Question

Why was the Congress Party known as rainbow-like social coalition by the time of independence ? Highlight any two reasons.

Hint:

Write two points: the Congress included people from all classes, castes, religions and regions, and it included many ideologies such as moderates and extremists.

Answer 1

Step 1: What the phrase means.
A rainbow is made of many colours that sit side by side. By the time of independence the Congress was like that. It was not a party of one class or one belief. It was a wide social coalition that represented the diversity of India.

Step 2: Reason 1, it included many social groups.
The Congress started as a body of the English educated, upper class and upper caste elite. In the national movement it widened its base. It brought in peasants, workers, industrialists, the middle class and the urban poor. People from many castes, religions, languages and regions joined it.

Step 3: Reason 2, it included many ideologies.
The party gave space to revolutionaries and pacifists, to conservatives and radicals, and to moderates and extremists. It had members of the left, the right and the centre. All of them worked inside one organisation for the freedom of the country.

Final Answer:
The Congress was called a rainbow-like social coalition because (1) it united people of different classes, castes, religions and languages and (2) it held together many different ideologies.