osition, his reason and his moral sense have always revolted against
the reactionary appeals to religious prejudice and racial hatred by
which men like Tilak have sought to stimulate a perverted form of Indian
patriotism. Highly educated both as a Western and an Eastern scholar, he
approaches perhaps more nearly than any of his fellow-countrymen to the
Western type of doctrinaire, Radical in politics and agnostic in regard
to religion, but with a dash of passion and enthusiasm which the Western
doctrinaire is apt to lack. When Tilak opened his first campaign of
unrest in the Deccan by attacking the Hindu reformers, he found few
stouter opponents than Mr. Gokhale, who was one of Ranade's staunchest
disciples and supporters. Nor did Tilak ever forgive him. His newspapers
never ceased to pursue him with relentless ferocity, and only last year
Mr. Gokhale had to appeal to the Law Courts for protection against the
scurrilous libels of the "extremist" Press.

His own experiences in political life since he resigned his work as a
professor at the Ferguson College in Poona in order to take a larger
share in public affairs have probably helped to convince Mr. Gokhale
that his fellow-countrymen for the most part still lack many essential
qualifications for the successful discharge of those civic duties which
are the corollary of the civic rights he claims for them. He does not,
it is understood, desire to seek re-election to the Imperial Council at
Calcutta after the expiry of its present powers, two years hence, as he
wishes to devote himself chiefly to the educational work, which, in one
form or another, has perhaps always been the most absorbing interest of
his life. When he was a professor at the Ferguson College teaching was
with him a vocation rather than a profession, and, if one may judge by
his practice, he believes that only those who are prepared to set an
example of selflessness and almost ascetic simplicity of life can hope
to promote the moral and social as well as the political advancement of
India. It is on these principles that he founded five years ago the
"Servants of India" Society, recruited in the first instance amongst a
few personal followers and supported hitherto by the voluntary
contributions of his admirers. The objects of the Society as laid down
by its promoters are "to train national missionaries for the service of
India and to promote by all constitutional means the true interests of
the Indian peopl