RAS question
At which Congress session did Mahatma Gandhi become the undisputed leader of the national movement for the first time?
Correct answer: (C) Nagpur Session, 1920.
Mahatma Gandhi first became the undisputed leader of the national movement at the Nagpur Session of the Indian National Congress in December 1920.
Explanation
The Nagpur Session of 1920 marked the point at which Gandhi's leadership moved from persuasive influence to organisational command. NCERT notes that Gandhi had argued at the Calcutta session in September 1920 for a non-cooperation movement in support of Khilafat and swaraj, but Congress leaders remained divided over boycott and the risk of popular violence. At Nagpur in December 1920, that deadlock ended: a compromise was worked out and the Non-Cooperation programme was adopted. Institutionally, Congress accepted swaraj as its goal, reorganised provincial committees on linguistic lines, widened mass membership through a 4 anna fee, set up the Congress Working Committee, and accepted Hindi as the national language. These changes made Gandhi the supreme leader of the movement.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Belgaum 1924 cannot be the first such moment because the Nagpur Session of 1920 had already adopted Gandhi's Non-Cooperation programme and reorganised Congress around mass politics.
- (B) The Calcutta Special Session of September 1920 showed Gandhi persuading Congress leaders on non-cooperation, but NCERT says the programme was finally adopted only at Nagpur in December 1920.
- (D) At Amritsar 1919, Gandhi had emerged through the Rowlatt satyagraha context, but the broad-based Congress acceptance of his programme came later at Nagpur in 1920.
Concept
This tests the Gandhian phase of the national movement, especially how Congress shifted from elite politics to mass mobilisation. RAS often asks this because the Nagpur Session links organisation, ideology and leadership in one turning point.