Read the Passage and answer the questions:

Gandhiji on the Indian Elite

When his turn came to speak, Gandhiji charged the Indian elite with a lack of concern for the labouring poor. The opening of the BHU, he said, was "certainly a most gorgeous show". But he worried about the contrast between the "richly bedecked noblemen" present and "millions of the poor" Indians who were absent. Gandhiji told the privileged invitees that "there is no salvation for India unless you strip yourself of this jewellery and hold it in trust for your countrymen in India". "There can be no spirit of self-government about us," he went on, "if we take away or allow others to take away from the peasants almost the whole of the results of their labour. Our salvation can only come through the farmer. Neither the lawyers, nor the doctors, nor the rich landlords are going to secure it." The opening of the BHU was an occasion for celebration, marking as it did the opening of a nationalist university, sustained by Indian money and Indian initiative. But rather than adopt a tone of self-congratulation, Gandhiji chose instead to remind those present of the peasants and workers who constituted a majority of the Indian population, yet were unrepresented in the audience. Gandhiji's speech at Banaras in February 1916 was, at one level, merely a statement of fact - namely, that Indian nationalism was an elite phenomenon, a creation of lawyers and doctors and landlords.

The central idea of the passage is:

Indian nationalism was an elite phenomenon.

The correct answer is Option (2) → Indian nationalism was an elite phenomenon.

The passage highlights Gandhiji’s Banaras speech (1916), where he criticized the Indian elite (lawyers, doctors, landlords, noblemen) for ignoring the peasants and workers who formed the majority of India’s population. He pointed out that while the opening of BHU was celebrated by the rich, the labouring poor were absent and unrepresented.

Thus, the central idea is that in its early phase, Indian nationalism was dominated by the elite, and Gandhiji reminded them that true freedom could only come through the farmers and workers.