Question

Indians had acheived little in the war of Independece of 1857 to 1858? Explain answer by agreeing or disagreeing statements? {14marks}

Answer 1

Answer:

xamples of the creation of an extremely wide movement with a

common aim in which diverse political and ideological currents

could exist and work and simultaneously continue to contend for

overall ideological political hegemony over it. While intense

debate on all basic Issues was allowed, the diversity and tension

did not weaken the cohesion and striking power of the movement;

on the contrary, this diversity and atmosphere of freedom and

debate became a major source of its strength.

Today, over forty years after independence, we are still close

enough to the freedom struggle to feel its warmth and yet far

enough to be able to analyze it coolly, and with the advantage of

hindsight. Analyze it we must, for our past, present and future

are inextricably linked to it. Men and women in every age and

society make their own history, but they do not make it in a

historical vacuum, de novo. Their efforts, however innovative, at

finding solutions to their problems in the present and charting

out their future, are guided and circumscribed, moulded and

conditioned, by their respective histories, their inherited

economic, political and ideological structures. To make myself

clearer, the path that India has followed since 1947 has deep

roots in the struggle for independence. The political and

ideological features, which have had a decisive impact on post-

independence development, are largely a legacy of the freedom

struggle. It is a legacy that belongs to all the Indian people,

regardless of which party or group they belong to now, for the

‘party’ which led this struggle from 1885 to 1947 was not then a

party but a movement all political trends from the Right to the

Left were incorporated in it.