An Appreciation by Babu Aurobindo Ghose
both awaken the spirit of the mass and respond to their spirit, able to lead them, but also able to see where he must follow the lead of their predominant sense and will and feelings. He moves among his followers as one of them in a perfect equality. simple and familiar in his dealings with them by the very force of his temperament and character, open, plain and direct and though capable of great reserve, yet, wherever necessary, in his speech, admitting them into his plans and ideas as one taking counsel of them, taking their sense even while enforcing as much as possible his own view of policy and action with all the great strength of quiet will at his command. He has that closeness of spirit to the mass of men, that unpretentious openness of intercourse with them, that faculty of plain and direct speech which interprets their feelings and shows them how to think out what they feel, which are pre-eminently the democratic qualities. For this reason he has always been able to unite all classes of men behind him, to be the leader not only of the educated, but of the people, the merchant, the trader, the villager, the peasant. All Maharashtra understands him when be so speaks or writes; all Maharashtra is ready to follow him when he acts. Into his wider field. in the troubled swadeshi times he carried the same qualities and the same power of democratic leadership. It is equally a mistake to think of Mr. Tilak as by nature a revolutionary leader; that is not his
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