Question

• Assertion (A): The Poona Pact defeated the purpose of Communal Award.

• Reason (R): It paved the way for reservation of seats in the Parliament and the State Assemblies for the SC and ST people.

Select the correct answer from the code given below:

• A. Both (A) and (R) are true, and (R) is the correct explanation of (A).
• B. Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not a correct explanation of (A).
• C. (A) is true, but (R) is false.
• D. (A) is false, but (R) is true.

Answer 1

Answer:

A. Both (A) and (R) are true, and (R) is the correct explanation of (A).

• On 16 August, 1932, Ramsay Macdonald announced his Communal Award.

• The award authorised Muslims, Europeans, Sikhs and depressed classes separate electorates.

• Gandhi began fast unto death on 20 th September, 1932 to protest against this decision.

• Finally, on 24 September, 1932 an agreement was made in Poona known as ‘Poona Pact’ in which joint electorate was accepted on the basis of two provisions.

• The two provisions were firstly, there were 148 seats reserved for depressed classes in the provincial legislature, while only 71 seats were reserved according to communal award.

• In Central Legislature 18 percent of the seats allotted to the general electorate for British India were reserved for Depressed classes.