We can sacrcely express the admiration which we feel for a mind so great and at the same time so healthy and well-proportioned, so willingly contracting itself to the humblest duties, so easily expanding itself to the highest, so contended in repose, so powerful in action. Every part of this virtuous and blameless life is not hidden from us in modest privacy is a splendid-portion of our national history.
Macaulay on John Hampden
The playground of Eton might have trained up the conqueror of Napoleon ; but it is characteristic either of the circumstances in India or of our college###life or of both, that Mr. Tilak owed absolutely nothing to his alma mater. None of his fellow-students or pro###fessors could foretell his future career; none size up the vast potentialities of the man. To most of his fellow###students, Mr. Tilak,— Mr. Blunt, as they preferred to call him — appeared as a young man of rather extra- ordinary abihties but certainly not of extra-ordinary ambition or application, extremely obstinate, somewhat domineering, simple and kind-hearted. Even to Ranade, the most observant man of the time, the memorable 1st of January 1880 appeared only to usher in the second stage of our public life. Even he, scarcely realized that a dynamic personality had appeared in the stagnant waters of our national life, — a personality that was destined to measure its strength with ail others and ultimately to triumph over them all. The progress of Mr. Tilak was challenged at every step. On the one hand, there was a strong body of Liberal and Moderate leaders — Ranade, Mehta, Telang, Wacha, Bhandarkar, to name only a few — and on the other the vast forces of the powerful Bureaucracy despotically ruling over the land. Alternately, simultaneously, Mr. Tilak knocked the one or the other. He, in his turn, received blows at every step, at every turn. Some###times, it appeared as if, he was done for, that he had ceased to count as a factor in public life and would be required to recede, crest-fallen, into the background. Defeat after defeat was inflicted upon him, and on many occassions, it appeared that the epitaph on his career could be written. But sphinx-like, he arose out of the ashes of every defeat more and more powerful until at last his opponents, deserted, defeated and con###founded had to make room for him.
To fight with practically all the foremost men of one’s time and with an extremely powerful bureaucracy to boot, one must be nothing less than a dare-devil — in the noblest and best sense of the term. Even to attempt such a fight is creditable ; to do it with effect is still more so and to win laurels therein is reserved only for a rare hero. It was even so with Mr. Tilak. The equip ment with which Mr. Tilak commenced his life-work was immense. His genius was of the highest order. Its most distinguished feature was originality. Read###ers of his Gita Rahasya marvel at the calm assurance with which he quietly sets aside the authority and tradi###tional interpretations of the last two thousand years^
GENERAL REFLECTIONS 359
To the study of the Gita, Mr. Tilak brought a mind un###trammelled by tradition, undeterred by authority and unrestrained by expediency. So in every department of life and thought — politics included — ^his genius must run its course, heedless of tradition, authority or expe###diency. It was absolutely impossible for his fiery and passionate spirit as also for his restless and original mind to acquiesce in the easy-going, desultory and irre###solute pubUc life of the day. Where would it lead us ? What was its goal ? Will these widow-marriages and all that make men of us ? Will they break the bonds of foreign domination that has enchained and well-nigh paralyzed us ? To him British Government was an evil — to be tolerated, to be made the best of, but after###all an evil, which has crushed us politically, socially, industrially, and spiritually. Therein he saw no " Di###vine dispensation of an inscrutable Providence." Two generations of educated Indians had been lauding, with a rare exception, the greatness of our English " deliverers “; Mr. Tilak refused to dance to the tune. Two generations of educated Indians had swallowed all the sneers and gibes at Indian society in which the English officials and missionaries indulged ; far from uttering a word of protest, the English-educated Indians had based their programme of Social Reform on that condemnation. Mr. Tilak could not agree with them. Two generations of educated Indians had pinned their faith on the benevolence, righteousness and humanity of the present rulers of India ; Mr. Tilak, gifted with a more correct perception of the state of things relied more on the people than on the conquerors, for the great consummation of all our ambitions ; and the man, who
