Gopal Krishna Gokhale founded the Servants of India Society, to train national missionaries for the service of India, in:

Gopal Krishna Gokhale founded the Servants of India Society in Poona (Pune) on 12 June 1905.

Aims of the Society:

• To train "national missionaries" for the service of India.
• To promote, by constitutional means, the true interests of the Indian people.
• To work for education, social reform, the welfare of the poor and the depressed sections, and communal harmony.

Rules for its members:

• Members had to take a vow to devote their whole lives to the service of the country.
• They had to live simple lives, accept a small allowance fixed by the Society, and not seek personal gain.
• They had to undergo a period of training (usually five years).

Work of the Society:

• It worked in famine relief, flood relief, education, cooperative movements, labour welfare, tribal welfare and the uplift of women.
• Its members worked among the depressed classes and the poor.

Famous members:

• S. Srinivasa Sastri, who became the President of the Society after Gokhale's death.
• M. Joshi, who founded the All India Trade Union Congress (1920) and worked for the rights of workers.
• Hridayanath Kunzru.
• V. Thakkar ("Thakkar Bapa"), who worked for tribals and Dalits.
• K. Devadhar, who founded the Seva Sadan in Poona.

Publications:

The Society published the newspaper "Hitavada" (Nagpur).

About Gokhale:

• He was a leading Moderate leader and an economist.
• He was President of the Congress at its Banaras session in December 1905.
• He was a member of the Imperial Legislative Council, where he criticised the government's budget and policies.
• He died in 1915.

Other organisations of the time:

The Deccan Education Society (1884), which founded the Fergusson College, Pune.

The Social Service League (1911), founded by N. M. Joshi.

Why not the other options?

• ✗1885 was the year the Congress was founded.
• ✗1897 and 1915 were not the year of the Society's founding.