Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/21



The highest praise that has yet been accorded to Lokamanya Tilak has come, curiously enough, from the Hon. Mr. Gokhale who is reported to have said to an English friend that, born a hundred and twenty years before, Mr. Tilak would have carved out a kingdom for himself. This pithiest and most appropriate compliment pictures for us Mr. Tilak as he really was, not a product of the Western Civilisation and of the English Government but a solitary surviver of the race which four generations back had well-nigh conquered the whole of India. It was impossible for him to be assimilated, like most of his countrymen by and in the mighty English Government; nor could that Government crush his spirit and make him a helpless spectator of our downfall. He was every inch a soldiera soldier in a civilians' garb. The Press and the Platform were his field of action; and from this battlefield he waged