Consider the following statements with reference to The Lucknow Pact:

Question

Consider the following statements with reference to The Lucknow Pact:

1. It offered a joint League-Congress scheme for constitutional reforms.

2. It demanded representative Government and dominion status for India

3. However, it doesn't accept the principle of separate electorate and proportional representation in both imperial and provincial legislatures.

4. The Lucknow Pact was seen as a beacon of hope to Hindu-Muslim unity

How many of the above statement/s is/are correct?

1. A. Only one
2. B. Only two
3. C. Only three (Correct answer)
4. D. All the four

Correct Answer

Option C — Only three

Detailed Solution & Explanation

The correct answer is Only three.

Key Points

• Statement 1 is correct. The Lucknow Pact (1916) offered a joint Congress–Muslim League scheme of constitutional reforms, presented to the British government.
• Statement 2 is correct. It demanded representative government and dominion status for India.
• Statement 3 is incorrect. The Pact did accept the principle of separate electorates, along with weightage for Muslims in provinces where they were a minority. The statement claims the opposite, and this is what makes the count three rather than four.
• Statement 4 is correct. It was widely welcomed as a beacon of hope for Hindu–Muslim unity.

Additional Information

• The Lucknow session of December 1916 achieved two reunions at once: the Congress and the Muslim League came together, and the Moderates and Extremists were reunited within the Congress after the split at Surat in 1907. Ambica Charan Mazumdar presided.
• Key figures: Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Annie Besant for the Congress side, and Muhammad Ali Jinnah — then a Congress member as well as a Leaguer — who was hailed as the "Ambassador of Hindu–Muslim Unity" by Sarojini Naidu for his role.
• The lasting criticism is precisely statement 3: by accepting separate electorates, the Congress conceded the principle of communal representation it had opposed since 1909, a concession historians link to the longer road to Partition.
• The Pact's demands fed into the Montagu Declaration of August 1917, which promised "increasing association of Indians in every branch of the administration" and "responsible government", and then into the Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms and the Government of India Act, 1919, which introduced dyarchy in the provinces.
• The Home Rule Leagues of Tilak (April 1916, Poona) and Annie Besant (September 1916, Madras) provided the political energy of this period.