assess the significance and the achievements of the moderates?

Question

the moderates were the group who ruled the indian national congress for its first twenty years

Answer 1

The following was the significance and achievements of the moderates:

- They helped set-up INC in 1885.
- They contributed to the growth of nationalism, national conciousness and awareness in this phase.
- They believed in asking for reforms to the British through requests, petitions and appeals.
- British considered them the channel and face of display of anger and displeasure of Indian society.
- Modern education was solicited for Indians.

Answer 2

The founding fathers of the Indian National Congress (est. 1885), the "Moderates", saw the country’s future as one of "constitutional development" under the stewardship of England, the development paralleling a reform of the traditional society with its inequitous customs; and they aspired to economic progress on the lines of modern countries with Japan as the model. Yet, for the reason that the moderates desired India’s industrial development, they rejected Free Trade, the great shibboleth of modern political economy, and demanded Protection. Swadeshi, therefore, came more easily to their lips than Swaraj. They wished Britain to loosen the tentacles of Tribute which strangled the domestic market; and one way to do so was to reduce the salary and pension drain to Britain by "Indianising" the civil services and the army. One can see now that they looked forward to a future for India as a classical bourgeois country; but there was one mitigating feature: they had a genuine sympathy for the poor, and wished, like Naoroji and Dutt, to protect the small peasant and the factory worker. It was here that the theoretical foundation was laid for the later mobilisation of the ordinary people under Gandhi and the Left.