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

The correct answer is A) Gopal Baba Walangkar. He started the Vital Vidhwansak in 1888 as a Marathi monthly aimed at the untouchables. It is usually treated as the first such journal, and it is an early example of Dalit-focused print activism in colonial Maharashtra.

• Jyotiba Phule was a major reformer, but his journals, such as Deenbandhu, were not the first monthly meant for the untouchables.
• Gandhi edited Harijan, which began in 1933 and was a weekly. It came much later and was not the first journal of this kind.
• Ambedkar started Mooknayak in 1920 and later Bahishkrut Bharat in 1927. Both were significant, but neither was the first monthly for the untouchables.

The core concept here is the history of Dalit and depressed-class movements and their use of the press as a tool of social awakening. For Mains GS-I, link this to social reform in the 19th and early 20th centuries and to the non-Brahmin and Dalit movements of Maharashtra.

Trap: Aspirants often pick Phule because he is the most familiar name in 19th-century social reform. Check the specific claim, which is the first monthly for the untouchables, before choosing.