Page:Heroes of the hour- Mahatma Gandhi, Tilak Maharaj, Sir Subramanya Iyer.djvu/162

 very well to petition and pray as long as what was asked for was nothing that came directly in the way of vested interests. But it was perfect moonshine to depend upon mere petition and prayer when what was expected of the Giver was something directly touching his pocket and power. Personal relationship between the Rulers and the ruled, a kind of common fellowship when conveniences of life were not so mechanically procurable, and the comparative ignorance of the people, had helped in earlier days to keep the credit of the Bureaucracy and to induce faith in the all-curing power of prayer. But as knowledge grew on the part of the governed, and form and stiffness developed on the side of the rulers, the real defects of a lifeless Bureaucracy were out and people felt that some moral strength behind petition and prayer was essential to force from out of the way of the Beauracrafc's vision the great obstacle of self-interest. And so arose the weapon known as protest used even by the mildest of agitators before the new era of Swadeshi-Boycott-National Education and Swaraj. What the apostles of the New Era advocated—Mr. Tilak was the strongest and at the same time the most