PYQ Vault · Paper 1 · Indian National Movement

Trace the role of militant and revolutionary movements in Indian national movement.

How the answer moves

The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.

Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes

Route 1 moderate constitutionalism failed to win concessions militant + revolutionary movements gave nationalism its first language of defiance

Route 2 goal widened from reform to complete freedom these two currents drove that shift

Body flow

militant reaction to moderate “political mendicancy” (Aurobindo) Tilak, Pal, Rai, Aurobindo Swaraj through Swadeshi, boycott, national education, passive resistance Swadeshi Movement (partition of Bengal, 1905) = first mass agitation, beyond elite Sumit Sarkar: revolutionary trend within Swadeshi secret societies (Anushilan, Jugantar, Abhinav Bharat, Ghadar) + armed action HRA HSRA’s socialist–secular turn Bhagat Singh’s anti-imperialism + rejection of communalism women (Pritilata) widen the base

Counter-view

narrow, urban, middle-class base individual heroism could not replace sustained mass politics

Conclusion routes

Route 1 courage + radical critique kept complete independence alive when constitutional politics paused

Route 2 not self-sufficient, but energised and radicalised the wider national movement

Model answer

Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.

Handwritten model answer — UPSC PSIR 2020, Indian National Movement