statement best distinguishes Gandhi's idea of 'Ram Rajya' from a modern parliamentary democracy?

  1. It assigns the state a central role in planning and redistributing property
  2. It envisages a stateless order in which authority rests on ethical duty and popular consent Correct answer.
  3. It requires a written constitution enforced by an independent judiciary
  4. It locates sovereignty in an elected legislature rather than in moral law

Explanation

Ram Rajya, in Gandhi's usage, describes an ideal order of moral governance rather than a particular institutional design; he famously said its meaning could be summed up as sovereignty of the people based on pure moral authority. It looks toward minimal state coercion and duty-centred citizenship.

Question 30Life and Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi insisted that a Satyagrahi must be willing to suffer rather than inflict suffering. Which consequence follows most directly from this requirement for the conduct of a campaign?

  1. Campaigns should be suspended whenever the authorities resort to mass arrests
  2. Leaders should conceal their plans so that the authorities cannot prepare counter-measures
  3. The opponent must be converted by appeals to conscience, so means must remain open and non-deceptive Correct answer.
  4. Participants should target symbols of state power to demonstrate resolve

Explanation

Because Satyagraha aims at converting the opponent rather than defeating him, the means used must be transparent and free of deception or violence. Self-suffering is meant to awaken the opponent's conscience, which presupposes honesty about intentions and demands.

Question 31Truth, Non-violence and Satyagraha

Gandhi described the relationship between truth and non-violence by calling non-violence the means and truth the end. Which statement best expresses this relationship as he developed it?

  1. Truth is provisional and may be sacrificed whenever non-violence is at stake
  2. Non-violence is the goal and truth is merely one tactic for achieving social harmony
  3. Truth and non-violence are unrelated ideals that must be pursued separately
  4. Truth is the goal of life and non-violence is the only legitimate method for realising it Correct answer.

Explanation

Gandhi held that truth is the end and ahimsa the means, so the two cannot be separated: the method must already embody the goal. Because truth is approached through non-violent means, a gain achieved by violence is not a real gain in truth. This is why he said the means and the end are convertible terms in his thought.

Question 32Truth, Non-violence and Satyagraha

In Gandhian vocabulary, 'satyagraha' is best translated as which of the following?

  1. Passive resistance to an unjust ruler
  2. Suffering accepted as a punishment for sin
  3. Non-cooperation with modern civilisation
  4. Insistence on or holding fast to truth Correct answer.

Explanation

Gandhi coined satyagraha from satya (truth) and agraha (insistence or firm grasping), so it means holding fast to truth. He deliberately preferred it to 'passive resistance', which he thought suggested weakness or anger. The satyagrahi seeks to convert the opponent through truth and self-suffering, not to coerce him.

Question 33Truth, Non-violence and Satyagraha

Gandhi's first major satyagraha campaign, in South Africa in 1906, was launched in response to which measure?

  1. The deportation of indentured labourers back to India
  2. The ban on Indians owning land in Natal
  3. The compulsory registration and fingerprinting of Indians in the Transvaal Correct answer.
  4. The imposition of a salt tax on Indian labourers

Explanation

The Transvaal Asiatic Ordinance requiring Indians to register and be fingerprinted provoked the first satyagraha, taken as a vow at the Empire Theatre in Johannesburg in September 1906. Gandhi regarded the surrender of fingerprints as a surrender of self-respect. The campaign established the pattern of courting imprisonment rather than obeying an unjust law.

Question 34Truth, Non-violence and Satyagraha

Gandhi's concept of 'sarvodaya' is most closely associated with which idea?

  1. Rapid industrialisation to remove poverty
  2. The supremacy of the state over individual conscience
  3. The rule of a morally trained elite
  4. The welfare and upliftment of all, especially the poorest and last person Correct answer.

Explanation

Sarvodaya means the rise or welfare of all, and Gandhi framed it around the last person, the daridranarayana. He took the term from Ruskin's 'Unto This Last', which he paraphrased in Gujarati. The idea rules out schemes that benefit a majority while leaving the weakest behind.

Question 35Truth, Non-violence and Satyagraha

In Gandhian thought, what does 'swaraj' most fundamentally mean?

  1. The transfer of power from British to Indian politicians
  2. The establishment of a strong centralised army
  3. The abolition of all forms of taxation
  4. Self-rule understood as self-control and moral autonomy of the individual and community Correct answer.

Explanation

For Gandhi swaraj was primarily self-rule in the sense of self-mastery, with political independence as its outward expression. He said swaraj must be experienced first in the individual's control over his own desires. Mere transfer of power without internal change he called 'English rule without the Englishman'.

Question 36Truth, Non-violence and Satyagraha

Gandhi's principle of 'bread labour' holds that every person should do which of the following?

