Gandhi

The question setter has fallen into a common trap here, however – by referring to 'Mahatma' as Gandhi's first name.

The actual first name isn't quite right, either: it was Mohandas, not Mohandras.

'Mahatma' is what Wikipedia refers to as an 'honorific': "a title that conveys esteem or respect ". It's variously translated as 'great soul', 'high-souled' or 'venerable', and it was first applied to Gandhi in 1914, when he was 44 years old and working as a lawyer in South Africa. (At the same time, he was also emerging as a civil rights leader, employing the 'non-violent protest' methodology for which he would later become famous, in protest at racial discrimination – particularly against Indians like himself.)

What the question setter was quite rightly trying to do, of course, was to ensure that contestants could distinguish between the Mahatma and other people with the same surname - at least two of whom were also assassinated, later in the twentieth century. But there are more correct ways to do this. For example: "The first name, or the honorific, is required, as well as the family name."

Call me pedantic; you wouldn't be the first, and I'm sure you won't be the last. But you know I'm right ☺.

As I always like to point out when the subject arises, Mohandas 'Mahatma' Gandhi was assassinated on the day before my parents were married. And finally, I'd just like to point out, before anyone asks, that several years were to pass before I was to come into being.