Page:Heroes of the hour- Mahatma Gandhi, Tilak Maharaj, Sir Subramanya Iyer.djvu/201

 thorough insight that the war had come to make that parallelism real and practical were peculiarly Mr. Tilak's and the agitation for Home Rule in its present form may fairly be dated from that day on which Mr. Tilak wrote to the Maharatta that memorable letter.

To resume, the Madras Congress was held and the protest of the country on behalf of the compromise was quite visible at it, in as much as the Central Provinces and the Punjab held aloof from it entirely and other provinces than Madras did not contribute very much more than 13% of the total number of the delegates. Owing to the declaration of War in August there was some little difference of opinion as to the holding of the Congress itself and the country was thankful that after all there was not a break in the recording of the nation's opinion. The Congress was not very strong on the question of the compromise it being ultimately referred to a committee for consideration. The very hindrances that stood in the way of success in Madras helped to redouble the efforts for a more united and potent 'Voice of India.' The dawn of 1915 was marked by a closer examination of the issues arid January and February were months