360 LOKAMANYA TILAK
rejected the authority of all the Acharyas in the interpre###tation of the Gita, the man who rejected the reasoning of all European scholars with regard to the antiquity of the Vedas and the cradle of the Aryan civilisation — this same man rejected methods of Ranade, Telang, Mandlik, Bhau Daji and all the time-honoured leaders of the people and struck out a new path in public life. To challenge in this way the work of two generations, requires a degree of no ordinary courage. To strike out a new path in the public life almost in opposition to the previous generation requires vision of the first order ; and the peculiar path selected by Mr. Tilak called for self-sacrifice of the highest degree. Mr. Tilak rushed into the arena of national activities fully gifted with this vision, courage and self-sacrifice. An###other man was there, Mr. Tilak’s peer in every quality of the head and heart — Vishnushastri Chiploonkar. Another man yet, Gopal Ganesh Agarkar, a smaller chip of the same block. His broken health and strain###ed circumstances, later on somewhat altered the angle of Agarkar’s vision. But throughout his eventful life, Mr. Tilak was found equal to any sacrifice, a match for any misfortune. He took up the work of national uplift in true Jesuitical spirit. Utter renunciation was his watchword. He even regretted that his father should have got him married ; and now that he was a married man, he must seek for ’ maintenance allow###ance ;’ but barring that, every pie he would get would belong to his country. The hfe-long simplicity of Mr. Tilak’s dress and living was due to this vow of poverty ; and the purity of his life — so conspicuously and deser###vedly recognised by all his contemporaries — instinctive
GENERAL REFLECTIONS 361
at first, was fortified by his gradual gaining in spiritual stature.
It will thus be seen that the moral and intellectual outlook with which Mr. Tilak started his career was essentially novel and was destined to bring about nothing less than a revolution in the public life of the country. The older generation of leaders, however, had a merry time of it for the next eleven years owing to Mr. Tilak’s long diversion and total absorption in the New English School and the Fergusson College. Three great idolas — to use a Baconian expression — had seized hold of the public mind in India during the last sixty years and diverted the nation from pursuing its first duty, — freedom from foreign domination. To-day we recognize that there can be no National Education without a National Government. We now realise that there can be no true Social Reform without and before political reform. We have learnt to our cost that there can be no regeneration of the national industries unless and until political power is wrested from the representatives of foreign capitalists. Education, Social Reform, Industrial Development — all must wait and make room for political reform. But about 1880 people thought differently ; and so Ranade ran after the lure of Social Reform, Tilak and Agarkar attempted to start National Education, Kunte and others tried to intro###duce western industries in the unmanured soil of our country. The attempts failed to achieve the intended result. To be sure, a certain amount of progress did result ; but at what cost ? Mr. Tilak’s dedication of eleven years to a school :ind a college may have made him a bit less idealistic and more conversant with men
3^2 LOKAMANYA TILAK
and affairs. It may have enabled him to equip himself the better for the mission of his life. But at the same time, we must not forget, that he lost eleven precious years of political leadership. Eleven years! and to a man Hke Mr. Tilak ! What a world of difference it would have made ! As it was, when lesser men were dominating the public life, and moulding the national will, Mr. Tilak was busy teaching Statistics and Astro###nomy, Sanskrit and Science to college students, figting all the while with the ever-growing clique which ulti###mately threw him out. In the first Session of the Indian National Congress, the first resolution was moved by the late Mr. G. Subramania Aiyar, born in 1856, the year of Mr. Tilak’s birth ; while he, Mr. Tilak was at Poona shaping the infant college into life and strength. It is impossible and at the same time idle to discuss the possibilities, had Mr. Tilak started life as the sole editor of the Kesari and the Mahratta. But it is just possible that in his pursuit of what proved to be a phantom, the process of galvanizing the Congress and the public life of the country was delayed by a decade.
