The Vital-Vidhvansak, the first monthly journal to have the untouchable people as its target audience was published by

1. Gopal Baba Walangkar
2. Jyotiba Phule
3. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
4. Bhimarao Ramji Ambedkar

Explanation

Option (a) is correct

• Gopal Baba Walangkar was born in 1840 into a Mahar family near Mahad. An ex-army man, he was deeply influenced by Jyotirao Phule and adopted his ideas on social equality. Walangkar supported Phule’s Aryan invasion theory and argued that the untouchables were the indigenous inhabitants of India, while the Brahmins were descendants of Aryans who had invaded the country.
• In 1886, Walangkar established the anti-caste organisation “Anarya Dosh-Parihar Samaj” to address the Dalit issues. In 1888, Walangkar started a monthly journal, Vital-Vidhvansak, which was the first to target the untouchables. He is credited as the pioneer of the emergence of Dalit periodicals.

Answer: (a) Gopal Baba Walangkar; Difficulty Level: Hard