RAS question
Which reform was announced by the British partly in response to the Home Rule agitation?
Correct answer: (D) Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms.
The British announced the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms partly in response to the Home Rule agitation and India's contribution to the First World War.
Explanation
The Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms are the right answer because they followed the Home Rule agitation's organised demand for self-government. The Home Rule Leagues tried to pressurise the British to concede Home Rule, and the government saw the movement as a united, organised all-India opposition. After considering whether to repress or concede, Secretary of State Edwin Montagu announced movement towards self-government, with the Montagu-Chelmsford scheme published in 1918. The reforms are linked to the Government of India Act 1919, with their key institutional result being dyarchy in the provinces and wider Indian participation in governance.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) The Indian Councils Act 1892 came decades before the Home Rule agitation, so it cannot have been announced in response to that movement.
- (B) The Morley-Minto Reforms were passed in 1909, before the Home Rule Movement had emerged as a wartime campaign for self-government.
- (C) The Government of India Act 1935 came much later, whereas the response connected with Home Rule was the Montagu-Chelmsford scheme leading to the 1919 reforms.
Concept
This tests the Modern Indian History link between nationalist pressure and constitutional reform. It recurs in RAS because reforms such as Morley-Minto, Montagu-Chelmsford and the 1935 Act must be placed in their correct political context and chronology.