Gokhale’s
views on the position taken by Tilak
My dear Bhupen Babu,
.…The position taken up by Mr. Tilak in his talks with
Mr. Subba Row (not with Mrs. Besant) here
last week brings us up against difficulties which are fundamental and go to the
very root of the Congress….
.…They wanted quietly to return to the Congress fold, but
that considerations of self- respect stood in their way….
.…We were also swayed in our attitude by the extreme
desirability of taking an early opportunity to heal the breach in public life
that had resulted from the split of 1907….
….I regret, however, to say that the statement of his
position made by Mr. Tilak to Mr. Subba Row last week has shaken me altogether
as regards the advisibility of the relaxation in rules that I have favoured
these three years….
.…That hope, however, has now been shattered. Mr. Tilak
has told Mr. Subba Row frankly and in unequivocal terms that though he accepts
the position laid down in what is known as the Congress creed, viz., that the
aim of the Congress is the attainment by India of self-government within the
Empire by constitutional means, he does not believe in the present methods of
the Congress, which rest on association with Government where possible and
opposition to it where necessary. In place of these he wants to substitute the
method of opposition to Government pure and simple within `constitutional
limits-in other words a policy of Irish obstruction. We on our side are
agitating for a larger and larger share in the Government of the country– in
the Legislative Councils, on Municipal and Local Boards, in public services and
so forth. Mr. Tilak wants to address only one demand to the Government here and
to the British Public in England, viz., for the Concession of Self- Government
to India and till that is conceded, he would urge his countrymen to have nothing
to do with either the public services or Legislative Councils and Local and
Municipal Bodies. And by organizing obstruction to Government in every possible
direction within the limits of the laws of the land, he hopes to be able to
bring the administration to a standstill, and compel the authorities to
capitulate. This is briefly his programme and he says that he wants to work for
its realization through the Congress if he and his followers are enabled to
rejoin it or, failing this, by starting a new organisation to be called the
National League. He has explicitly told Mr. Subba Row that he gives us fair
warning that this is his purpose in seeking re-admission into the Congress….
….He will strive first for effecting such changes in the
rules as will throw open election as delegate practically to everybody as
before 1907 and then for getting the Congress to endorse his programme by
securing its sessions at the attendance of a majority of delegates of his way
of thinking….
….One or two friends here have tried to minimize the
seriousness of Mr. Tilak’s statement by saying that though Mr. Tilak may
profess these intentions and views, he will not have a sufficient following to
carry them out in practice, as his programme is not, by a long, long way,
feasible in the present circumstance of India. I agree that the programme, if sought
to be carried out, is incapable of achievement, at any rate for a long time to
come. I am also clear in my own mind that if Mr. Tilak tries to establish a new
organization for the furtherance of his views, it will be suppressed by
Government….
.…But what I do not consider equally impossible is Mr.
Tilak bringing to a session of the Congress a sufficient number of men prepared
to vote as he directs and give him a majority expressing a kind of academic
approval of his views….
....Should he succeed in doing this, I feel almost
certain that it will mean the end of the Congress, for the authorities will not
fail to deal drastically with the situation and suppress the movement….
.…We must either have all of them, including Mr. Tilak,
in, in which case his powerful and restless personality will again draw to
itself all seceders and recreate our old troubles, or else we must keep the
present restrictions as they are and leave it to individual seceders to come
back through existing recognized organisation….
.…Our Congress should also find room within it for all
who are in favour of self- government within the Empire for India, however they
differed in their methods. But surely the Congress is not a legislative
assembly where all interests must be represented. It is a propagandist movement
whose effectiveness for advance must depend upon the unanimity with which its
operations are conducted and which must be paralysed in proportion as it has
divided counsels at its head….
With Kind Regards Yours
Sincerely G.K.
Gokhale
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