Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/378

 that was destined to measure its strength with ail others and ultimately to triumph over them all. The progress of Mr. Tilak was challenged at every step. On the one hand, there was a strong body of Liberal and Moderate leaders — Ranade, Mehta, Telang, Wacha, Bhandarkar, to name only a few — and on the other the vast forces of the powerful Bureaucracy despotically ruling over the land. Alternately, simultaneously, Mr. Tilak knocked the one or the other. He, in his turn, received blows at every step, at every turn. Sometimes, it appeared as if, he was done for, that he had ceased to count as a factor in public life and would be required to recede, crest-fallen, into the background. Defeat after defeat was inflicted upon him, and on many occassions, it appeared that the epitaph on his career could be written. But sphinx-like, he arose out of the ashes of every defeat more and more powerful until at last his opponents, deserted, defeated and confounded had to make room for him.

To fight with practically all the foremost men of one's time and with an extremely powerful bureaucracy to boot, one must be nothing less than a dare-devil — in the noblest and best sense of the term. Even to attempt such a fight is creditable ; to do it with effect is still more so and to win laurels therein is reserved only for a rare hero. It was even so with Mr. Tilak. The equipment with which Mr. Tilak commenced his life-work was immense. His genius was of the highest order. Its most distinguished feature was originality. Readers of his Gita Rahasya marvel at the calm assurance with which he quietly sets aside the authority and traditional interpretations of the last two thousand years^