UPSC Prelims 2016 · Question 74 of 98
UPSC Prelims 2016 question on Swadeshi Boycott Origins
- ExamUPSC CSE
- Year2016
- PaperGeneral Studies Paper I
- SubjectModern History
- TopicIndian National Movement
- DifficultyEasy
- TypeDirect
The ‘Swadeshi’ and ‘Boycott’ were adopted as methods of struggle for the first time during the
Show answer
Answer: A. agitation against the Partition of Bengal
Verdict
The answer is the agitation against the Partition of Bengal. Swadeshi and Boycott were first adopted as methods there.
Analysis
The partition announced in 1905 provoked the Swadeshi movement, in which boycott of British goods and the promotion of indigenous production were adopted as instruments of political struggle for the first time. The Home Rule movement of 1916 used agitation for self government through leagues rather than economic boycott as its opening method. The Non-Cooperation movement of 1920 revived and extended boycott on a national scale but did not originate it, and the Simon Commission of 1928 was met with a boycott of a different kind, the refusal to cooperate with the commission itself.
Source
Bipan Chandra, India's Struggle for Independence and NCERT material, page 195.
How to crack it
The word first in the stem converts this into a chronology question, so order the four options by date and take the earliest at which the method actually appeared. That gives 1905 immediately. Watch for the second trap, that a later and more famous use of a method feels like its origin, which is why Non-Cooperation attracts wrong answers here. First use and most famous use are different questions and UPSC asks both.