Question

Who said the following when laying the foundation stone ceremony of Banaras Hindu University, "There is no salvation for India unless you strip yourself of this jewellery and hold it in trust for your countrymen in India."?
1. Mohammad Ali Jinnah
2. Annie Besant
3. Gopal Krishna Gokhale
4. Mahatma Gandhi

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 4 : Mahatma Gandhi

The correct answer is Mahatma Gandhi.

• Mahatma Gandhi's Banaras Speech (1916):
  • His first major public appearance was at the opening of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in February 1916.
  • 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 poof 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. Hence, Option 4 is correct.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • At the annual Congress, held in Lucknow in December 1916, he was approached by a peasant from Champaran in Bihar, who told him about the harsh treatment of peasants by British indigo planters.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah	He was a barrister, politician, and the founder of Pakistan. Jinnah served as the leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until the inception of Pakistan on 14 August 1947, and then as the Dominion of Pakistan's first governor-general until his death.
Annie Besant	She was a British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer, orator, educationist, and philanthropist. Regarded as a champion of human freedom, she was an ardent supporter of both Irish and Indian self-rule. She was a prolific author with over three hundred books and pamphlets to her credit.
Gopal Krishna Gokhale	He was an Indian liberal political leader and a social reformer during the Indian Independence Movement. Gokhale was a senior leader of the Indian National Congress and the founder of the Servants of India Society.