Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/317

 who at their Conferences held at Bombay and Calcutta, had never thought of this concession, began to harp on this favourite string. Without even a week's notice to the Reception Committee, they wanted to have a number of " Peasant Delegates ", secretly pledged to vote for them. But the Committee allowed only five " Peasant Delegates " to each Taluka. The result is curious. Not even five peasant delegates repsonded to the call and the Conference was a signal triumph of Mr. Tilak and his party.

Through the thick clouds of all these controversies, Mr. Tilak was hacking his path to the goal. An old acquaintance of the unrepentent Indian bureaucracy, he cleariy knew, what even a less experienced man has observed that we " are dealing with the most astute and diplomatic and clever set of politicians in the worid and that they could undo what the Secretary of State has done." He had noted how tardily the Bureaucracy had responded to the gracious Royal Proclamtion and how incomplete was the amnesty to political prisoners. He had also noted how the Congress party was rigorously excluded from the Advisory Committee on Rules under the Government of India Act. But the position he had taken from the beginning was one of responsive co-operation and he was not required to change it. In a speech at Bombay he said : —

"We are prepared to co-operate ; but if there is nothing to co-operate, we shall not. * * His Majesty has asked the people and the authorities to co-operate with each other. * * * * It is almost a scandal to say that Indians are not prepared to co-operate for the sake of India ; obey-