When the author asked me to write out a foreword when I was in Bombay in the month of June, I readily consented, because I thought that he would forget all about it after I left. But the author is inexorable and here am I trying to dictate a foreword.
It is difficult for me to say anything about the late Lokamanya, as I feel overwhelmed whenever I think of his greatness. Yet his greatness was so simple. No analysis of his genius or character is possible because of that very simplicity. I confess I cannot analyse his greatness ; I can only say what has been said from a thousand platforms in India that he was a man of whom India is proud.
It is unnecessary for me to refer to his love of country, pride of race, indomitable courage, unflagging perseverance and spirit of sacrifice which made his activities so real. All these are a matter of record in the recent history of Indian Nationalism.
It has often been said that the Late Lokamanya
was a practical politician and not an
idealist with a vision. I naturally shrink
from an attempt to classify his genius. The
character of a truly great man defies classifi###cation. I shall relate one little incident of
his life and leave the readers to put what
name they please to his genius. In 1906,
when the Congress was held in Calcutta the
Lokamanya and many of my Maharashtra
friends were my guests. One day during his
visit a gentleman from Lucknow came to
see him. I was present. This gentleman was
a Moderate in politics and began to speak
somewhat angrily. He accused Lokamanya
of creating dissensions in the Congress camp
and said “Do you know what the Maho###medans are doing ? They are combining
against the Hindus and trying to start a
Pan-Islamic movement.” Lokamanya’s eyes
glistened. He said, “Are you sure?”. This
gentleman got very angry. He said " Sure ?
I am as sure as I am here talking to you. I
have seen some of the letters. Whilst you
are dividing the Hindus, the Mahomedans
are uniting to crush us." To my surprise,
Lokamanya said with a smile, which it is
impossible for me to describe. “Then is
our deliverance at hand. Don’t you see the
moment the ^Mahomedans combine, that
moment the Government will be at them.
The moment the Government is at them,
that very moment they will unite with us."+++(5)+++
It was after this that the Moslem League was
started in open opposition to the I. N. Congress.
It was after this that the Moslem
League strove and worked in perfect unity
with the I. N. Congress. It was after this
that the Hindu-Moslem Unity was declared
a crime in the Punjab. Now we all know.
Was he a practical politician ? Was he an
idealist with a vision ?
CHITTA RANJAN DAS
148, Russa Road South, Calcutta, 1-12-21.
#PREFACE
The story of the Life of Lokamanya Tilak is the history of Western India during the 1 ast forty years ; it is the history of the birth and growth of Indian NationaUsm, its im###pact on the Indian Bureaucracy, its vicissi###tudes, its struggles, disappointments, suc###cesses and reverses. To attempt a task of such magnitude, so eminently fit for a philo###sopher-historian is at any time a " stroke of temerity.” It is still more so at the present juncture when the ashes of the controver###sies in which Mr. Tilak so prominently figured are hot. Though dead, Mr. Tilak still lives in our midst ; and the time is not yet for a pronouncement of the final verdict of History upon him. That is evidently a work for the next generation when the biographer or historian will be fortified in his judgment by the knowledge of the ultimate success or failure of Mr. Tilak’s methods and those of his opponents. My task is comparatively modest ; and though my diffi###culties are infinitely greater than those of the future historian, a contemporary biogra###pher has obvious advantages over him.
Throughout the succeeding narrative, I have never tried to conceal my bias for Mr. Tilak. Nor will the reader — Moderate or Extremist, Brahmin or Non-Brahmin, Indian or European — expect me to do so. I have however, to the best of my ability, scrupulous###ly adhered to truth. Not being closely identified with party principles, personalities and prejudices, I can claim to have judged Mr. Tilak’s opponents sympathetically. I have as great a regard for Ranade as for Vishnushastri Chiploonkar ; and if in the following pages the reader finds any lapses from the standard of fair criticism set by me, he should unhesitatingly attribute them rather to an imperfect comprehension of truth than to any conscious desire of misrepresenting Mr. Tilak’s opponents. Mr. Tilak’s great###ness is so immense and self-evident that it stands in no need of any exggeration or misrepresentation.
The idea of writing a life of the Lokamanya was dimly and vaguely floating in my mind for a number of years. It recurred to me again and again when, taking advantage of the obscurity which hung over his earher activities, many of his enthusiastic opponents in Western India actively set themselves to indulge in cheap gibes by irreverential and by no means fair references to what they considered to be his mistakes. In this, they can be pardoned for, being young, these opponents might have been the dupes of mis###understandings born in an atmosphere of party prejudices. But their attacks certainly led me to go beneath the surface of things and inquire what truth there was in them. And after three year’s patient work, I find that Mr. Tilak’s activities, far from having the shortcomings and inconsistencies of a political opportunist, have all the well###sustained unity of a beautiful drama, in which each scene is organically related to the preceding and to the succeeding and all together make one harmonious whole.
It would have been almost impossible for me to do this laborious work without the active co-operation of my friends. Their number is legion. I shall take this oppor###tunity of thanking only a few of them ; and if I have to omit individual reference to all, that is due to the limits of an ordinary pre###face. Mr. M. R. Paranjpye, Principal of the Gokuldas Tejpal High School, Bombay, kind###ly undertook to help me in revising the work. Mr. Annasahib Sapre and Mr. Karmelkar prepared the Press-copy in an incredibly short time. I must also thank Mr. M. K. David and Mr. Bhausahib Oak for having helped me in a variety of ways. Even then I should hardly have hoped of accomplishing this task but for the sponta###neous assistance rendered bv Prof. Haribhau Tulpule, Mr. D. K. Sathe and Mr. Annasahib Chiploonkar, who during the last ten months had placed their services entirely at my disposal.
The credit of having supplied the excellent paper on which this book is published, goes entirely to Mr. M. R. Joshi, Paper-merchant, Poona. Mr. Nanasahib Gondhalekar, the enterprising Proprietor of the Jagaddhitecchu Press, Poona, must both be praised and thanked for having printed off this book in five short weeks on his new Monotype machine.
While this Preface was being written, news has arrived that Mr. C. R. Das, President###elect of the forth-coming Congress has been arrested. I must sincerely thank him for having snatched an odd minute to write a foreword when his mind was distracted by the troubles brewing in Bengal.
The unique feature of Mr. Tilak’s career is that, like a magnet it draws all. While the populace claim him as one of their own, aristocrats recognize that he represented, in his intellectual and spiritual eminence, a nobler aristocracy than has fallen to their lot. Old persons feel interest in the romance of his career ; the middle-aged derive instruction therefrom. On the younger generation, the influence of Mr. Tilak’s life is still deeper. It not only interests and instructs but inspires the mind to a performance of great deeds. Like the story of the Pandavas, it is bound to go down to generations unborn as an eternal source of inspiration.
जयो नामेतिहासोऽयं श्रोतव्यो विजिगीषुभिः।
(Signed D V Athaye)