Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/294

 of persons had to suffer persecutions only because of the malice or ignorance of the C. I. D. reporters. Mr. Tilak's record with the Government will, in particular, shed curious light on the workings of numerous minds bent on crushing him by hook or crook. The revelations made in the correspondence, recently published by the Mahratta, between H. H. the Maharaja of Kolhapur on the one hand and a number of officials on the other have startled many a publicist and have afforded much side-light on the events which form the subject-matter of the correspondence. In his dealings with the Government, Mr. Tilak felt that the under-current of the Bureaucratic mind was poisoned by mischievous and malicious reports of his activities. But he was powerless to contradict or convince. He pa- tiently bore all the pricks of his position, buoyed up by the faith, that, the day of reckoning must come, sooner or later, and the misunderstandings that pre- judiced the powers that be, must ultimately melt like a mist. The pubUcation of the " Indian Unrest " by Sir Valentine Chirol, afforded Mr. Tilak the necessary opportunity of vindicating his loyalty and proving to the satisfaction of the world, the righteousness of his conduct and the truth and justice of his cause. In attacking Sir. Valentine Chirol's book, Mr. Tilak's chief object was surely to show how very prejudiced was the medium through which the Bureaucracy looked at him; for, in truth, " The Indian Unrest " — so far, at least, as it described the personaUty of Mr. Tilak — was a systematic exposition of the theories contained in the confidential papers of the Government concerning Mr. Tilak.