Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/385

 shuffling and prevarication, the leaders of Social Reform had the decency to withdraw their support from the school which is now purely and avowedly a Christian institution. In spite of the cold shoulder that was given to him, in spite of the cold way in which he was made to understand that he was a busy-body, a mortal in the midst of gods, Mr. Tilak attended the annual sessions of the Social Conference and tried to infuse in them a more constructive and responsible spirit. But it was to no effect. A certain Rao Bahadur, a lieutenant of Ranade, openly declared that unless Mr. Tilak was dead, things would not work smoothty. This was too much for human nature to bear. Utterly disgusted with the autocratic and unthinking way in which the the Social Conference was conducted, Mr. Tilak left it and practically ceased taking interest in the work. But his opponents would not rest or give rest. At the time of the Poona Congress, in spite of the fact that Mr. Tilak had repeatedly declared through the Kesari and in the meetings of the working committee that the question of the loan of the Congress pavilion for the Social Conference should be decided by either Reception Committee or by the Congress itself, the cry was kept up that Mr. Tilak was an extremely narrow-minded and quarrelsome man and that he did not want the Social Conference to be held in the Congress pavilion. It is, after all, best to throw a pall over all these exhibitions of the good taste, decency and fair-play of his opponents ; but a Uttle peep into them is necessary in order to understand the stupendous difficulties through and inspite of which Mr. Tilak single-handed had to deliver his message to the people.