Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/166

 with an undue sense of the power of the Government and an inordinate consciousness of India's weakness. Mr. Tilak thought otherwise. He said:—

"We do not believe in philanthrophy in Politics. There is no instance in history where a foreign nation has ruled another without any expectations of profit. We believe in Lord Morley and in the genuineness of his professions as a philosopher. The old school thinks that politics could be governed by the dictates of philosophy; we hold that these are quite different things and ought not to be mixed up together. The old school thinks that concessions could be secured by logical persuation.

"Mr. Gokhale believe in sacrifice. He calls upon the people to be up and doing. He accepts even passive resistance as a constitutional weapon. He admits that the Bureaucracy here is callous and the Democracy at 'Home' is indifferent. He allows that our efforts have not yet borne sufficient fruit. He declares that the situation is critical. In all this he is at one with the New Party. But when it comes to action he will say 'My friends, let us still wait a little. No use flouting the Government. They will suppress us.' It, therefore, comes to this. Mr. Gokhale belongs in theory to the New Party, and in practice to the old one."

One of the greatest defects of the Moderate leaders has been their habit of clinging to unmeaning words and phrases. One such was "Constitutional agitation." Mr. Tilak called upon the Moderate leaders to explain if India had got any constitution. " Can we prevent the violation even of those common rights we have? Can we punish these violations by holding the executive