📘 IAS Prelims 2025 — GS-I | Q.73 | Classroom Explanation

(Modern Indian History | National Movement)

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📌 Question

Q.73)
Who provided legal defence to the people arrested in the aftermath of the Chauri Chaura incident (1922)?

(a) C. R. Das
(b) Madan Mohan Malaviya and Krishna Kant
(c) Saifuddin Kitchlew and Khwaja Hasan Nizami
(d) Muhammad Ali Jinnah

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✅ Correct Answer: (b)

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🧑‍🏫 Classroom Explanation

The Chauri Chaura incident (1922) led to the arrest of over 200 peasants, with 172 initially sentenced to death by a British court.
The turning point was legal intervention, not political agitation.

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🔍 Option-wise Life History (High-Yield & Exam-Relevant)

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🔹 (a) C. R. Das ❌

Profile

• Prominent lawyer, nationalist leader
• Known as Deshbandhu
• Founder of Swaraj Party (1923)

Why Incorrect

• Though a celebrated lawyer, he did not defend Chauri Chaura accused
• His legal activism was mainly earlier, notably:
  • Defence of Aurobindo Ghosh (Alipore Bomb Case)

📌 UPSC Trap: Lawyer + Congress leader ≠ automatic legal defence role

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🔹 (b) Madan Mohan Malaviya & Krishna Kant ✅

Madan Mohan Malaviya

• Senior Congress leader, educationist
• Founder of Banaras Hindu University (1916)
• Moderate constitutionalist, respected by British courts
• Returned to law specifically to defend Chauri Chaura accused

Krishna Kant

• Eminent lawyer
• Assisted Malaviya in appellate defence
• Played a crucial role in Allahabad High Court

Historic Outcome

• Out of 172 death sentences, 153 were overturned
• One of the greatest legal reversals in colonial India

📌 Why This Option is Correct

Legal defence, appellate advocacy, and sentence commutation
All three match UPSC’s wording precisely

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🔹 (c) Saifuddin Kitchlew & Khwaja Hasan Nizami ❌

Saifuddin Kitchlew

• Leader of Khilafat & anti-Rowlatt movement
• Associated with Jallianwala Bagh agitation
• Political mobiliser, not a courtroom lawyer

Khwaja Hasan Nizami

• Renowned Urdu writer & Sufi intellectual
• Chronicler of Delhi’s cultural life
• No legal role in national movement trials

📌 Why Incorrect

• Social-religious influence ≠ legal defence

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🔹 (d) M. A. Jinnah ❌

Profile

• Leading constitutional lawyer
• Early Congress leader, later Muslim League head
• Advocated constitutionalism over mass movements

Why Incorrect

• By 1922, Jinnah had distanced himself from Congress
• Opposed Non-Cooperation Movement
• No involvement in Chauri Chaura defence

📌 UPSC Trick: Great lawyer ≠ involved in every legal battle

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🧠 One-Line Memory Hook (Prelims Gold)

“Chauri Chaura was undone in court, not on the streets — by Malaviya.”

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📍 GS Mapping

National Movement: Non-Cooperation Phase

GS Paper I

Modern Indian History

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