RAS question
The Lucknow Pact of 1916 was significant because it:
Correct answer: (D) United Moderates and Extremists, and brought Congress-Muslim League alliance.
The Lucknow Pact of 1916 was significant because it reunited the moderate and radical wings of the Indian National Congress and produced an agreement between the Congress and the All-India Muslim League.
Explanation
The Lucknow Pact was a December 1916 agreement between the Indian National Congress, headed by Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and the All-India Muslim League, led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Britannica notes that the Lucknow meeting marked the reunion of the moderate and radical wings of the Congress. That is why option D captures its political significance: it combined an internal Congress reconciliation with a Congress-Muslim League arrangement. The pact also dealt with Hindu-Muslim relations, and the Congress accepted separate electorates for Muslims in provincial council elections. This makes the pact important not because it rejected communal representation, but because Congress agreed to it as part of a wider settlement.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) The pact did not reject separate electorates; the Congress accepted separate electorates for Muslims in provincial council elections.
- (B) The pact was a Congress-Muslim League agreement in 1916, not the Congress demand for complete independence, which occurred in 1929.
- (C) The pact preceded the Non-Cooperation Movement, which began in 1920.
Concept
This tests the nationalist movement phase in which Congress factions, communal representation, and Congress-League cooperation intersected. RAS returns to such moments because they explain how constitutional politics and mass politics evolved before Non-Cooperation.