Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/386

 Nor were the Reformers and the Moderates the only opponents Mr. Tilak had to reckon. There was a powerful section of the Bureaucracy and its proteges of the Anglo-Indian Press whose hostility so often has proved a fruitful source of trouble to Mr. Tilak. The success of the New English School had given a headache to the Times of India, and in the establishment of an innocent school patronized by men like Ranade, Telang and Mandlik, it foresaw unpleasant results. The tone of the Kesari and the Mahratta was regarded as unfriendly to their interests by the Government. When in 1890, Mr. Tilak took an attitude of opposition to the Age of Consent Bill, the Times of India inquired how it was that such a man could be or remain a member of an institution like the Deccan Education Society ; and then with a sigh of relief and a chuckling sense of satisfaction, Principal Apte wrote a rejoinder declaring that Mr. Tilak was no longer a member of the Society. Three years rolled on, years in which Mr. Tilak was bringing upon himself the wrath of vested interests. Then came the Hindu-Mahomedan riots ; the sky was thick with the dust of controversies ; and Mr. Tilak, without mincing matters, again and again declared that the policy of favouritism inaugurated by a certain section of the Bureaucracy was responsible for all the mischief that was going on for well-nigh two years. This was bearding the lion, rudely and unceremoniously. How boldly and uncompromisingly Mr. Tilak expressed his views on this ' Divide and Rule ' policy can be appreciated only by a study of all the soft speeches of the so-called leaders of those times. Even the late Sir Pherozeshah, Tribune of the people