Another, and scarcely less serious, problem faced by the new nation was that of the princely states. As one contemporary observer remarked, some maharajas now began "to luxuriate in wild dreams of independent power in an India of many partitions". The members of the Constituent Assembly were not elected on the basis of universal franchise. The Constituent Assembly that came into being was dominated by one party: the Congress. But the League chose to boycott the Constituent Assembly, pressing its demand for Pakistan with a separate constitution.
The missing lines end with a question about the debates inside the Constituent Assembly. What does that question suggest?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → The debates could not stay cut off from events in the country around them
Option (1) The debates were held in secret, away from public view — Incorrect. The debates were the voices of members, heard across the country. Secrecy plays no part in the missing lines.
Option (2) The debates were guided by the rules of the British Parliament — Incorrect. No tie to British Parliament rules is described here. The missing lines link the debates to the troubled times outside.
Option (3) The debates left the problem of the princely states to the British — Incorrect. The princely states were a serious problem for the new nation itself. The debates did not hand it back to the departing British.
Option (4) The debates could not stay cut off from events in the country around them — Correct. Partition, riots and the princely states were the background in which the Assembly met. Its debates could not remain insulated from what was happening outside.
NCERT (2026-27): “1. A Tumultuous Time … “This was the background in which the Constituent Assembly met. How could the debates within the Assembly remain insulated from what was happening outside?” |