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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

“The ‘safety-valve thesis’ does not adequately explain the birth of the Indian National Congress in 1885.” Critically examine.

  • UPSC 2014
  • Early Indian Nationalism

The safety-valve thesis — that A.O. Hume, alarmed by secret reports of impending rebellion, engineered the Congress (1885) with Lord Dufferin's connivance to vent mass discontent — has been thoroughly discredited by later research.

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