RAS question
The Home Rule Movement demanded:
Correct answer: (A) Self-governance within the British Empire.
The Home Rule Movement demanded home rule or self-government for India within the British Empire, on the model of the Irish Home Rule Movement.
Explanation
The Home Rule Movement did not ask for immediate separation from Britain; it asked for home rule, meaning self-government for India within the British Empire. The verified official page describes the Indian Home Rule Movement of 1916-1918 as founded in British India on the lines of the Irish Home Rule Movement. It says the movement aimed to attain home rule or self-government for India under the British Empire, along the lines of countries such as Canada and Australia. That is why option A is exact: the demand was constitutional self-government inside the imperial framework, not a later demand for complete independence, socio-economic restructuring, or partition.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) Abolition of the zamindari system was a later socio-economic demand, while the Home Rule Movement's demand was self-government within the British Empire.
- (C) Complete independence from Britain does not fit the Home Rule demand, and complete independence was demanded later at the Lahore session in 1929.
- (D) Partition of India was never a demand of the Home Rule Movement, which sought self-government for India within the British Empire.
Concept
This tests the Home Rule phase of the Indian freedom movement and the difference between self-government within the Empire and complete independence. RAS repeats this because early nationalist politics often turns on precise constitutional vocabulary.