Consider the following assertion: The genesis of political alliances based on community lay in the very nature of the Montague-Chelmsford Reforms, 1919. Which of the following statements support/supports the above assertion? 1. Reforms retained and extended the principle of separate electorates. 2. Separate electorates were supposed to counter Indian nationalism, which was growing stronger. 3. Deprived classes rallied around the favours inherent in separate electorates.

The Montague-Chelmsford Reforms (Government of India Act, 1919) institutionalized community-based politics by retaining and extending the principle of separate electorates that had begun with the Morley-Minto Reforms of 1909 — supporting statement 1. The colonial government used separate electorates as a divide-and-rule mechanism to counter the growing tide of Indian nationalism, supporting statement 2. The deprived classes (later including Muslims, Sikhs, Anglo-Indians, depressed classes, etc.) increasingly rallied around the privileges and protections that separate electorates offered, leading to entrenched communal political alliances, supporting statement 3. All three statements thus support the assertion.