UPSC Prelims 2021 GS Paper I · Q47 of 98 History easy

In the context of Colonial India, Shah Nawaz Khan, Prem Kumar Sehgal and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon are remembered as

  1. (a) leaders of Swadeshi and Boycott Movement
  2. (b) members of the Interim Government in 1946
  3. (c) members of the Drafting Committee in the Constituent Assembly
  4. (d) officers of the Indian National Army ✓ UPSC's answer

Why the answer is (d)

• Shah Nawaz Khan, Prem Kumar Sehgal and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon were officers of Subhas Chandra Bose's Indian National Army (Azad Hind Fauj) — option (d).

• They were the accused in the first Red Fort trial (November 1945), defended by Bhulabhai Desai, Tej Bahadur Sapru and Jawaharlal Nehru.

• The trial of a Hindu, a Muslim and a Sikh together sparked nationwide protests that helped trigger the RIN mutiny of 1946.

• They were not Swadeshi leaders (a), Interim Government members (b) or Drafting Committee members (c).

• Hence option (d).

Why the other options are wrong

(a) leaders of Swadeshi and Boycott Movement
They were INA officers, not Swadeshi-era leaders.
(b) members of the Interim Government in 1946
They were not in the 1946 Interim Government.
(c) members of the Drafting Committee in the Constituent Assembly
They were not on the Constitution's Drafting Committee.

Asked in the GS Paper I of the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2021, held on 10 October 2021. Question and answer key: Union Public Service Commission. Explanation: UPSC Answer Check.

Reading the answer is not the same as getting it right under a clock. Practise this question with UPSC's negative marking, and anything you miss goes into an error notebook until you get it right twice.

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