HPAS/Allied Mains 2022 Answer Writing Challenge Day 17 : Model Answer

January 22, 2022

Question What is safety valve theory as associated with formation of Indian National Congress? (4 mark 60 words).

Understanding of question: Question is direct, and write about the theory of safety valve as given by lala lajpat rai in 1916

Introduction	Lala Lajpat Rai used the safety valve theory in “Young India” in 1916.

Keywords

Main Body	There is a theory that *Hume* formed the Congress with the idea that it would prove to be a ‘safety valve’ for releasing the growing discontent of the Indians. To this end, he convinced *Lord Dufferin* not to obstruct the formation of the *Congress. The extremist leaders like Lala Lajpat Rai* believed in the ‘safety valve’ theory. Even the Marxist historian’s ‘conspiracy theory’ was an offspring of the ‘safety valve’ notion. For example, *R.P. Dutt* opined that the Indian National Congress was born out of a conspiracy to abort a popular uprising in India and the bourgeois leaders were a party to it.

Conclusion	Modern Indian historians, however, *dispute* the idea of ‘safety valve’. In their opinion the Indian National Congress represented the urge of the politically conscious Indians to set up a national body to express the political and economic demands of the Indians.