Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/324

 CHAPTER XX

THE END

Mr. Tilak is dead ! Long live Mr. Tilak ! The Tribune.

THE situation which Mr. Tilak occupied towards the middle of 1920 was the most enviable any public man has occupied in India. He was the most success- ful and the most longlived of the band of self-sacrificing workers who started the New English School (1880), the Kesari and the MahraUa (1881). His opponents — Ranade, Telang, Mehta and Gokhale — were gathered to their fathers before the substantial achievement of their labours. He alone represented, not merely the youngest but the oldest generation living. Starting his life as an ' opponent of Social Reform ' he lived to count the staunchest reformers among his lieutenants. The branded ' enemy of the Mahomedans ' was the ambassador of Hindu-Moslem unity at Lucknow and his active co-operation was sought by and promised to the leaders of the Khilafat movement. The slogan of Swaraj, issuing from his pen in 1895 was echoed by the National Congress of 1906 and the Government of India Act of 1919. His no-rent campaign of 1896 forms one of the planks of the Non-co-operation programme. and chosen President. Dreaded by the Government, hated by Anglo-Indians, feared by the Moderates, he was
 * The wrecker of the Congress' was its greatest bulwark