Page:Heroes of the hour- Mahatma Gandhi, Tilak Maharaj, Sir Subramanya Iyer.djvu/146

 strove to serve the cause of the public consigned to their care. In spite of the rebuff Mr. Tilak received when he attempted to work for the amelioration of the famine stricken communities of Sholapur and other places, he did all he could during the prevalence of plague in Poona to assist the authorities. This itself must have been a sufficient eye-opener to the men in power as to the genuine character of Mr. Tilak's Patriotism and loyalty. But such eye-openers rarely operate on the parched up consciences of sun-dried bureaucrats.

The occasion soon arose for power to show itself against a patriot whose honest work on behalf of his brethren was making him gradually more powerful than itself. Having the stern stuff of the hero in him, Mr. Tilak felt, most unconsciously perhaps but none the less strongly and convincedly, that the only source of salvation for a land lay through the worship of its heroes. A hero is always a man of action and the two traits of heroism according to Carlyle, are earnestness and sincerity. Action sincere and honest is probably the highest virtue that any nation may cultivate; and that nation particularly which is in the throes of a decadent Yuga with a history of