Generalizing a theorem of Gagola and Lewis characterizing nilpotent groups

Gagola and Lewis proved that a finite group G is nilpotent if and only if \(\chi (1)^2\) divides |G :  \(\mathrm{Ker}\) \(\chi |\) for all irreducible characters \(\chi \) of G. In this paper, we prove the following generalization that a finite group G is nilpotent if and only if \(\chi (1)^2\) divides |G :  \(\mathrm{Ker}\) \(\chi |\) for all monolithic characters \(\chi \) of G.