Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/71

Rh contrary, that the introduction of this Bill was only the thin end of the wedge and that the whole of Mr. Malabari's programme was likely to receive legislative sanction. Mr. Tilak's opposition to this Bill has been severely criticised. We should remember, however, that amongst those who disapproved of this Bill, can be seen the names of the late Sir Romesh Chander Mitter, the late Mr. W. C. Banerjea, the late Sir T. Madhavarao, Babu (now Hon. Sir) Surendranath Banerjea, Mr. (Hon. Dr. Sir) Chimanlal H. Setalwad and Mr. (now Hon. Mr.) G. S. Khaparde. Mr. Tilak's attitude was guided by strong common sense. He challenged the right of a foreign Bureaucracy to sit in legislative judgment on the Indian society. He denied the necessity of the measure and the extent of the evil which he was sure would be eradicated by increasing education. He led a vigorous agitation, which there is reason to believe convinced the Government of the day of the unwisdom of its step; the fetish of prestige, however steeled the Governments' determination to get the Bill passed (19th March 1891). The Government even preferred* "to be wrong with Prof. Bhandarkar, Mr. Justice Telang and Dewan Bahdur Raghunath Rao, than to be right with Pandit Sasadhar and Prof. Tilak." The impression which Mr. Tilak made, in those eventful months marked him out as the "coming man". The merciless logic and the vast knowledge with which he exposed the fallacies and sophistries of the Reformers in his "long and scholarly" letters to the Times of India were universally admired and the extent to which he succeeded in organising