Directions : The next three (03) items are based on the passage given below The myth is that the Indian National Congress was started by A.O. Hume and others under the official direction, guidance and advice of no less a person than Lord Dufferin, the Viceroy, to provide a safe, mild, peaceful and constitutional outlet of safety-valve for the rising discontent among the masses, which was inevitably leading towards a popular and violent revolution. Consequently, the revolutionary potential was nipped in the bud. Most writers accept the core of the myth, that a violent revolution was on the cards at the time and was avoided only by the foundations of the congress, All of them agree that the manner of its birth affected the basic character and future work of the congress in a crucial manner. The colonial rulers, according to the safety valve thesis, were trying to use congress as

According to the 'safety valve' thesis, the Indian National Congress was established to provide a 'safe, mild, peaceful and constitutional outlet' for the rising discontent among the Indian masses [c1]. The theory suggests that A.O. Hume, with the guidance of Lord Dufferin, aimed to prevent a popular and violent revolution by channeling political energy into a formal, manageable platform [t4, t8]. This strategy was intended to 'nip the revolutionary potential in the bud' by ensuring that the middle-class intelligentsia conducted their agitation along constitutional lines rather than radical ones [t4, t5]. Proponents of this theory, such as Lala Lajpat Rai, believed the British administration used the Congress to receive timely warnings of public anger and to stabilize relations between the colonial government and the Indian people [t4, t7, t8].

Sources

1. [1] Rajiv Ahir. A Brief History of Modern India (2019 ed.). SPECTRUM. > Chapter 11: Indian National Congress: Foundation and the Moderate Phase > Was It a Safety Valve? > p. 248