Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/319

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LOKAMANYA TILAK
299

forgiving of all mortals! As gentle as a lamb, as forgiving as an angel, Mahatma Gandhi could not yet endure the flagrant injustice of the Simla autocrats; and he determined to unsheathe the sword of non-co-operaton with the ultimate object of bringing round the up-holders of this unrighteous policy.

Mr. Tilak cordially welcomed the rise of this luminary in the firmament of Indian Pohtics; and as regards non-co-operation, Mr. Tilak was a non-co-operator since the very beginning of his career. He had set his back on Government service and had not cared to practise as a pleader in the Government courts; he had given eleven years of his life to the attempt of nationalizing education and had left the Deccan Education Society when he found his task impossible. So far, therefore, as the first stage of Mahatma Gandhi's programme went, Mr. Tilak had put into practice most of the items included therein. As regards the remaining three stages, Mr. Tilak would never have shirked advocating them had he found it necessary in the circumstances of the country. There was only one item to which he was strongly opposed, and that was the boycott of the Councils. This he considered suicidal. He could not be suspected of being specially enamoured of the Councils as most of the prestige which he commanded was due, not to his short membership of the Bombay Legislative Council but to his work outside the Council. Besides, owing to age and loss of vigour he had almost decided not to stand for election. He was however emphatically of opinion that in the agitation to be started for a very early revision of the Government of India Act, it was necessary to capture most of the seats in the Coun-