UPSC Prelims 2025, Question 73

The answer: Madan Mohan Malaviya and Krishna Kant

The Chauri Chaura incident of 4 February 1922, where an enraged crowd burned down a police station in Gorakhpur district killing several policemen, led the colonial administration to try 172 people, sentencing many to death by a special tribunal in 1923. Madan Mohan Malaviya, along with Krishna Kant, took up their legal defence, appealing before the Allahabad High Court. Through his advocacy, most of the death sentences were commuted to transportation for life or lesser terms, saving the majority of the condemned from the gallows, though a smaller number were still executed. This episode is remembered as one of Malaviya's most significant contributions to the freedom struggle outside the political platform, using the colonial legal system itself to blunt its harshest verdict against the Chauri Chaura accused.

The option-by-option autopsy for this question — why each of the other three is wrong, and which neighbouring concept each one was built from — is in the app.