Read the passage and answer the question:
“The British element is gone, but they have left the mischief behind” :
Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel said :
It is no use saying that we ask for separate electorates, because it is good for us. We have heard it long enough. We have heard it for years, and as a result of this agitation, we are now a separate nation... Can you show me one free country where there are separate electorates? If so, I shall be prepared to accept it. But in this unfortunate country if this separate electorate is going to be persisted in, even after the division of the country, woe betide the country; it is not worth living in. Therefore, I say, it is not for my good alone, it is for your own good that I say it, forget the past. One day, we may be united ... The British element is gone, but they have left the mischief behind. We do not want to perpetuate that mischief. (Hear, hear). When the British introduced this element they had not expected that they will have to go so soon. They wanted it for their easy administration. That is all right. But they have left the legacy behind. Are we to get out of it or not?
The provision of a separate electorate introduced by the British resulted in:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Division of nation
The passage talks about how the agitation for separate electorates made one community feel like “a separate nation”. For Patel, separate electorates were a poison that had turned one community against another, divided the nation, caused bloodshed and led to the tragic partition of the country.
Hence, the answer is Division of nation.
NCERT (2026-27): “3.1 The problem with separate electorates … Partition had made nationalists fervently opposed to the idea of separate electorates. They were haunted by the fear of continued civil war, riots and violence. Separate electorates was a ‘poison that has entered the body politic of our country’, declared Sardar Patel. It was a demand that had turned one community against another, divided the nation, caused bloodshed, and led to the tragic partition of the country. ‘Do you want peace in this land? If so do away with it (separate electorates),’ urged Patel.”
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