Which of the following trials attracted world-wide publicity and drew sympathetic comments from Albert Einstein, H.G.Wells, Harold Laski and Roosevelt in favor of the convicts?

The correct answer is C, the Meerut Conspiracy Case. Tried from 1929 to 1933 before a sessions court at Meerut, it involved about 31 accused, mostly communists and trade unionists such as Muzaffar Ahmad, S.A. Dange and P.C. Joshi. The prosecution charged them with conspiring to wage war against the King and with trying to spread communist ideas among workers. The case drew protests abroad, and the sympathetic comments from Einstein, H.G. Wells, Harold Laski and others are what made it a world-wide cause.

• A) INA trial: The Red Fort trials (1945-46) produced huge public and political support inside India, but not this kind of foreign intellectual campaign.
• B) Lahore Conspiracy Case: Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were tried by a special tribunal under an ordinance, and the accused were executed in 1931. The case is famous in Indian memory, but it did not draw this international academic outcry.
• D) None of the above: Incorrect, because C fits the description.

The core concept is the use of colonial criminal law against political and labour activism, which links to Mains questions on the growth of the labour and communist movements and the limits of colonial justice.

Trap: Aspirants pick the Lahore case or the INA trial because they are more familiar. Remember that the question asks about international sympathy, which points to Meerut.