Given below are two statements, one labelled as Assertion (A) and the other as Reason (R):
Assertion (A): Lala Lajpat Rai argued in 1916 that the Congress was a 'product of Lord Dufferin's brain'.
Reason (R): He believed that the Congress was meant to protect the British Empire's interests first and India's interests only second.
In the light of the above statements, choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below:
- ABoth (A) and (R) are true, and (R) is the correct explanation of (A)
- BBoth (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A)
- C(A) is true, but (R) is false
- D(A) is false, but (R) is true
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: (a) Both (A) and (R) are true, and (R) is the correct explanation of (A)
Explanation
Both are true, and (R) explains (A).
In 1916, in *Young India*, Lala Lajpat Rai used the safety-valve theory to attack the Moderates. He said that the Congress was a "product of Lord Dufferin's brain": A. O. Hume had founded it with the Viceroy's approval to let out Indian discontent safely, so that the British Empire would be protected first and India's interests would come second.
Other views of the Congress's founding:
- lightning conductor: G. K. Gokhale said that the Indian leaders used Hume as a lightning conductor, since an organisation founded by Indians alone would have been suppressed;
- conspiracy: the Marxist R. Palme Dutt, in *India Today*, called it a British plan to head off a mass revolt.