2025 GS Paper I, all questions

UPSC Prelims 2025 · GS Paper I

Question 12: History and Culture

Consider the following subjects with regard to Non-Cooperation Programme :

  1. IBoycott of law-courts and foreign cloth
  2. IIObservance of strict non-violence
  3. IIIRetention of titles and honours without using them in public
  4. IVEstablishment of Panchayats for settling disputes

How many of the above were parts of Non-Cooperation Programme?

aOnly one
bOnly two
cOnly three
dAll the four

AnswerThe answer is (c).

The Non-Cooperation programme adopted by the Congress in 1920 combined negative and constructive items. Negative items: boycott of law courts, schools and colleges, legislative councils and foreign cloth, and surrender of titles and honours. Constructive items: national schools, panchayats to settle disputes, and khadi. Strict non-violence was its basic condition. Retaining titles and honours without using them in public is not part of it, because the programme asked people to give titles up. So three of the four were part of it.

  • I. Boycott of law courts and foreign cloth was central to the programme.
  • II. Non-violence was a basic condition of the movement.
  • III. People were asked to surrender titles and honours, not retain them.
  • IV. Panchayats to settle disputes were a constructive programme.

How you could have got this

No shortcut here: in a “how many” question, ruling out options doesn’t help. Every statement has to be judged.

This follows an unofficial answer: UPSC has not published its key for this year, and if that answer is wrong, so is this path.

Which options go is worked out from UPSC’s key and the options, not by a model.

Why each option is right or wrong
  • (a) Wrong: three items were part of the programme.
  • (b) Wrong: only title retention fell outside it, so two is too few.
  • (c) Right: I, II and IV were parts of the programme; III was not.
  • (d) Wrong: the programme called for surrendering titles, not keeping them.

Explanation: written by UPSC Grade, not by UPSC.

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Source: UPSC, Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination 2025, General Studies Paper I, Series A. The paper on upsc.gov.in.