Which one of the following movements has contributed to a split in the Indian National Congress resulting in the emergence of ‘moderates’ and ‘extremists’?

The answer is A. The split came at the Surat session of the Indian National Congress in 1907, when the moderates led by Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Pherozeshah Mehta clashed with the extremists led by Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai and Bipin Chandra Pal. The immediate cause was the Swadeshi Movement, launched in 1905 after the partition of Bengal. The extremists wanted boycott, swadeshi and passive resistance; the moderates preferred constitutional petitions and were uneasy about mass agitation.

Why the others fail:

• Quit India Movement (1942) came decades later, when Congress was already a united mass organisation, so it caused no split.
• Non-Cooperation Movement (1920-22) was adopted at the Nagpur session in 1920, after the moderates had largely left. It unified the party rather than dividing it.
• Civil Disobedience Movement (1930-34) followed the Purna Swaraj resolution of 1929 and also did not split the party.

Core concept: the moderate-extremist divide was over methods, constitutional action versus mass action. For Mains, this traces how nationalist strategy evolved between 1885 and 1920 and how the Swadeshi Movement drew the masses into politics.

Trap: candidates pick Non-Cooperation because it is the most famous Gandhian movement, or they date the split to the 1885 founding of the Congress. The split was triggered by the Swadeshi-era agitation.