The title 'Deshbandhu' is associated with which national leader?

The correct answer is B, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Patel was the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of India, and he persuaded or pressed more than five hundred princely states into joining the Indian Union after 1947. That firmness earned him the name Iron Man of India, and for the same work he is also called the Bismarck of India. The title Sardar came earlier, from the peasant women of Bardoli after he led the Bardoli Satyagraha of 1928.

Option A, Lala Lajpat Rai, is Punjab Kesari or Sher-e-Punjab. Option C, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, is Lokmanya, and Valentine Chirol called him the Father of Indian Unrest. Option D, Subhas Chandra Bose, is Netaji. All three are correct sobriquets, but for different people, which is exactly how this question is built.

The correct answer is C, Subhas Chandra Bose. Bose addressed Gandhi as the Father of the Nation in a radio broadcast made while he was leading the Azad Hind movement during the Second World War, and the phrase has stayed with Gandhi ever since. It is worth noting that the expression is a mark of respect and not a constitutional or official title, because the Constitution confers no such designation.

Option A, Jawaharlal Nehru, gave the nation the phrase about the light having gone out of our lives on the evening of Gandhi's assassination, which candidates often confuse with this question. Option B, Rabindranath Tagore, is credited with the other great title, Mahatma. Option D, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, worked closely with Gandhi but coined no title for him. The pairing to remember is Tagore for Mahatma and Bose for Father of the Nation.

The correct answer is B, Sarojini Naidu. Naidu was a poet in English whose collections include The Golden Threshold and The Bird of Time, and the lyrical quality of her verse earned her the name Nightingale of India, or Bharat Kokila. She was the first Indian woman to preside over the Indian National Congress and later became the Governor of the United Provinces.

Option A, Lata Mangeshkar, is the closest trap, because she is called Swar Kokila and the Queen of Melody, and some popular writing also calls her a nightingale; in exams the Nightingale of India is Sarojini Naidu. Option C, Annie Besant, was the first woman President of the Congress overall and the founder of the Home Rule League. Option D, Kamala Nehru, took part in the civil disobedience movement but carries no such title.

The correct answer is A, Dadabhai Naoroji. Naoroji was a founder of the Indian National Congress, its President three times, and the first Indian to be elected to the British House of Commons. His book Poverty and Un-British Rule in India set out the drain theory, which argued that British rule was transferring India's wealth to Britain, and his long service to the national cause earned him the name Grand Old Man of India.

Option B, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, is remembered as the political guru of Gandhi and the founder of the Servants of India Society. Option C, Surendranath Banerjee, is called the Indian Burke and founded the Indian Association. Option D, Pherozeshah Mehta, was called the Lion of Bombay. All four are moderate leaders of the same generation, which is what makes this question a genuine test of recall.

The correct answer is C, Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Valentine Chirol, a British journalist, used the phrase Father of Indian Unrest for Tilak in his writing on Indian politics, and Tilak sued him for libel in England. Tilak ran the newspapers Kesari in Marathi and The Mahratta in English, gave the country the slogan that Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it, and is called Lokmanya, meaning accepted by the people.

Option A, Aurobindo Ghosh, was tried in the Alipore bomb case and later turned to spiritual work at Pondicherry. Option B, Bipin Chandra Pal, formed the Lal Bal Pal trio with Tilak and Lajpat Rai. Option D, Lala Lajpat Rai, is Punjab Kesari and died after the lathi charge in Lahore in 1928. The three extremists are offered together on purpose, but Chirol's phrase belongs to Tilak.