  1. Fast regularly to purify the body
  2. Give a fixed share of income to the poor
  3. Restrict himself to a vegetarian diet
  4. Earn his daily bread by bodily labour rather than by exploiting others Correct answer.

Explanation

Bread labour is the duty of performing useful physical work to earn one's food, a principle Gandhi drew from Tolstoy and Ruskin. It attacks the division in which some live on the labour of others. He himself took up spinning and scavenging as forms of such labour.

Question 37Truth, Non-violence and Satyagraha

What did Gandhi mean by 'tapasya' in the context of satyagraha?

  1. A ritual sacrifice performed before a campaign
  2. Physical punishment imposed by the state on satyagrahis
  3. Voluntary self-discipline and suffering undertaken for the sake of truth Correct answer.
  4. A fast undertaken only to coerce opponents

Explanation

Tapasya in Gandhi's usage is self-imposed discipline and voluntary suffering, undertaken to purify oneself and to strengthen the soul. It is chosen by the satyagrahi, never inflicted by another. This inward austerity is what gives satyagraha its moral force.

Question 38Truth, Non-violence and Satyagraha

Which vow, adopted by Gandhi in 1906, expressed his commitment to brahmacharya?

  1. A vow of celibacy taken with Kasturba's consent Correct answer.
  2. A vow to spin daily for one hour
  3. A vow of silence observed every Monday
  4. A vow to fast on all religious festivals

Explanation

In 1906 Gandhi took a vow of brahmacharya, with Kasturba's agreement, as part of his discipline for public service. He linked it to self-control and the conservation of energy for satyagraha. Silence, spinning and fasting were separate practices, not this vow.

Question 39Truth, Non-violence and Satyagraha

A satyagrahi faces a law requiring him to do something he believes to be unjust. According to Gandhi, what is the correct course?

  1. Resist the law secretly to avoid arrest
  2. Obey the law until a majority also agrees to disobey it
  3. Obey the law while campaigning for its repeal from within the legislature
  4. Peacefully disobey the law and willingly accept the penalty Correct answer.

Explanation

Civil disobedience in satyagraha means open, non-violent breach of an unjust rule combined with the willing acceptance of punishment. The satyagrahi respects the law's penalty even while refusing the law itself. This distinguishes satyagraha from evasion or covert resistance.

Question 40Truth, Non-violence and Satyagraha

Why did Gandhi insist that a satyagrahi must have no hatred towards the opponent?

  1. Because hatred is legally punishable in a satyagraha campaign
  2. Because the aim is to convert the opponent by touching his conscience, not to defeat him Correct answer.
  3. Because the opponent is always morally innocent
  4. Because non-hatred guarantees quick success

Explanation

Satyagraha seeks to win over the adversary by appealing to his conscience, which is impossible if the satyagrahi nurses hatred. Gandhi therefore required satyagrahis to separate the evil from the evildoer and to love the person while opposing the wrong. Victory in satyagraha means a change of heart, not humiliation of the opponent.

Question 41Truth, Non-violence and Satyagraha

Gandhi's Champaran satyagraha of 1917 was directed at which grievance?

  1. The salt tax levied on coastal villagers
  2. The oppressive tinkathia system imposed on indigo cultivators Correct answer.
  3. The land revenue demanded by the Talukdars of Kheda
  4. The mill owners' lockout in Ahmedabad

Explanation

In Champaran, Bihar, peasants were compelled under the tinkathia system to grow indigo on a proportion of their land on unfair terms. Gandhi's inquiry into their conditions led to the abolition of the system. It was his first satyagraha in India and established his method of fact-finding followed by negotiation.

Question 42Truth, Non-violence and Satyagraha

In the Ahmedabad mill strike of 1918, Gandhi's decision to undertake a fast was intended chiefly to do which of the following?

  1. Persuade the workers to end the strike
  2. Strengthen the resolve of the striking workers and appeal to the employers' conscience Correct answer.
  3. Punish the mill owners for refusing arbitration
  4. Force the government to fix a minimum wage

Explanation

Gandhi fasted during the Ahmedabad strike to steady the workers' morale and to touch the employers' sense of fairness, having insisted on arbitration. He saw the fast as a moral appeal rather than a weapon of coercion. The dispute was settled through arbitration with the workers gaining a wage increase.

Question 43Truth, Non-violence and Satyagraha

Which feature most clearly distinguishes Gandhi's Rowlatt satyagraha of 1919 from an ordinary political agitation?

  1. It relied on armed volunteers to protect demonstrators
  2. It combined nationwide hartal with the willing acceptance of arrest and official repression Correct answer.
  3. It was confined to a single province and a single industry
  4. It aimed at immediate transfer of power to the Congress

Explanation

The Rowlatt satyagraha was organised as a moral protest against the repressive Rowlatt Act, using hartals, peaceful defiance and the acceptance of arrest. Gandhi called for a nationwide response rather than a sectional one. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar occurred during the repression that followed.

