The Prayas ePathshala

Exams आसान है !

09 December 2022

MAINS QUESTIONS

Q1. There existed a contrast between the economic demands and political demands of the moderate leaders of Congress. Analyse. (250 words)

Paper & Topic: GS I – Modern Indian History

Introduction:

The first twenty years of the history of the Indian National Congress or the Indian national movement are commonly referred to as the “moderate phase” of the movement. They were devoted to the British Empire and had faith in the British judicial system. They concurred that using legal, nonviolent tactics was the best way to get their demands acknowledged and met. Through delegations, petitions, meetings, resolutions, pamphlets, and memos, they made their demands known. Petitioning, demonstrating, and praying are the three Ps of their strategy.

Body:

The moderate leaders were Dadabhai Naoroji, Dadabhai Naoroji, G Subramanya Aiyer, GK Gokhale, SN Bannerjee, Rash Behari Ghosh, Pherozeshah Mehta, Madan Mohan Malaviya, Ananda Charlu, R C Dutta, M G Ranade, and P R Nai.

Objectives of the moderators:

To advance human rights, organised public opinion and education campaigns are possible.
Both the Executive Council and the Indian Council in London are comprised of Indians.
The legislative councils are reorganised.
The judicial and executive branches are distinguished from one another.
lowered the land tax and ended the exploitation of farmers.
The phrase “No taxation without representation” emerged after 1892.
reduced military spending by doing rid of the salt and sugar fees.
ICS tests will be available in both India and England in order to boost the number of Indians who may participate in the administration.
rights to freedom of speech, expression, and association.
The capitalist sector of India’s economy is evolving.
The British are no longer taking advantage of India economically.
removing the 1878 Arms Act and increasing funding for Indian children’s education.

Results of the Moderate stage:

Economic criticism of colonialism by moderates: The moderates’ critique of colonialism’s economics was their most important historical contribution.
Trade, industry, and financial exploitation were the three modern manifestations of colonial economic exploitation that the early nationalists highlighted. They could clearly see that the subordination of the Indian economy to the British economy was the primary component of British economic imperialism.
They bemoaned the stagnation of modern industry and agriculture, India’s growing poverty and economic backwardness, and they blamed all of these problems on British economic exploitation.
British colonialism underwent a transformation in the 19th century as it abandoned direct extraction strategies like plunder, tribute, and mercantilism in favour of free trade and foreign capital investment. India began to produce food and agricultural raw resources as well as to purchase manufactured goods as a result.
The majority of Dadabhai Naoroji’s writings dealt with the colonial wealth transfer from India to England. The Royal Committee on Indian Expenditure, of which Naoroji was a member, was founded in 1896 as a result of his work on the drain theory.
Legislative councils perform a good job of their jobs. The INC’s first significant triumph came with the passage of the Indian Councils Act in 1892.
Both the number and percentage of non-officials in the legislative councils grew as a result of this Act.
Up to 1920, India’s legislative bodies lacked significant authority. However, the activities of the nationalists there aided in the expansion of the movement.
They aimed to increase the proportion of Indians in legislatures.
These councils gave nationalists a platform to air their frustrations with the government, expose its flaws, criticise government policies and programmes, and raise significant economic issues, particularly those involving the public purse.
The long-term goal of the early nationalists was democratic self-government.
Aspirations for a more expansive constitution included self-government akin to that of independent nations like Australia and Canada.
Politicians like Gokhale and Pherozshah Mehta also aggressively criticised government initiatives and plans.
They succeeded in promoting nationalism among the general public.
They grew people’s acceptance of democratic, libertarian, and egalitarian principles.
Administrative: The Indianization of the services was the moderates’ first demand. A public service that has been Indianized would be more attentive to Indian needs. The burden of having to pay the salaries and pensions of the European officials every year would end. What’s more, this reform was promoted as an anti-racism measure.
They advocated for the division of the judicial and executive branches.
The moderates also called for the expansion of jury trials, the repeal of the arms laws, and the launch of a campaign against the abuse of indentured labour on Assam tea estates. In addition to irrigation projects, agricultural banks for growers, and advancements in agriculture, health, sanitation, and education, more money is being spent on welfare.
For the racialized and exploited Indian labourers working in other British colonies abroad, they wanted better treatment.
Military: Moderates pressed conservatives to equally split the cost of this military buildup. They promoted Indians’ rise in the armed forces.
Some Moderates supported social change, like Ranade and Gokhale.
To put an end to child marriage and widowhood, they demonstrated.
In support of civil rights: The modern civil rights, particularly the freedoms of speech, the press, thought, and association, were appealing to early Indian nationalists. When the government attempted to restrict these civic rights, they fiercely defended them.
The nationalist struggle for freedom incorporated the fight for democratic freedoms.