Within the walls of the school and the college, soon after their existence was assured, a struggle awaited Mr. Tilak which gave a rude shock to his innate idealism. It was a struggle between a great man and compara###tively small men, between idealism and worldly wisdom, between unbending adherence to the original understand###ing and the demands of worldly ease. These differences were probably aggravated by the introduction of personal element. There is no thought more humilia###ting to ordinary minds than the growing consciousness that the man, whom in school or in college we re-
GENERAL REFLECTIONS 365
garded more or less as an equal, stands head and shoul###der over us and extorts greater, more ardent homage from the world at large. It is not impossible that such an ele###ment found its way into the otherwise noble heart of Agarkar, who generally led the opposition against Mr. Tilak ; and when such a paragon of sacrifice raised the issues, need we wonder that Apte joined him, Apte, who at the very time of joining the Society is said to have stipulated for relaxation with respect to the ori###ginal agreement about extra income ? The cry was catching and was taken up by others, even by Mr. Gokhale whose ardent love of the Motherland and sterling sacrifices in her cause are well known. Then came the differences of opinions with regard to Social Reform on which Mr. Agarkar was so keen; and they are supposed to have accelerated the breach. It is also just possible that the party led by Ranade might have been led, by instincts of self-preservation, to exploit the already delicate situation and utilise the discon###tented element in the Deccan Education Socity for the enhancement of its prestige, which since 1880 had been steadily dwindling. For eleven long years, Mr. Tilak had been trying to enlist the active sympathy or patronage of all that was best, most thoughtful, most influential in the Bombay Presidency in the cause of the Society ; what must have been his disappointment and mrotifi###cation to find that after all this laborious fabric had been erected, ensuring the permanent existence and the prosperity of the institution, he was made to feel that he was no longer required and that for his own peace he had better walk away ? Had the majority of the members been grateful even by a tittle for the construe-
364 LOKAMANYA TILAK
tive and organizing work done by Mr. Tilak, when most of them were nobodies, they would not, like rebellious children, have stooped to pass a vote of censure upon the father of the institution. The Hon. Mr. Paranjpye might find it convenient to ridicule the public which sympathised with Mr. Tilak on the occasion of his re###tirement from the Society, but the public v^as not far in the wrong and Mr. Tilak was really the victim of incessant intrigues aimed mainly at his downfall.
When, in 1890, Mr. Tilak left the D. E. Society, he found himself almost shunned by the intelligentia of Poona. A less courageous and enterprising man would not have survived this defeat. Nor were his oppo###nents willing to let him alone. A most foolish, uncalled###for legislation was undertaken by the Government of India as a concession to the continual pressure brought upon them by the leading lights of Social Reform. Mr. Tilak opposed it tooth and nail but was prepared for a reasonable compromise. The turn-headed reformers, however, brooked no conciliation. Mr. Tilak was stig###matised as an incendiary, a destructive worker. The air was thick with his condemnation. Feelings ran so high that whatever was opposed by Mr. Tilak was liked and supported by his opponents. The Sharada Sadan, an institution conducted by a Christian lady, had begun to develop unhealthy features. The original compact was gradually being set aside, and Christianity insidi###ously sought to be preached. Mr. Tilak got scent of the matter. He raised a note of warning. At once like mad dogs, his opponents rushed at him, " Mr. Tilak was an enemy of female education !” " Cut him !" At last after more than one year of quibbling.
GENERAL REFLECTIONS 365.
shuffling and prevarication, the leaders of Social Reform had the decency to withdraw their support from the school which is now purely and avowedly a Christian institution. In spite of the cold shoulder that was given to him, in spite of the cold way in which he was made to understand that he was a busy-body, a mortal in the midst of gods, Mr. Tilak attended the annual sessions of the Social Conference and tried to infuse in them a more constructive and responsible spirit. But it was to no effect. A certain Rao Bahadur, a lieute###nant of Ranade, openly declared that unless Mr. Tilak was dead, things would not work smoothty. This was too much for human nature to bear. Utterly disgusted with the autocratic and unthinking way in which the the Social Conference was conducted, Mr. Tilak left it and practically ceased taking interest in the work. But his opponents would not rest or give rest. At the time of the Poona Congress, in spite of the fact that Mr. Tilak had repeatedly declared through the Kesari and in the meetings of the working committee that the question of the loan of the Congress pavilion for the Social Conference should be decided by either Re###ception Committee or by the Congress itself, the cry was kept up that Mr. Tilak was an extremely narrow###minded and quarrelsome man and that he did not want the Social Conference to be held in the Congress pavilion. It is, after all, best to throw a pall over all these exhi###bitions of the good taste, decency and fair-play of his opponents ; but a Uttle peep into them is necessary in order to understand the stupendous difficulties through and inspite of which Mr. Tilak single-handed had to deliver his message to the people.
