Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/81

Rh prejudical fo the cause itself. The greatest defect in the movement was, Mr. Tilak declared, want of courage and wand of sincerity. There was much empty noise. Nothing could be gained, he thought, by holding National Social Conferences. There was no country in the world, which resorted to such general condemnation of its customs and manners. Moreover, there are so many different castes and creeds in India that, excepting a very few common points, each section of the community must proceed in its own way along the path of reform. All reform is a growth from within and unless the people are sufficiently prepared by due assimilation of liberal ideas if is useless to march ahead. It was no use running the Social Conference on the lines of the National Congress. The latter was a deliberative assembly and could not be otherwise in the present circumstances. But it devolved upon the Reformers to appeal more to the people than to the Government. Action and not mere speech was the need of the day. A vigorous educative propaganda must be carried on. We must proceed step by step along the lines of least resistance; and above all the Reformers must in no way hurt the general pride of the people in their Social life and institutions. In the atmosphere of political serfdom, there are countless things that make us conscious of our weakness. What we want is self-confidence; and all reform that tends to make the nation more conscious of its shortcomings than of its strength, is not only undesirable but is positively mischievous.

It will thus be seen there was something more than