Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/370

 foreigners^ with the children ot the soil mostly inert, the educated class timid, weak and vacillating — such was the India, which young Tilak saw. Knowing that he was wanted for the work of uplift, he threw himself, heart and soul, into the breach. Impatient to get freedom, he wanted all to concentrate on the political issue. The Age of Con- sent controversy separated him from the bulk of the Reformers, the circumstances of the Hindu-Mahomedan riots marked him out for Bureaucratic attentions. Honours were tried, but they did not ensnare him ; and then, all the concentrated ire, of a small but powerful clique of officials burst upon him ; that too left him unnerved and undaunted. His Famine and Plague agi- tations are well-known and they were followed in a few years by the Swadeshi Movement and then the Home Rule Propaganda. It will thus be seen, that Mr. Tilak 's mission called forth more varied qualities of the head and the heart. His career exhibits the tacti- cal cleverness of a politician, the far-sight of a states- man, the coolness of a philosopher, the profundity of a scholar and the fervid spirit of a martyr. These differ- ent hues, imperceptibly blended with one another, make his character as charming to the historian as the rain- bow is to the artist. Mr. Gandhi's greatness is more uniform. The rigorous discipline, with which he has built up his character, has made him as great and sacri- ficing in the petty details of his life as in his leadership of his countrymen. His dress, diet, habits, talk, every move- ment from him reflects the intense fervour of his lumi- nous spirituahty. Mr. Tilak 's greatness was the rugged, uneven loftiness of the Himalayas ; while that of Mr^