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RAS question

The Central Hindu College at Banaras, which later became BHU, was founded by:

Correct answer: (A) Annie Besant (1898).

Annie Besant founded the Central Hindu College at Banaras in 1898, the institution that later formed part of Banaras Hindu University.

  1. (A)

    Annie Besant (1898)

  2. (B)

    Rabindranath Tagore

  3. (C)

    Madan Mohan Malaviya

  4. (D)

    Swami Vivekananda

Explanation

The founder asked here is Annie Besant, not Madan Mohan Malaviya. The official Banaras Hindu University SET-2021 information bulletin states that the Central Hindu Boys' School and Central Hindu Girls' School have their roots in the Central Hindu College established by Dr Annie Besant in 1898. That college was later connected to BHU: in 1916, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya established Banaras Hindu University and incorporated the college into it. That sequence is the key distinction. Besant founded the Central Hindu College at Banaras; Malaviya is associated with founding BHU later. Besant's wider public role also included founding the Home Rule League.

Why the other options are wrong

  • (B) Rabindranath Tagore is linked here with Shantiniketan, while the Central Hindu College at Banaras is attributed to Annie Besant in 1898.
  • (C) Madan Mohan Malaviya founded Banaras Hindu University in 1916, but the college that BHU later incorporated had already been started by Annie Besant.
  • (D) Swami Vivekananda is associated with the Ramakrishna Mission, not with founding the Central Hindu College at Banaras.

Concept

This tests modern Indian educational institutions and reform-linked personalities, a recurring RAS theme because examiners often separate the founder of an institution from the later organisation into which it was absorbed.

Source

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