Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/394

 of the people is comparatively easy; to divert it in constructive channels is difficult; there the vested interests, so firmly established try their best to knock down every effort at organization. In the initial stages,. infant democracy has to fight not only with the rulers of the land, but also with the intellectual, industrial and other magnates in the country. Tt is in fact a struggle between those who are supposed to have a stake in the land and those who have not. Is it wonderful that this unholy alliance between money. Government and intelligence should succeed, though for a time, in crushing the leaders of the proletariat? The struggle at Surat was really a fight between the old aristocracy on the one hand and the infant democracy on the other; and looking to the vastness of the issues involved, it is but natural that matters thus came to a crisis.

The dazzling splendour of Mr. Tilak's activities after the Surat breach shows how an accomplished leader can defy a tacit alliance between the old aristocracy and the alien Bureaucracy. But it is humanly impossible for any leader to guarantee perfect peace in the rank and file when the tyranny of the Government inflames people beyond measure. The bomb-thrower at Muzafferpore was out, not only to harm the Government but the Nationalist party as well ; and he created the same muddle in Indian politics which Shakes- peare's Puck in the Midsummer Nights Dream did in the even course of love between two young men and women. Mr. Tilak knew full well that a strong effort would be made to sweep his movement out. He, therefore, called his principal colleagues in Western