Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/15

Rh comparatively modest ; and though my difficulties are infinitely greater than those of the future historian, a contemporary biographer has obvious advantages over him.

Throughout the succeeding narrative, I have never tried to conceal my bias for Mr. Tilak. Nor will the reader — Moderate or Extremist, Brahmin or Non-Brahmin, Indian or European — except me to do so. I have however, to the best of my ability, scrupulously adhered to truth. Not being closely identified with party principles, personalities and prejudices, I can claim to have judged Mr. Tilak's opponents sympathetically. I have as great a regard for Ranade as for Vishnushastri Chiploonkar ; and if in the following pages the reader finds any lapses from the standard of fair criticism set by me, he should unhesitatingly attribute them rather to an imperfect comprehension of truth than to any conscious desire of misrepresenting Mr. Tilak's opponents. Mr. Tilak's greatness is so immense and self-evident that it stands in no need of any exggeration or misrepresentation.

The idea of writing a life of the Lokamanya was dimly and vaguely floating in my mind for a number of years. It recurred