In the given question, a statement of Assertion is followed by a statement of Reason. Mark the correct answer.
Assertion: Before Partition Congress had agreed to grant considerable autonomy to the provinces.
Reason: They wanted to assure the Muslim League that within the provinces where the Muslim League came to power the Centre would not interfere.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Both the Assertion and the Reason are correct and the Reason is the correct explanation of the Assertion.
Assertion (A): Before Partition Congress had agreed to grant considerable autonomy to the provinces. — True. Before Partition the Congress had agreed to give the provinces considerable autonomy.
Reason (R): They wanted to assure the Muslim League that within the provinces where the Muslim League came to power the Centre would not interfere. — True. The aim was to assure the Muslim League that the Centre would not interfere in provinces where the League came to power.
Why R explains A? The Congress wanted the Muslim League to accept a united India. The League feared a Centre that would interfere in provinces it ruled. So the Congress offered wide provincial autonomy because this assurance would calm that fear. R gives the purpose behind A.
NCERT (2026-27): “4.2 “What we want today is a strong Government” … “to power the Centre would not interfere. After Partition most nationalists changed their position because they felt that the earlier political pressures for a decentralised structure were no longer there. There was already a unitary system in place, imposed by the colonial government. The violence of the times gave a further push to centralisation, now seen as necessary both to forestall chaos and to plan for the country’s economic development. The Constitution thus showed a distinct bias towards the rights of the Union of India over those of its constituent states.” |