Practicing Success

Target Exam

CUET

Subject

History

Chapter

Modern India: Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist movement

Question:

Gandhiji once said, "Our salvation can only come through _________", during the national movement.

Options:

Doctors

Farmers

Lawyers

Rich landlords

Correct Answer:

Farmers

Explanation:

The correct answer is Option (2) → Farmers

Mahatama Gandhi's first major public appearance was at the opening of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in February 1916. Among the invitees to this event were the princes and philanthropists whose donations had contributed to the founding of the BHU. Also present were important leaders of the Congress, such as Annie Besant. Compared to these dignitaries, Gandhiji was relatively unknown. He had been invited on account of his work in South Africa, rather than his status within India. Champaran was Gandhiji first satyagraha.

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, not the doctors, nor the rich landlords are going to secure it.