Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/374

 struggles, where Mr. Gandhi forged his spiritual weapons, he was^the unquestioned leader of a small group of Indians, nobly, though hopelessly, trying to assert their manhood ; when he returned to India, to his own province, the throne of political leadership was empty. His leadership of the Non-cooperation propoganda, too, is absolute and he has no second. Mr. Tilak had continuously to struggle against a strong combination of leaders from whose views he differed. In the very beginning of his political career, in the early nineties, he had to" put up a strong fight against such stalwarts as Ranade, Telang, Mehta and Bhandarkar, while the second rank of leaders too, contained such brilliant personalities as Messrs. Agarkar and Chandavarkar. In the essentially spiritual fight of to-day, the brilliant galaxy of intellectual leaders has to sit at the feet of the towering spiritual personality of Mr. Gandhi, and the only leader who possessed in a pre-eminent degree that spiritual spark which has made Mr. Gandhi invincible has, unfortunately for Mr. Gandhi and for us all, passed away on the fateful first of August 1920 !

The general run of political workers, all over the world, have so little to say to humanity at large. To suffering, struggling and questioning humanity, they have no message ; what little they teach is only indirect- ly, as a result of the better part of their activities. Their minds are insular and cannot leave the usual groove of thoughts. Their time is not their own, the dust and heat of controversy is distracting and destructive of concentration. It is not therefore surprising that so few of the Indian leaders have to say something new, something worth hearing on the pro-