The trial of P.K. Sehgal, Shah Nawaz and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon symbolises

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Correct answer: A — In a comprehension passage, an item that asks what an event "symbolises" is not asking what the event was, nor what it caused. It asks what meaning the writer’s own commentary attaches to it. The method is fixed: gather every sentence in which the writer comments on that event, and keep only the reading that all of those comments support together. Four comments in this passage bear on the Red Fort trial: The British are said to have compounded their folly by putting a Hindu, a Muslim and a Sikh on the dock together. The Muslim League joined the countrywide protest, alongside the Congress leaders who appeared for the defence. The Intelligence Bureau note of 20 November concedes that the sympathy aroused “cuts across communal barriers”. B. Shiva Rao, visiting the prisoners the same day, reports that “there is not the slightest feeling among them of Hindu and Muslim”. Every one of these comments describes religious communities behaving as one, so the meaning the passage attaches to the trial is communal harmony. Set each offered reading against what the text actually supplies: Reading offered What the passage supplies communal harmony A Hindu, a Muslim and a Sikh tried together; sympathy that “cuts across communal barriers”; no Hindu–Muslim feeling among the prisoners. threat to all religious persons The three faiths are named to show who stood together; no sentence describes anyone being endangered on account of belief. threat to persons fighting for the freedom The prosecutions and detentions are narrated as events; the writer’s comment on them is about the sympathy they produced. British reaction against the natives The British decision to prosecute, dismiss and detain is recorded, but called a folly and measured by the united Indian response it provoked. The trial therefore symbolises communal harmony.

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A. communal harmony

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B. threat to all religious persons

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C. threat to persons fighting for the freedom

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D. British reaction against the natives

Reading offered	What the passage supplies
communal harmony	A Hindu, a Muslim and a Sikh tried together; sympathy that “cuts across communal barriers”; no Hindu–Muslim feeling among the prisoners.
threat to all religious persons	The three faiths are named to show who stood together; no sentence describes anyone being endangered on account of belief.
threat to persons fighting for the freedom	The prosecutions and detentions are narrated as events; the writer’s comment on them is about the sympathy they produced.
British reaction against the natives	The British decision to prosecute, dismiss and detain is recorded, but called a folly and measured by the united Indian response it provoked.