History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer
In its political behaviour the Indian National Congress in its early career was never a radical organisation, besides the founders of the Congress involved A.O. Hume in their project. Do these facts verify that the Congress was founded as a ‘Safety valve’? Explain.
- UPSC 2020
- Early Indian Nationalism
Both premises in the question are historically accurate — the early Indian National Congress was cautious and constitutionalist, and A.O. Hume, a retired British civil servant, was central to its founding — but neither fact, nor the two together, actually proves the safety-valve thesis.
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What the full answer covers
- The Safety-Valve Thesis: Origins and Claims
- The Circumstantial Case Built on the Question's Two Facts
- Why the Evidence Falls Short
- The More Defensible Explanation
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