RAS question
The Surat Split of 1907 was between:
Correct answer: (A) Moderates and Extremists.
The Surat Split of 1907 was an internal split in the Indian National Congress between the Moderates and the Extremists.
Explanation
The Surat Split was not a Hindu-Muslim or British-Indian confrontation; it was a split within the Indian National Congress. NIOS describes how the rift between the Moderates and the Extremists widened inside the Congress and finally resulted in the split at the Surat session in 1907. The Moderates included leaders such as Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Pherozeshah Mehta, and the Extremists included Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai and Bipin Chandra Pal. The immediate dispute was over the election of the Congress president, with the Moderates backing Rashbihari Ghosh. That is why the historically precise answer is Moderates and Extremists.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) Hindus and Muslims were not the two sides in the Surat Split; the issue was ideological conflict within the Congress, not a communal division.
- (C) The split was not between British rulers and Indians because NIOS places it inside the Congress, between its Moderate and Extremist wings.
- (D) Congress and the Muslim League were not the opposing sides here; the rupture occurred within the Indian National Congress itself.
Concept
This tests the ideological phases of the Indian National Congress in the early national movement. RAS often asks such events because they link leadership, methods of struggle and Congress organisation in one factual node.