UG CLAT 2020 – Sample paper 1 English Language Each set of questions in this section is based on a single passage. Please answer each question on the basis of what is stated or implied in the corresponding passage. In some instances, more than one option may be the answer to the question; in such a case, please choose the option that most accurately and comprehensively answers the question. 1. In a letter written in January 1885 to his friend Pramatha Chaudhuri, Tagore spoke of the tension in his own mind between the contending forces of East and West. ‘I sometimes detect in myself,’ he remarked, ‘a background where two opposing forces are constantly in action, one beckoning me to peace and cessation of all strife, the other egging me on to battle. It is as though the restless energy and the will to action of the West were perpetually assaulting the citadel of my Indian placidity. Hence this swing of the pendulum between passionate pain and calm detachment, between lyrical abandon and philosophising between love of my country and mockery of patriotism, between an itch to enter the lists and a longing to remain wrapped in thought.’ Tagore’s mission to synthesise East and West was part personal, part civilizational. In time it also became political. In the early years of the twentieth century, the intelligentsia of Bengal was engulfed by the swadeshi movement, where protests against British rule were expressed by the burning of foreign cloth and the rejection of all things western. After an initial enthusiasm for the movement, Tagore turned against it. His ambivalence was expressed in his novel Ghare Baire (Home and the World) and, more succinctly, in a letter written to a friend in November 1908, which insisted that ‘patriotism cannot be our final spiritual shelter’. ‘I will not buy glass for the price of diamonds’, wrote Tagore, ‘and I will never allow patriotism to triumph over humanity as long as I live. I took a few steps down that road and stopped: for when I cannot retain my faith in universal humanity over and above my country, when patriotic prejudices overshadow my God, I feel inwardly starved’. [Extracted, with edits and revisions, from Ramchandra Guha’s introduction to Nationalism, by Rabindranath Tagore, Penguin Books, 2009.] 1.1 Which of the following best describes the two opposing forces that Tagore said he detected in himself? (a) A force encouraging him to write more, and a force encouraging him to paint more. (b) A force encouraging him to travel widely, and a force encouraging him to travel only to the West. (c) A force encouraging him to join the national movement, and a force encouraging him to take up arms. (d) A force encouraging him to remain calm, and a force encouraging him to fight. (Answer: (d)) Rationale: The correct answer is (d) – A force encouraging him to remain calm, and a force encouraging him to fight. This is apparent from the line in the first paragraph which states: ‘I sometimes detect in myself… a background where two opposing forces are constantly in action, one beckoning me to peace and cessation of all strife, the other egging me on to battle.’ There is nothing in the passage to suggest that Tagore felt any force within himself encouraging him to paint more, nor to travel only to the West, so neither (a) nor (b) is the correct answer. There is also nothing to suggest that Tagore felt he had to choose between joining the national movement and taking up arms, and so (c) is not the correct option either. 1.2 What does the phrase ‘enter the lists’ as used in the passage mean? (a) To become contemplative and thoughtful. (b) To become involved in a competition or challenge. (c) To avoid interactions with other people. (d) To avoid crowded places. (Answer: (b)) Rationale: The correct answer is (b) – to become involved in a competition or challenge. Tagore uses this expression in contrast to ‘a longing to remain wrapped in thought’. Given this, and the general meaning of the phrase ‘enter the lists’, none of (a), (c), or (d) can be the correct option. 1.3 Which of the following would be consistent with the author’s description of the swadeshi movement in the passage above? (a) Rejecting western ideas and merchandise. (b) Sending children to study in foreign universities. (c) Rejecting Indian ideas and merchandise. (d) All of the above. (Answer: (a)) Rationale: The correct answer is (a) – rejecting western ideas and merchandise. This can be inferred from the author’s description of how ‘protests against British rule were expressed by the burning of foreign cloth and the rejection of all things western’. Options (b), (c), and (d) are not consistent with this description of the protests, and so none of these can be the correct option. 1.4 Which of the following best describes Tagore’s reasons for not letting patriotism triumph over humanity? (a) Universal humanity and love for one’s God are more important than love for one’s country. (b) Western science and technology are more advanced than Indian spiritualism. (c) The West has a restless energy and will to action. (d) Indian thought is peaceful and therefore opposed to action. (Answer: (a)) Rationale: The correct answer is (a) – universal humanity and love for one’s God are more important than love for one’s country. This is apparent from Tagore’s statements towards the end of the passage. There is nothing in the passage to support either (b) or (d). While Tagore mentions the ‘restless energy and will to action’ of the West, he does not provide this as a reason for not letting his patriotism triumph over humanity. 1.5 The author describes Tagore’s attitude towards patriotism as an example of: (a) His love for all things Western and rejection of all things Indian. (b) His idea of the form that protests against British rule should take. (c) His efforts to synthesise East and West. (d) His love for deep and contemplative thought. (Answer: (c)) Rationale: The correct answer is (c) - his efforts to synthesise East and West. This is apparent from the opening sentences of the second paragraph, where the author describes how Tagore’s efforts to synthesise East and West were personal and civilizational, and then also became political. There is nothing in the passage to suggest that Tagore’s attitude towards patriotism was an example of any of the matters set out in the other options. 2. Ma always had a rough time in Dad’s house. He, an under-secretary in the civil service, thought he had married beneath his position and treated Ma with the contempt he felt she deserved – an opinion shared by the rest of his family as well. As year after year passed by without any sign of a child being born into the family, Ma began to lose hope of regaining any respect or status within her husband’s household. The inevitable followed. She was ordered around, overworked, underfed and often beaten. She would regularly be ill. It seemed they were waiting to see the end of her and, when she hesitantly told Dad she was expecting, no one seemed too enthusiastic or happy. The delivery was difficult. My birth was premature. When they learnt that the child was a girl, they stopped coming to the hospital. Ma died a week later. They wanted nothing to do with me; an ugly runt of a girl with shrivelled-up skin fit only to follow her no-good stubborn mother out of this world. They were only too happy to let Masi take me off their hands and away to her ancestral home in a small coastal Konkan village, Parvi, where she lived with my grandmother, her mother, Aji. The village doctor shook his head sadly on looking at me but Masi was as adamant as her sister had been. In that house I was reared purely on Masi’s grit and Aji’s determination and loving care as they nursed me with ragi extract, diluted cow’s milk, soft hand-pounded rice and coconut. Day after day they laboured. As a baby they fed me the Ragi extract mixed with diluted milk and the starch water from boiled rice. A little older and they made Ragi porridge, then Ragi bhakri (roti), laddoos, seviyan, and a miracle took place. Masi and Aji watched me grow from strength to strength. Now I am 25, a foot taller than Masi and completing my postgraduate studies in medicine. [Extracted, with edits and revisions, from Ragi-Ragini: Chronicles from Aji’s Kitchen, by Anjali Purohit, Yoda Press, 2012.] 2.1 Why, according to the author, did her father treat her mother with contempt? (a) Because she had given birth to a daughter. (b) Because she was regularly ill. (c) Because he felt he had married beneath his position. (d) Because she was not a good cook. (Answer: (c)) Rationale: The correct answer is (c) - because he felt he had married beneath his position. The author provides this reason in the second sentence of the passage. While her husband’s family stopped visiting the author’s mother in the hospital when they learnt she had given birth to a girl, this is not given as the reason why she was treated with contempt in the first place, and so, (a) cannot be the correct option. The author’s mother was regularly ill because of the way she was treated, but this was not the reason why her husband treated her with contempt, and so, (b) cannot be the right answer.