Page:Heroes of the hour- Mahatma Gandhi, Tilak Maharaj, Sir Subramanya Iyer.djvu/199

 19th of February, 8 days after Mr. Tilak had issued his reply to the statements of Mrs. Besant and Mr. Gokhale) and he was led into committing most unwittingly the greatest indiscretion in his life of writing ill of a comrade who had toiled and suffered in the cause of the country. Whatever or whoever was at the bottom of the mischief the mischief was done. The hopes of a union of Indian parties at the Madras Congress were frustrated. Mrs. Besant's appeal to get Mr. Tilak to attend the Congress was of no avail. No amount of calumny, no amount of hesitation on the part of friends, no amount of C. I. D. favor, stopt Mr. Tilak from his even tenor of work. As early as 4th September 1914 he had, in a letter written to the Maharatta, drawn pointed attention to the aspect of political life which, Mrs. Besant later transformed into the Home Rule agitation with the characteristic energy she has of developing long-begun movements so as to make them her own in order to concentrate attention and achieve their purpose. He said.

"I have like other political workers my own differences with the Government as regards certain measures and to a certain