Limitations:

However, the vast majority of them thought that British rule was a supernatural intervention that would bring about modernization.
Because of their unwavering underlying faith in the English democratic liberal political tradition, the moderate politicians were unable to organise or chose not to do so.
Their political objectives and strategies were quite constrained. Despite holding secular beliefs, they weren’t always willing to set aside their sectarian reservations. Although they were aware of the oppressive nature of British rule, they preferred changes to its removal.
They supported slow-moving or piecemeal reforms and connected liberty to social privilege.
Early members of Congress implicitly held the opinion that popular agitation methods were less effective than lawful, nonviolent agitation.
Only members of the educated classes may participate in the movement. promoter of civil disobedience, piety, and petition; did not seek to enslave the masses. They decided against organising the crowd. The early national movement’s inadequate social base was its primary failing. Most individuals weren’t impacted, though. Actually, the authorities didn’t have much faith in the people.
They weren’t right away drawn to complete democracy or autonomy. Only those segments of Indian society with higher levels of education, who would speak for the majority of the population, were urged to have democratic rights.

Conclusion:

The early Congress was historically significant despite representational limitations because the moderate politicians provided an economic critique of colonialism and connected it to Indian poverty, creating a discursive environment within which the nationalists’ attack on colonialism could be conceptualised.

Q2. India must accept that the metaverse is about to arrive. Regulations must be implemented in order to support the growth of these new virtual worlds while preserving their open, interoperable nature. Discuss. (250 words)

Paper & Topic: GS III – Science and Technology

Introduction:

The idea that the internet will one day change into a virtual world is known as the “metaverse.” Neal Stephenson, an American author, came up with the concept for his science fiction masterpiece Snow Crash in 1992. The internet is thought of as a 3D virtual environment where users can log on and off and communicate in real time.
A type of blended reality known as the metaverse is progressively being accepted in contemporary technology. Augmented and virtual reality will integrate the online and virtual worlds in addition to introducing digital components into the physical world.

Body:

The metaverse continues to be a popular belief in Silicon Valley, California. Google has made significant investments in augmented reality (AR), for instance, which uses technology to overlay digital 3D items on top of the real environment. Facebook, on the other hand, seems to be the business that is most dedicated to this new course. In order to make Facebook a metaverse firm, Zuckerberg wants to create a system that will let users switch between 2D, augmented reality, and virtual reality (VR), utilising realistic avatars of themselves as needed.

The Mechanisms of the Metaverse:

The metaverse, to put it simply, is the stage of the internet’s development where we will be able to both access it as we do today and fully immerse ourselves in it—in a communal virtual experience where everyone is present simultaneously.
Virtual worlds similar to those described there are being built, as seen in science fiction classics like Ready Player One and Snow Crash.
However, the metaverse is more than just a haven in virtual reality where you can go to escape reality.
When fully realised, it has the potential to drastically alter every area of our lives, just way the mobile internet did. We’ll be able to communicate with the outside world in a completely different way thanks to it.

Issues with the Metaverse:

The Internet as it currently functions cannot support the digital world, and the infrastructure required for the metaverse does not yet exist. A larger and more intricate set of standards and protocols will be required for the future Internet than for the current one. Therefore, it will be necessary for big digital businesses like Amazon, Google, and Facebook to get ready for cross-system engagement.
The fact that large tech companies are creating the metaverse rather than the patient capital that created the internet raises concerns about cartelization and walled gardens.
Having said that, it is obvious that in order for the metaverse to spread as widely as the internet, it must continue to be accessible to all users.
Because it will be more difficult to achieve industry-wide consensus on data security and permanence, the interoperable metaverse may potentially raise data protection issues.
The ability of the metaverse to accurately represent the real world within its virtual environment will be one of its key features.
Mega-scans of our physical surroundings, which are enormous centimeter-resolution images of the real world that we can render within the metaverse to precisely replicate our physical surroundings in a virtual space, will be required for the creation of these mirror worlds.
For censorship, communication control, regulatory enforcement, tax reporting, the prevention of online radicalization, and many other concerns that we still face today, the metaverse will call for whole new legislation.
Today, it is challenging to ignore how these new technologies will impact our culture, politics, society, and way of life.
The term “technological determinism” refers to the hypothesis that changes in technology alter our social dynamics, power structures, and cultural standards without our consent. It neglects to mention that, in a democracy, we have a vote in how everything turns out.
The payment rails for the metaverse are another issue that needs to be resolved. Despite the fact that cryptocurrencies are usually lauded as the ultimate metaverse payment mechanism, it is unknown how quickly transactions are expected to happen in these virtual spaces.

India’s future looks like this:

To do this, we must choose a set of open standards that will govern its essential elements and guarantee interoperability across contexts.
The tools we use to interact with the metaverse, the payment systems that power its economy, and the portals that connect the virtual and real worlds may eventually need regulation to ensure that they adhere to open protocols intended to prevent us from becoming dependent on any one device or service provider.
Legislation must be passed in India to support the creation of these new virtual environments and guarantee that they can continue to operate in an open, interoperable fashion.
If this is the next advancement in internet technology, we should be cautious to use all of its features.
On the other hand, Indian digital payment platforms have proven they can function at population scale, processing 10 billion transactions each month without breaking a sweat.

Conclusion:

The creation of a new internet version will significantly affect society. Experts in marketing, communications, and branding will encounter new opportunities as well as challenges. Incredible innovation will be unleashed in this new metaverse era, opening up new dimensions and frontiers for brands and businesses.
Due to its somewhat later adoption of the internet than other countries, India took some time to fully utilise its capabilities. We now have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to actively contribute to the growth of the metaverse. We ought to begin right away.