Who were the main carriers of nationalism during colonial period?

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 3

The correct answer is Option (3) → Upper middle class

Note 1: The given answer is as per the official NTA Answer Key. However, this answer appears to be wrong: the textbook says that ‘the urban middle classes were the main carriers of nationalism’; it speaks of the middle classes, not of an upper layer of them, which supports Option (2), Middle class, as explained below.

Option (2) Middle class — Should be Correct, but has been taken as Incorrect as per the NTA answer key. Colonialism created new classes and communities. The emerging middle classes, with the aid of western style education, began to challenge colonialism on its own ground. The urban middle classes were the main carriers of nationalism, and they led the campaign for freedom.

Option (3) Upper middle class — Correct as per the NTA answer key; however, it should have been Incorrect. The carriers of nationalism were the middle classes as a whole, the urban and western-educated middle classes, not one upper layer within them.

Note 2: The lines on the new classes that colonialism created, which carry this sentence, were there in the chapter ‘Introducing Indian Society’ of the pre-rationalised NCERT, which NTA followed in 2023. This portion has been deleted from the NCERT book (2025-26), though the chapter is still there.

NCERT (Pre-rationalised): “1.1 Introducing an Introduction … … Historically, an Indian nationalism took shape under British colonialism. The shared experience of colonial domination helped unify and energise different sections of the community. The emerging middle classes began, with the aid of western style education, to challenge colonialism on its own ground. Ironically, colonialism and western education also gave the impetus for the rediscovery of tradition. This led to the developments on the cultural and social front which solidified emergent forms of community at the national and regional levels. Colonialism created new classes and communities which came to play significant roles in subsequent history. The urban middle classes were the main carriers of nationalism and they led the campaign for freedom.…”