366 LOKAMANVA TILAK
Nor were the Reformers and the Moderates the only opponents Mr. Tilak had to reckon. There was a powerful section of the Bureaucracy and its proteges of the Anglo-Indian Press whose hostility so often has proved a fruitful source of trouble to Mr. Tilak. The success of the New English School had given a headache to the Times of India, and in the esta###blishment of an innocent school patronized by men like Ranade, Telang and Mandlik, it foresaw unpleasant results. The tone of the Kesari and the Mahratta was regarded as unfriendly to their interests by the Govern###ment. When in 1890, Mr. Tilak took an attitude of opposition to the Age of Consent Bill, the Times of India inquired how it was that such a man could be or remain a member of an institution like the Deccan Education Society ; and then with a sigh of relief and a chuckling sense of satisfaction, Principal Apte wrote a rejoinder declaring that Mr. Tilak was no longer a member of the Society. Three years rolled on, years in which Mr. Tilak was bringing upon himself the wrath of vested interests. Then came the Hindu-Mahomedan riots ; the sky was thick with the dust of controversies ; and Mr. Tilak, without mincing matters, again and again declared that the policy of favouritism inaugurated by a certain section of the Bureaucracy was responsible for all the mischief that was going on for well-nigh two years. This was bearding the lion, rudely and un###ceremoniously. How boldly and uncompromisingly Mr. Tilak expressed his views on this ’ Divide and Rule ’ poUcy can be appreciated only by a study of all the soft speeches of the so-called leaders of those times. Even the late Sir Pherozeshah, Tribune of the people
GENERAL REFLECTIONS 367
that he was, gave utterance to the right view m the mildest and most guarded language. If ever a leader deUvered his message through storm and stress, thun###der and lightening, obloquy and persecutions, it was Mr. Tilak ; and delivered under such circumstances, it derived a meaning, it commanded a respect which otherwise mere abilities or learning would not have brought it. It is only the man who swims against the current and not the one who swims with it, who deser###ves praise ; and Mr. Tilak lived to gain this due.
In the earlier years of his career, Mr. Tilak’s pubUc activities were regarded as merely destructive by those whose influence and methods he had challenged. Let us see what Mr. Tilak did during the fifteen years since he measured swords with Ranade and Telang. He car###ried the message of the Congress to the smallest and most distant hamlet in Maharashtra ; he spread broad###cast the teachings of Western liberalism, of Western democracy. He opened the eyes of the people to their terrible condition — stark poverty and utter bondage. He held before their eyes the vision of the great ideal, — Swaraj. He called upon them to work hard and sacri###fice their very best. He told them not to be deluded by the words of the so-called Reformers who never tired of calling them weak. He accustomed them to look back to the past and draw therefrom inspiration for the work of the present. He taught them to watch the administration of the day with vigilance. He trained them up in organised opposition. He showed them by personal example how to suffer for one’s con###victions and one’s country. If all this be destructive work, Mr. Tilak loses nothingby being called a " destruc-
368 LOKAMANYA TILAK
tive force." Only one should like to know what " constructive " work means.
When the pantalooned orators of the National Con###gress were in vain making passionate appeals to the Government, Mr. Tilak had already pinned his faith on the people. His gospel of Swaraj formed a refreshing contrast to the petty demands formulated from time to time by the National Congress. No doubt the festival of Shivaji was a provoincial affair wherein only the Hindus could participate. Still it did greater national service in Maharashtra during the nineties than the Congress itself. The methods of the national body were outlandish and hence ineffective, uninspiring and unpopular. The Congress stood for the glorification of the British Rule, while the Shivaji festival took the peoples’ minds back to that period when the slogan of Swaraj was reverberating throughout the length and breadth of the land. This powerful appeal to a glori###ous past, together with the lessons of courage and self###sacrifice which it inculcated did in those days greater service to Western India than the National Congress. Owing to its inherent limitations, the Shivaji festival could not, of course, usurp the functions of the Congress even in Maharashtra. The festival, however, stands as a symbol of Mr. Tilak’s methods of awakening and organizing the people and did exceptionally valuable political work supplementary to that of the Congress.
