Q. Which Indian leader for the first time used the ‘safety-valve theory’ to attack the Moderates in the Congress?

Correct Answer: b) Lala Lajpat Rai

Explanation:
– The ‘safety-valve theory’ is the idea that the Indian National Congress was founded (by A.O. Hume with the tacit support of the British, especially Lord Dufferin) as a “safety valve” to let off nationalist steam through mild, constitutional methods and thus prevent a revolutionary upsurge.
– Lala Lajpat Rai, an Extremist leader, was the first to use this theory explicitly to criticize and attack the Moderate leadership of the Congress, notably in his work “Young India” (1916).
– He argued that the Moderate, petitionary approach suited the British design of containing nationalism. (Later historians have largely rejected the safety-valve thesis, but it was an important Extremist critique at the time.)