UPSC Prelims 2004·GS1·history·modern history

The name of the famous person of India who returned the Knighthood conferred on him by the British Government as a token of protest against the atrocities in Punjab in 1919 was:

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Last updated 23 May 2026, 3:31 pm IST
  1. ATej Bahadur Sapru
  2. BAshutosh Mukherjee
  3. CRabindra Nath TagoreCorrect
  4. DSyed Ahmad Khan

Explanation

The correct answer is Rabindra Nath Tagore. Following the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre in Amritsar on April 13, 1919, where British troops fired on a peaceful gathering, Tagore wrote a letter to the Viceroy, Lord Chelmsford. In this letter, he expressed his deep shock and pain over the incident and renounced his Knighthood, stating that such honors were meaningless in the face of the humiliation and suffering of his countrymen. While Mahatma Gandhi returned the Kaiser-i-Hind medal during the same period, it was Tagore who specifically returned the Knighthood as a protest against the Punjab atrocities.
history: The name of the famous person of India who returned the Knighthood conferred on him by the British Government as a token
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