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