Q.Identify the correct alternative with reference to the following statement : “Between 1966 – 76, Mao introduced this movement under which professionals and students were asked to work and learn from real life situations prevailing in the countryside of China.” (A) Commune System (B) Great Leap Forward (C) Open Door Policy (D) Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution

The statement describes a movement where professionals and students were sent to the countryside to work and learn from real-life situations between 1966–76. This was Mao's attempt to re-energize the revolutionary spirit and eliminate what he saw as capitalist and traditional influences creeping into Chinese society.

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966–76) was precisely this campaign. Mao mobilized students and young people as Red Guards, closed universities, and sent intellectuals, professionals, and students to rural areas to do manual labor and "learn from the peasants." The idea was to break down the distinction between mental and manual work and to prevent the emergence of a new elite class. …

The statement describes a defining feature of Mao Zedong's most radical social experiment in the late 1960s and 1970s. To understand which movement this was, we need to look at what each option represents and what actually happened during 1966–76.

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) was Mao's attempt to reassert his authority and purge what he saw as capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society. One of its most dramatic features was the mass mobilization of young people — the Red Guards — and the systematic "sending down" of urban intellectuals, professionals, teachers, and students to rural areas. The idea was that these educated elites had become divorced from the masses and needed to be "re-educated" through manual labor and exposure to peasant life. Millions were relocated to the countryside, forced to work in fields and factories, and expected to learn revolutionary values from workers and farmers. This wasn't voluntary study; it was a violent upheaval that destroyed careers, separated families, and targeted anyone deemed insufficiently revolutionary.

Let's see why the other options don't fit:

• Commune System refers to the agricultural collectives established in 1958, where land was pooled and peasants worked together. While communes were part of rural reorganization, they weren't a movement sending urban professionals to the countryside for re-education.

• Great Leap Forward (1958–1961) was Mao's disastrous campaign to rapidly industrialize China through backyard furnaces and unrealistic production targets. It caused a massive famine but didn't involve the systematic relocation of students and professionals to learn from rural life — that came later.

• Open Door Policy refers to Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms after 1978, opening China to foreign investment and market mechanisms. This came after Mao's death and the end of the Cultural Revolution, and had nothing to do with sending people to the countryside. …