Page:Heroes of the hour- Mahatma Gandhi, Tilak Maharaj, Sir Subramanya Iyer.djvu/139

 in 1895. As in the capacity of a legislative-councillor so in the capacities of a Fellow and a Municipal Councillor Mr. Tilak followed out his usual method of thorough endeavour. It would be well to note here that none of these great qualifications of Mr. Tilak—qualifications which in the case of others would be trotted out every minute as huge claims to consideration and respect—do not require advertisement since his life has been consecreated to a higher purpose and a nobler aspiration. It is time we turn our attention to the story of his first connection with the political movement of the country—the Congress.

Secretary of the Deccan Standing Committee, as Mr. Tilak was, he was elected Secretary of the Poona Congress in 1895. It was the Eleventh Session of the Congress that had to sit. Differences had already arisen as to the propriety of lending the Congres Pandal for holding the Sessions of the Social Conference. Though no doubt the congress itself was started with the intention of helping the political as well as the social well-being of the country, it had early been recognised that in a land where the structural edifice of society was largely based on a kind of religious sentiment it would