UPSC Mains 2016 GS Paper 1 Q4: model answer
Discuss the role of women in the freedom struggle, especially during the Gandhian phase.
What the question wants
Discuss women's role in the freedom struggle, especially from 1919 to 1947.
How to structure it
Discuss, with emphasis on the Gandhian phase; briefly cover earlier roles.
- Before Gandhi
- Why the Gandhian phase drew women in
- Roles in each movement
- Significance
How to think it through
Same theme as Q1 (2013), different emphasis. This one wants 'why Gandhi'. His methods suited women: picketing, spinning, non-violence, constructive work. He made the kitchen political. Then roles movement by movement, and the payoff: universal suffrage in 1950 was never in doubt.
Model answer
Women's participation in the national movement grew from a handful of leaders to a mass presence in the Gandhian era.
Before Gandhi
- Swadeshi boycotts (1905), Madame Cama's activism abroad, Annie Besant's Home Rule League.
Why the Gandhian phase drew women
- Non-violence and constructive work (khadi, spinning, prohibition) suited women's participation and gained social acceptance.
- Gandhi saw women as equal partners and natural satyagrahis.
Roles
- Non-Cooperation: boycott of foreign cloth and courts; Bi Amman and Basanti Devi.
- Civil Disobedience: thousands broke the salt law, picketed shops and went to jail; Sarojini Naidu led the Dharasana raid.
- Quit India: Aruna Asaf Ali, Usha Mehta (underground radio), Sucheta Kripalani; Matangini Hazra and Kanaklata Barua were martyred.
- Others, such as the INA's Rani of Jhansi Regiment, took a different path.
Significance
- The struggle became a mass movement; women's political rights gained acceptance, reflected in universal adult franchise.
- Limits: urban and middle-class women led; many rural women's roles went unrecorded.
Examples
- Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay was arrested for selling salt on the Bombay stock exchange in 1930.
- Women of Peshawar, Bombay and Bengal formed organisations such as the Desh Sevika Sangh to picket and to spin khadi.
The verdict
The Gandhian phase made women's participation large, visible and lasting, transforming both the freedom struggle and women's place in Indian public life.
Keywords, cases and data to drop in
Salt Satyagraha 1930, Dharasana, Usha Mehta's Congress Radio, Sucheta Kripalani, Kamaladevi, AIWC 1927.
Where most answers lose marks
- Repeating 2013's list without the Gandhian 'why'.
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Question text as printed in the official UPSC Civil Services (Main) question paper. The model answer is original Battle IAS work; use it to learn structure, not to memorise.
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