Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/63

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THE SCHOOL AND THE COLLEGE
43

but in the astronomical conferences held in Maharashtra to improve the old calenders, Dr. Bhatavadkar was always by his side. In the plague of 1897, Mr. Tilak co-operated even with the Government. In the famous Home Rule agitation, he joined hands with Mrs. Besant. There have been occasions when Mr. Tilak has co-operated with Mr. Paranjpye himself. If Mr. Tilak could co-operate with the missionaries, with the Government, with persons of the type of Dr. Bhandarkar, Dr. Bhatavadekar, Mrs. Besant and Mr. Paranjpye, surely the charge of intolerance falls to the ground and cannot by any stretch of logic or rhetoric be sustained against one, who of all others was chiefly instrumental in securing for the D. E. Society the patronage of Ranade, Bhandarkar, Telang, Mandlik, Wordsworth and many others.

Mr. Tilak jealous! Mr. TUak unable to work with his equals Mr. Tilak, who during eleven years of his life in the D. E. Society never once cared to accept the post of a Principal, Head-Master or Superintendent! And prey, jealous of whom? Not of Ranade or Telang—his intellectual peers; but of Apte, Agarkar and Gokhale!! "Mr. Tilak saw soon after Gokhale's admission to the society that here was a man likely to be his formidable rival." Mr. Paranjpye is here speaking of the Gokhale, not of 1905 or 1908, no, not even of 1897; the Gokhale of 1885 or 1887 was, according to his own biographers, regarded by his own friends and Mr. Tilak's opponents as nothing better than a clever college student. Apte was a Sanskritist and nothing more; Mr. Tilak's versatile genius could beat Apte on his own ground. As regards Agarkar, his title to fame