Question 44Truth, Non-violence and Satyagraha

The Dandi march of 1930 was chosen by Gandhi as the opening of civil disobedience because salt was which of the following?

  1. A commodity used by every household, making the injustice of the tax universally intelligible Correct answer.
  2. A strategic mineral needed for industrial production
  3. A luxury item whose taxation affected only the rich
  4. A symbol of religious ritual alone

Explanation

Salt was consumed by rich and poor alike, so the tax on it made the injustice of colonial rule concrete and universal. By making salt at Dandi, Gandhi broke the government's monopoly openly and invited arrest. The choice turned an abstract demand for swaraj into a mass, intelligible act.

Question 45Truth, Non-violence and Satyagraha

What did Gandhi mean when he said that in satyagraha 'the means and the end are convertible terms'?

  1. A good end cannot be reached through violent or dishonest means because the means shape the result Correct answer.
  2. The end justifies whatever means are effective
  3. Means and ends are separate questions that never influence each other
  4. Means may be chosen freely provided the end is morally good

Explanation

Gandhi argued that the means are the seed and the end the tree, so a violent means will produce a violent outcome. Purity of means is therefore not optional but constitutive of the goal. This is why he rejected shortcuts that secured freedom through hatred or deception.

Question 46Truth, Non-violence and Satyagraha

In Gandhian economics, what role does 'trusteeship' assign to the wealthy?

  1. They surrender all property to the state at once
  2. They must distribute their wealth equally among all workers immediately
  3. They hold their surplus wealth in trust for the service of society Correct answer.
  4. They are entitled to unlimited accumulation as a reward for ability

Explanation

Trusteeship asks the wealthy to treat surplus wealth as a trust held for the community's benefit, renouncing private enjoyment of it beyond need. Gandhi preferred this voluntary conversion to confiscation by the state. It is a moral appeal to the individual conscience rather than a legal mechanism.

Question 47Truth, Non-violence and Satyagraha

Which statement correctly captures Gandhi's view of 'varnashrama' as he defended it?

  1. Varnashrama justifies the exclusion of Dalits from temples and wells
  2. Varnashrama should be abolished along with all forms of manual labour
  3. Varnashrama requires the strict hereditary ranking of castes by purity
  4. Varnashrama should be based on duty and service, not on birth-based superiority or untouchability Correct answer.

Explanation

Gandhi defended varnashrama only as a scheme of duties and occupations, insisting it had nothing to do with high and low or with untouchability. He repudiated birth-based superiority and campaigned against untouchability throughout his life. Ambedkar, by contrast, rejected varnashrama altogether, which is a key point of debate in the syllabus.

Question 48Truth, Non-violence and Satyagraha

Gandhi's 'constructive programme' was meant to complement satyagraha. Which set of activities best represents it?

  1. Armed training of volunteers, boycotts of foreign goods and tax strikes
  2. Parliamentary electioneering, petitioning and lobbying of officials
  3. Legal litigation, press campaigns and public meetings
  4. Spinning and khadi, village sanitation, Hindu-Muslim unity, removal of untouchability and basic education Correct answer.

Explanation

The constructive programme consisted of positive social work such as khadi, sanitation, communal unity, removal of untouchability and Nayi Talim. Gandhi saw it as building the self-reliant society that satyagraha presupposed. Without such constructive work, he thought political agitation would be hollow.

Question 49Truth, Non-violence and Satyagraha

Gandhi's concept of 'Nayi Talim' or basic education centred on which principle?

  1. Learning through English-medium instruction for upward mobility
  2. Learning through rote memorisation of religious texts
  3. Learning through a productive craft that also covers the cost of schooling Correct answer.
  4. Learning through military drill and physical training

Explanation

Nayi Talim, or basic education, made a handicraft such as spinning or agriculture the medium of instruction, so that learning and productive work went together. Gandhi argued that such education would be self-supporting and would dignify manual labour. It was also intended to make schooling available to village children at low cost.

Question 50Truth, Non-violence and Satyagraha

A campaigner wants to apply Gandhian satyagraha to a modern environmental dispute. Which step is most faithful to the method?

  1. Threaten legal action and wait for a court ruling
  2. Block roads and damage equipment until the authorities give in
  3. Document the facts, appeal to the opponent's conscience, and accept personal inconvenience without harming persons or property Correct answer.
  4. Organise a secret boycott to avoid public identification

Explanation

Satyagraha begins with careful fact-finding and a moral appeal, and it requires the resister to bear the cost personally rather than inflict it on others. Property damage and coercion of the public fall outside the method. A modern campaign can adapt these steps while keeping its non-violent character.