Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/180

160 ado. The storm of discussion—hot and acrimonious—centred round the Boycott and the Swadeshi resolutions. At the Benares Congress, Boycott was accepted as a political weapon but only incidentally, in the resolution on the repressive policy of the Government. This was merely a flank movement. Mr. Tilak was not content with it. He wanted to make a frontal attack and after a prolonged controversy and frequent passages at arms with Moderate leaders like Sir P. M. Mehta, he wrung out the words "the Boycott movement was and is legitimate." At the Benares Congress it was only the "Boycott of British goods" that had received the seal of the Congress. Now, at Calcutta it was not merely "economic Boycott" but something more. Boycott Political. At Benares no general reasons were given for the acceptance of Boycott. But at Calcutta, the mistake was rectified; and the preamble to the resolution specifically referred to the fact that Indians had no share in the administration and that their representations to Government went unheeded. There was only one thing wanting in the resolution. The resolution approved of the Boycott Movement as started in Bengal; it did not urge other provinces to follow suit. But Mr. Tilak pointed out that neither did the resolution clearly state that the Boycott was to be confined to Bengal alone.

It is strange but true that in the draft resolution on Swadeshi, discussed in the Subjects' Committee, people were not called upon to purchase Swadeshi goods even at a sacrifice; stranger still that when Mr. Tilak brought the amendment, it was hastily pronounced to have been defeated. Mr. Tilak demanded a poll, which was