Who among the following was identified as the representative of Indian women…
2014
Who among the following was identified as the representative of Indian women at the second round-table conference held in September, 1931?
- A.
Aruna Asaf Ali
- B.
Padmaja Naidu
- C.
Sarojini Naidu
- D.
Vijay Laxmi Pandit
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
The three Round Table Conferences (1930-32) were constitutional conferences convened by the British government in London, following the Simon Commission Report, to discuss the future governance of India. Delegates to these conferences were nominated representatives of various Indian political parties, princely states, and communities — not elected representatives.
The Indian National Congress boycotted the First Round Table Conference (Nov 1930 – Jan 1931). After the Gandhi-Irwin Pact of March 1931, Congress agreed to participate in the Second Round Table Conference (7 September – 1 December 1931), the only one of the three it attended.
Mahatma Gandhi attended the Second Round Table Conference in London as the sole official representative of the Indian National Congress.
Sarojini Naidu, the poet-politician who had earlier presided over the Kanpur session of the Congress in 1925, accompanied Gandhi to London as part of the Indian delegation.
The conference's own official proceedings record her specifically as the representative of Indian women — the exact role this question is asking about. (A few other women also attended the wider conference in separate capacities, such as representing specific provincial or community interests, but Sarojini Naidu is the one identified in this particular role.)
Checking the other names against this same event: Aruna Asaf Ali became prominent a decade later, for hoisting the national flag during the 1942 Quit India Movement; Padmaja Naidu (Sarojini's daughter) rose to public office only after independence; and Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit's major national and international roles (UP minister, ambassador, UN General Assembly president) also came in the years after 1931 — none of them were part of the 1931 London delegation.
Hence, the person identified as the representative of Indian women at the second Round Table Conference (September 1931) was Sarojini Naidu.