Mr. Tilak’s strenuous efforts to awaken the people together with the organized opposition he led in the famine and plague agitations excited the liveliest ap###prehension in the minds of some ofiicials and a moment of panic was seized upon to put him down. The prosecu-
GENERAL REFLECTIONS 369
tion of Mr. Tilak in 1897 was the first serious attempt of the Bureaucracy to secure the silence of a " trouble###some " agitator. So weak were the traditions of our pubhc life, that Mr. Tilak’s persistence in braving the ire of an inflamed officialdom was regarded almost as an act of madness and great pressure was brought to induce him to apologize. A similar attempt made (i892)tosave a Calcutta newspaper from the operations of 124A by a belated apology had been criticized by Mr. Tilak and he was not a man to set up one standard of conduct for others and quite another for himself. He cheerfully went to gaol rather than bend his knee before the powers that be. The terrors of gaol could not cow him down, nor did the actual prison -Ufe with its nauseating food and fatiguing work. Though he came out of the portals of the Yeravda gaol a broken man, his spirit was as unbending as ever and after a few months of rest and recuperation, he took up the threads of his public activities, unhampered by the reactionary regime of Lord Curzon, imdeterred by the machinations of his enemies in the Tai Maharaj Case.
A great man never suffers without gaining in spiritual strength ; and the sufferings of Mr. Tilak in the Tai Maharaj case were proverbial. In the earlier stages of this case, there were occasions when Mr. Tilak’s clouds were unredeemed by any " silver lining ‘, when expres###sions of hope would have sounded as nothing but *’ hollow mockery or premature consolations," But he refused to be disheartened by the manifold odds against him. The mighty resources of a prejudiced Bureaucracy, coupled with the endless scheming of unscrupulous enemies failed to shake his faith in the
24:
370 LOKAMANYA TILAK
justice and invincibility of his cause. Even when he was sentenced to imprisonment on a charge of perjury, handcuffed hke a common felon and sent to jail, cheer###fulness and equanimity never left him.
To all appearances, Mr. Tilak, when he emerged {1904) triumphant out of the first stage of the Tai Maharaj case, was the same man,a bit worried and dis###tracted, who was drawn into its vortex in 1900. But a subtle spiritual change had come over him which en###hanced his prestige and power in the anti-Partition agitation of which he was to be one of the foremost leaders. Prior to 1904, Mr. Tilak’s speeches and wri###tings were merely intellectual. There was of course a “background of spiritualit}/ which we notice in his career since the very beginning. But the personality was pronouncedly intellectual. His speeches and writings arrested attention, extorted admiration and roused enthusiasm by the ruthless logic of a trained intellec###tual gladiator ; but there was no consciousness of Faith in Divine guidance in them. The veritable ordeal of the Tai Maharaj Case, however, immensely contributed to his spiritual growth. From a patriot, he was now transformed into a prophet.
While the fortunes of Mr. Tilak were apparently in the melting pot, his supposed rival, the Hon. Mr. Gokhale was rising from one pinnacle of glory to another. The careers of these two great Mahratta Brahmins suggest a series of interesting reflections. Both started life as school-masters. Both dedicated their all to the service of the Motherland. Both took to public life in true missionary spirit. Both were distinguished educa###tionists, professors of a very high order ; — Mr. Gokhale,
GENERAL REFLECTIONS 37I
studious, copious and methodical, Mr. Tilak, versatile, profound and original. Both took to journalism in the early nineties. Mr. Tilak remained an editor till the end of his life. Mr. Gokhale gave up journalism after less than half a dozen years’ apprenticeship, labour###ed at Statistics and became an enthusiastic student of Economics and Politics. Mr. Gokhale’s training and equipment led him to the Councils and he attained re###putation as the first Councillor in India. Mr. Tilak devoted his energy to the cause of journaUsm and became the premier editor in the country. Mr. Gokhale came to be a great favourite with the Moderate leaders. Mr. Tilak founded a new school of political thought of ivhich he was the undisputed and most influential leader. Mr. Gokhale’s politics and opportunities made him a persona grata with the Indian Bureaucracy and the English poUticians. Mr. Tilak’s methods or fate led him into bitter opposition with the Bureaucracy and landed him into trouble and jail. Mr. Gokhale’s path was swept clean even by highly-placed officials. Mr. Tilak’s course, on the contrary, was often rendered thorny by Bureaucratic ire. Mr. Gokhale’s mis###sion in life was to be the awakener of the Bureaucratic conscience; Mr. Tilak’s was to rouse the soul of his countrymen.
