Read the passage and answer the questions:
“The British element is gone, but they have left the mischief behind”
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 mischief of separate electorates was left behind by:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → The British Government
‘The British element is gone, but they have left the mischief behind.’ The mischief is the system of separate electorates, which the British had introduced and left behind when they went.
Option (1) The Muslim League — Incorrect. The speaker refers to the agitation for separate electorates, but he says the system itself was introduced by the British.
Option (2) The British Government — Correct. ‘They’ in the sentence are the British, who introduced this element for their easy administration.
Option (3) People leaving due to partition — Incorrect. The ‘British element’ that is gone means British rule, not the people who migrated at Partition.
Option (4) The Nawabs and the Rajas — Incorrect. The princes do not come into the passage; it speaks only of the British and the system they left.
NCERT: Themes in Indian History Part III — Chapter 12: Framing the Constitution (2026-27)
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