RAS question
The Karachi Session of 1931 is significant for:
Correct answer: (A) Resolution on Fundamental Rights and National Economic Programme.
The Karachi Session of 1931 is significant for adopting the Resolution on Fundamental Rights and the National Economic Programme.
Explanation
The Karachi Session of the Indian National Congress, held in March 1931 under Sardar Patel's presidency, is remembered for the Resolution on Fundamental Rights and the National Economic Programme. IGNOU says the session became memorable for this resolution and links it to the Congress view that political freedom had to include real economic freedom for the masses. The resolution's programme promised measures such as living wages for workers and state ownership or control of key industries, mines and transport. Nehru drafted the resolution, and it also set out civil liberties, labour rights and the state's role in key industries, making it an early blueprint for free India's governance.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) The Partition plan belongs to a much later phase of the freedom struggle, while the 1931 Karachi Session is tied to rights and economic policy.
- (C) The Quit India Resolution was passed in 1942, so it cannot explain the significance of the 1931 Karachi Session.
- (D) The Non-Cooperation Movement began in 1920, whereas the Karachi Session of 1931 is significant for its Fundamental Rights and National Economic Programme resolution.
Concept
This tests the Indian national movement's shift from political mobilisation to a rights-based and economic vision of freedom. It recurs in RAS because the Karachi resolution links modern Indian constitutional ideas with the economic planning concerns of the late freedom struggle.