Till the end of his brilliant career, Mr.Gokhale:could never overcome the struggle between his inborn enthu###siasm and innate caution. His enthusiasm landed him into difficulties from which his caution hardly extricated him ; on the contrary, his caution sometimes got the better of his enthusiasm and made him take positions, his better nature would never have allowed him to do.
372 LOKAMANYA TILAK
He lacked personality and forcefulness. The influence of a strong-willed colleague was often responsible for his inconsistencies. Then we must not forget the dizzy height which he had ascended. Courted by Cabi###net Ministers, trusted and flattered by the Bureaucracy^ Mr. Gokhale was in a peculiar position during the event###ful years of the anti-Partition movement. His own enthusiasm drew him in one direction, his Moderate as###sociates to another, while the English and Anglo-In###dian officials pulled him quite in a contrary direction ; and Mr. Gokhale’s politics reveals the evident struggle to keep his balance between these contending forces.
With Mr. Tilak the case was different. As he never aspired to win the applause at once of the populace, of the Beuraucracy and the ministers at ’ home ‘, his line of conduct during the eventful years just preceding his last and longest incarceration was uniformly consistent. There are those who sneer at his alliance with the Bengal
- Extremists *, which, they argue, led him to adopt measures and preach opinions, which, left to himself, he would never have done. One may reply this criti###cism by counter- criticism. The Moderates of Bengal and the Moderates of Bombay had a world of difference between them and though the Moderate leaders of Bombay had not the courage to oppose the resolution on National Education at Calcutta (Dec. 1906), still they did not hesitate to oppose that same resolution in the next Provincial Conference at Surat (May 1907). Is not this inconsistency ? When the Congress had passed resolutions on Swadeshi and Boycott, when the Hon. Mr. Gokhale himself was warmly advocating the cause of Bengal and the strong measures adopted there to
GENERAL REFLECTIONS 373
give a home-thrust to our callous rulers, Congressmen and Moderate newspapers were found to ridicule, ‘Honest Swadeshi ’ and ’ economic boycott ‘. The circumstan###ces of Bengal were such that it was impossible for the harassed, persecuted and well-nigh desperate Ben###galis to believe in the advent of a day when Britain would make us their equal partners. Naturally the Bengalis began to look to independence as their ulti###mate ideal, an ideal, be it remembered, which the Indian law-courts and the then Secretary of State found nothing to find fault with. Was it Mr. Tilak’s fault that when some of his Indian and Anglo-Indian opponents began to stamp the ideal of independence as illegal, he rushed to the rescue of his Bengali friends ? Did not Sir Surendranath himself allow an amendment to the Self- Government Resolution at the Pubna Conference (1908) wherein, the Nationalists did affirm their faith in independence as the ultimate goal to be achieved ? So the ’ inconsistency ’ of Mr. Tilak amounts to this, that knowing Maharashtra to be not quite ready for this higher ideal, he preached in Western India “Colonial Self-Go vernment " as the political ideal, though in view of certain mischievous attacks, he felt bound to draw the sword in defence of the theoretically perfect ideal of independence.
The one work, which Mr. Tilak set himself to do with his phenomenal energies, was to rouse the moral and intellectual courage of the people. Where, as in Bengal, circumstances considerably helped the process of this awakening, he did his best to prevent it from dis###aster by a reckless extravagance which defeats its own ^nd. To rouse the latent moral and intellectual nature
374 LOKAMANYA TILAK
of the people is comparatively easy ; to divert it in. constructive channels is difficult ; there the vested interests, so firmly established try their best to knock down every effort at organization. In the initial stages,. infant democracy has to fight not only with the rulers of the land, but also with the intellectual, industrial and other magnates in the country. Tt is in fact a struggle between those who are supposed to have a stake in the land and those who have not. Is it wonderful that this unholy alliance between money. Government and intelligence should succeed, though for a time, in crushing the leaders of the proletariat ? The struggle at Surat was really a fight between the old aristocracy on the one hand and the infant demo###cracy on the other; and looking to the vastness of the issues involved, it is but natural that matters thus came to a crisis.
