RAS question
Gandhi represented the Congress at which Round Table Conference?
Correct answer: (D) Second Round Table Conference.
Mahatma Gandhi represented the Indian National Congress at the Second Round Table Conference in 1931.
Explanation
Gandhi attended the Second Round Table Conference after the Gandhi-Irwin Pact of 5 March 1931. Under this arrangement, the Congress suspended the Civil Disobedience Movement and decided that Gandhi would be the sole representative and spokesman of the Congress at the second session of the Round Table Conference. This is why the answer is the Second Round Table Conference, not the first or third: the Congress had not participated in the first session, and Gandhi's Congress role was specifically tied to the 1931 second session following the pact.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) None of the above is wrong because Gandhi did attend a Round Table Conference: he represented the Congress at the second session.
- (B) The Third Round Table Conference is wrong because Congress boycotted that session, so Gandhi did not represent it there.
- (C) The First Round Table Conference is wrong because Congress boycotted the first session rather than sending Gandhi as its representative.
Concept
This tests the national movement phase around constitutional negotiations, especially the Gandhi-Irwin Pact and the Round Table Conferences. It recurs in RAS because the exam often asks who participated in key colonial-era negotiations and what political settlement led to that participation.