Read
the following passage carefully and answer questions:
It
should be remembered that the nationalist movement in India, like all
nationalist movements, was essentially a bourgeois movement. It represented the
natural historical stage of development, and to consider it or to criticise it
as a working-class movement is wrong. Gandhi represented that movement and the Indian
masses in relation to that movement to a supreme degree, and he became the
voice of Indian people to that extent. The main contribution of
Gandhi to India and the Indian masses has been through the powerful movements
which he launched through the National Congress. Through nation-wide action he
sought to mould the millions, and largely succeeded in doing so, and changing
them from a demoralised, timid and hopeless mass, bullied and crushed by every
dominant interest, and incapable of resistance, into a people with self-respect
and self-reliance, resisting tyranny, and capable of united action and
sacrifice for a larger cause.
Gandhi
made people think of political and economic issues and every village and every
bazaar hummed with argument and debate on the new ideas and hopes that filled
the people. That was an amazing psychological change. The time was ripe for it,
of course, and circumstances and world conditions worked for this change. But a
great leader is necessary to take advantage of circumstances and conditions.
Gandhi was that leader, and he released many of the bonds that imprisoned and
disabled our minds, and none of us who experienced it can ever forget that
great feeling of release and exhilaration that came over the Indian people.
Gandhi
has played a revolutionary role in India of the greatest importance because he
knew how to make the most of the objective conditions and could reach the heart
of the masses, while groups with a more advanced ideology functioned largely in
the air because they did not fit in with those conditions and could therefore
not evoke any substantial response from the masses.
It
is perfectly true that Gandhi, functioning in the nationalist plane, does not
think in terms of the conflict of classes, and tries to compose their
differences. But the action he has indulged and taught the people has
inevitably raised mass consciousness tremendously and made social issues vital.
Gandhi and the Congress must be judged by the policies they pursue and the
action they indulge in. But behind this, personality counts and colours those
policies and activities. In the case of very exceptional person like Gandhi the
question of personality becomes especially important in order to understand and
appraise him. To us he has represented the spirit and honour of India, the
yearning of her sorrowing millions to be rid of their innumerable burdens, and
an insult to him by the British Government or others has been an insult to
India and her people.
1. Which one of
the following is true of the given passage?
(A) The passage
is a critique of Gandhi’s role in Indian movement for independence.
(B) The passage
hails the role of Gandhi in India’s freedom movement.
(C) The author
is neutral on Gandhi’s role in India’s freedom movement.
(D) It is an
account of Indian National Congress’s support to the working-class movement.
2. The change
that the Gandhian movement brought among the Indian masses was
(A) Physical
(B) Cultural
(C)
Technological
(D) Psychological
3. To consider
the nationalist movement or to criticise it as a working-class movement was
wrong because it was a
(A) historical
movement
(B) voice of the
Indian people
(C) bourgeois
movement
4. Gandhi played
a revolutionary role in India because he could
(A) preach
morality
(B) reach the
heart of Indians
(C) see the
conflict of classes
(D) lead the
Indian National Congress
5. Groups with
advanced ideology functioned in the air as they did not fit in with
(A) objective
conditions of masses
(B) the Gandhian
ideology
(C) the class
consciousness of the people
(D) the
differences among masses
6. The author
concludes the passage by
(A) criticising
the Indian masses
(B) the Gandhian
movement
(C) pointing out
the importance of the personality of Gandhi
(D) identifying
the sorrows of millions
of Indians
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