The dazzling splendour of Mr. Tilak’s activities after the Surat breach shows how an accomplished leader can defy a tacit alliance between the old aristocracy and the alien Bureaucracy. But it is humanly impossi###ble for any leader to guarantee perfect peace in the rank and file when the tyranny of the Government inflames people beyond measure. The bomb-thrower at Muzaf###ferpore was out, not only to harm the Govern###ment but the Nationalist party as well ; and he created the same muddle in Indian politics which Shakes###peare’s Puck in the Midsummer Nights Dream did in the even course of love between two young men and women. Mr. Tilak knew full well that a strong effort would be made to sweep his movement out. He, therefore, called his principal colleagues in Western
GENERAL REFLECTIONS 375
India, and issued a statement deploring the outrages and suggesting ways and means for their prevention. But the Bureaucracy was apparently bent on put###ting down the Nationalists. Mr. Tilak was arrested and within a month was sent away to Ahmedabad and Mandalay ; he got an opportunity, however, to declare in solemn tones a warning that repression, though temporarily successful, would only strengthen the cause he was fighting for.
And he proved a true prophet ; while he was at Mandalay, alternating his time between Religion, Philosophy, History and Mathematics, the surviving party of the Moderates tried its best to take full advantage of the Morley-Minto Reforms, as also of the inactivity of its opponents. But it quickly realized the truth, Mr. Tilak had repeatedly uttered that the Moderate could expect a little favour only when the Extremist was in the field. The Moderates were quickly disillusioned and were ready to ask for an###other ‘boon ‘; the Moslems, who had accustomed them selves to be considered as the special favourites of Go###vernment, had been exasperated by the attitude of England in the Turko-Balkan and the Turko-ItaJian wars. Even Mrs. Besant, hitherto somewhat indiffer###ent to Indian politics, had taken a plunge into the arena of our public life.
It speaks much for Mr. Tilak’s elasticity of mind that soon after his return (1914) from Mandalay he took in the situation almost at a glance. Being always accustomed to place his country’s interests above everything else, he was prepared to forget and forgive not only his Moderate opponents but even the incorrigible Bureaucrats. To placate the Moderates and the Government he made a declaration of his loyalty, — a declaration which created hopes in the mind of Mrs. Besant of Congress compromise. The outbreak of War found him a staunch ally of the Government. He offered any kind of help he could. But neither the autocrats of the Congress nor those in the Government were willing to grasp the outstret###ched hand of friendship. ^
The events of the last six years and Mr. Tilak’s glorious part therein are too fresh in the reader’s mind to need any reiteration. These crowded years of public Hfe form the noblest page of Mr. Tilak’s life. It is a period when he emerges triumphant |
3ver his opponents. It is a time when we see him, not, as in 1889-1905 — a brave soldier, hopelessly fighting against tremendous odds, not, as in 1905-1908, a party leader tr3dng to force his way through co###lumns of opposition, but an all—India leader, a tact###ful negotiator, a skilled diplomat, a far-seeing states###man, an all-wise prophet. We see the constructive side of his work in all its splendour. We see him brave as yore, assertive as before, but with a meUow splendour which refined and softened the sternness of his dominating personality.
Such a leadership is the accident of a century ! How lucky for India then, that no sooner did the Lokamanya expire, than his place has been cons###picuously filled up by Mahatma Gandhi, whose unapproachable sanctity has raised politics to the height of rehgion. The leadership of the Lokamanya was pronouncedly intellectual and that of the
GENERAL REFLECTIONS 377
Mahatma is essentially spiritual. In both, however, there is an element of grandeur which reminds us of the following memorable words of another equally great patriot, Arabindo Ghose :
I am the lord of the tempest and the mountain, I am the spirit of freedom and pride, Stark he must be a Kinsman to danger Who shares my kingdom and walks by my side.