Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/51

Rh educational authorities*. He was not called upon to obey Risley Circulars. Secondly, the difference between the circumstances of those times and the environments of to-day ought to be taken into consideration. To-day, you must either submit to the whims or caprices of the educational authorities or sever your connection with them altogether. But in the early eighties Mr. Tilak started his career with the hope of inducing the Government to transfer the whole of secondary education {and College education, if possible) to popular control. He regarded the spread of education as a preparation for the national struggle. He saw that though the Bureaucrats were not willing to entrust to the children of the soil an iota of real political or military power, still they could be persuaded to part with educational control if we were persistent and enterprising enough. They pretended to hold over political rights only because we were not sufficiently educated. If pressed to educate us quickly, they pleaded the wish but regretted the inability to do so on account of shortage of money. It was the ambition of Mr. Tilak and his colleagues to so cheapen, spread and improve education that the Government could not, without going back on their own words reasonably refuse the transfer of secondary and col-