What is not a reason for the Congress to be considered as the all-inclusive party during the national movement?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → The rigid organizational structure of the Congress.
Option (1) The Congress accommodated different groups and interests. A reason (Incorrect). Peasants and industrialists, workers and owners, villagers and city dwellers all found space in the Congress, even when their interests clashed.
Option (2) With every civil disobedience movement, the social base of the Congress expanded. A reason (Incorrect). The party began with the urban, English-speaking elite, but with every civil disobedience movement it launched, its social base widened.
Option (3) The rigid organizational structure of the Congress. Not a reason (Correct). The opposite was true. The Congress was a ‘platform’ for numerous groups, and even organisations and parties with their own constitution and structure were allowed to exist within it. A flexible, open party, not a rigid one, is what made it all-inclusive.
Option (4) Its members and leadership came from different ideologies. A reason (Incorrect). It was an ideological coalition as well, holding the revolutionary and the pacifist, the conservative and the radical, the extremist and the moderate.
NCERT (2025-26): “Congress as social and ideological coalition … Thus the Congress began as a party dominated by the English speaking, upper caste, upper middle-class and urban elite. But with every civil disobedience movement it launched, its social base widened. It brought together diverse groups, whose interests were often contradictory. Peasants and industrialists, urban dwellers and villagers, workers and owners, middle, lower and upper classes and castes, all found space in the Congress.… Congress as social and ideological coalition … In this sense the Congress was an ideological coalition as well. It accommodated the revolutionary and pacifist, conservative and radical, extremist and moderate and the right, left and all shades of the centre. The Congress was a ‘platform’ for numerous groups, interests and even political parties to take part in the national movement. In pre-independence days, many organisations and parties with their own constitution and organisational structure were allowed to exist within the Congress.” |