Q.The successful modern co-operative movement is regarded as having begun with the Rochdale Pioneers in England in the year: (A) 1844
(B) 1904
(C) 1912
(D) 1960

The modern co-operative movement grew out of the hardship of the Industrial Revolution in Europe, where low wages and high prices drove ordinary workers to protect themselves by acting together. Early thinkers such as Robert Owen (the 'father of the co-operative movement') and Charles Fourier inspired the idea, while Schulze-Delitzsch (urban credit co-operatives) and Raiffeisen (rural credit co-operatives) built practical credit models in Germany. The real, successful beginning is traced to the Rochdale Pioneers — 28 poor weavers who opened a co-operative store on Toad Lane, Rochdale, England, on 21 December 1844, calling themselves the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers. Their working rules — the Rochdale Principles (open and voluntary membership, democratic control with one member one vote, limited interest on capital, surplus distributed by patronage, cash trading, pure goods at honest weights, neutrality, and member education) — succeeded and became the model that co-operatives worldwide copied, which is why 1844 is regarded as the birth year of the organised movement.