Can methods and policies of the moderates be referred to as 'political mendicancy'?

Answer:

The early Congress moderates worked through petitions, prayers and protest, and their extremist critics dismissed this as 'political mendicancy', or beggary. The charge captures the appearance of their method but does justice neither to their achievement nor to their circumstances.

The case for the charge

• They relied on petitions, resolutions and deputations to Britain rather than on mass action.
• They professed unswerving loyalty to the Crown and faith in British justice.
• Their appeals produced meagre results, notably the disappointing Act of 1892.
• Tilak, Lajpat Rai and Bipin Chandra Pal ridiculed this as mendicancy.
• Their base was narrow, confined to the English-educated urban elite.

The case against it

• They developed the drain theory, a fundamental economic critique of colonialism.
• They created the first all-India political organisation and trained a generation of leaders.
• They exposed the true character of British rule to Indian and British opinion alike.
• Given the strength of the Raj, open confrontation would have invited annihilation.
• Their work of political education was the necessary foundation for later mass struggle.

Their concrete gains

• The Indian Councils Act of 1892 introduced a limited elective principle.
• The Public Service Commission and simultaneous examinations were pressed persistently.
• Dadabhai Naoroji entered the British Parliament in 1892 to argue India's case.

The label is therefore unjust as a final verdict, though understandable as contemporary polemic. As Bipan Chandra emphasised, the moderates' economic critique and institution-building laid the indispensable groundwork on which the extremists and later Gandhi were able to construct a mass movement.