Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/196

 like these passed as a compromise between two parties could not be altered even in the drafts by any one only because that gentleman has been entrusted with the work of drafting the Congress Resolutions. At the Calcutta Congress (1906) it was resolved that the sys- tem of Government obtaining in the Self-Governing British Colonies should be extended to India ; at Surat though this resolution was almost repeated still this was set up as the ultimate goal, evidently meaning that it was to be considered as out of the pale of practical politics. What offended the Nationalists still more was the draft constitution of the Congress in which the goal of the Congress was defined as follows : —

"The Indian National Congress has for its ultimate goal the attainment by India of self-government similar to that enjoyed by other members of the British Empire * * *. It seeks to advance towards- this goal b}^ strictly constitutional means, by bringing about a steady reform of the existing system of administration * * *."

So then, the reform of the existing system of adminis- tration and not its gradual replacement by a popular system v<^as to be the immediate object of the Congress. The sting of this seemingly innocent constitution lay in the fact that it sought to convert the National Con- gress into a party organisation. As the acceptance of this creed was the condition of the membership of the Congress, the Bengal ' Extremists ' who had repudiated the ideal of Colonial Self-Government were to be shut out of the Congress. When the goal of the Bengal by peaceful means" was declared perfectly legal not
 * Extremists * viz, " Independence (absolute autonomy)