Bal Gangadhar Tilak firmly believed that action was the soul of the body, its very life energy. He also had a theory that since the British colonial rulers had entrenched themselves in India, a new political class had begun to take shape in Deccan and Bombay. According to him this class consisted of newly rich, newly educated and educated state employees. The class was gaining respect of the people. It had become a force and hence wanted its pound of flesh.
The colonial rule had its own interest in helping that class rise through its patronage. In return the members of this class sang the praises of the British, their presence in India for the progress and the modernisation of native societies. They would claim that only British could educate Indians and help them rid themselves of social evils. That class was gaining ground because what they were propagating had a big element of truth and the reality which the people could see for themselves around.
Tilak opined that the class must be wedged apart from the British by arousing their conscience and dormant nationalism. He had no hope from those who had already sold their souls to the western culture and philosophy. He wanted persons who could make sacrifices for the nation and who still were wedded to the Indian culture deep down.
Tilak hated the British stooges so much that he lost no opportunity to humiliate them. Because of his attitude it was not easy to get entry into the forum.
Tilak in accordance with the constitution of the forum, had appointed some new nationalist members. And in 1895, some old members were ousted to be replaced by the new ones.
Gokhale was not as anti-British as Tilak was. He recognised the positive effects of the presence of the British. After all they were who had brought modern education to India and set up administrative machinery which never had existed in Indian’s history before. Gokhale was a realist who would praise a noble deed done even by an opponent.
Tilak’s mind had no such liberal horizon.
And then, there was that grudge or Tilak’s opposition to the appointment of Gokhale as the minister of the Public Forum. There indeed was some bitterness between them.
Tilak did not ask Gokhale to resign although his block was now in minority. May be, he liked him to stay on. But Gokhale himself felt it awkward to remain in the forum. So, Gokhale resigned and disassociated himself from the Public Forum.
Ranade and Gokhale were not to be kept quiet. They talked about the issue and founded a new organisation called ‘Deccan Forum’ on 31st October, 1896.
The post of the minister was given to Gopal Krishna Gokhale.
The forum announced its aims—“The basic aim of the forum could be liberalism and disciplined conduct.”
The Deccan Forum was no good news for Tilak. He thought that it was an effort to undercut him. Its aims and objectives were almost like the Public Forum. Only a few new words had been added. The liberalism of the Deccan Forum was aimed at telling that it did not espouse the interest of any particular caste or community but for the good of all. Thus the new forum could claim to work for the benefit of all and at the same time be on the right side of the government. And the disciplined conduct meant perhaps doing tasks honestly to realise the aim of the mission.
It angered Tilak.
He thought that the very aim of founding of the new forum was to challenge his line of thinking. He wrote a vitriolic condemnation of the aims and the objectives of the Deccan Forum. The article was full of malice and amounted to personal attack.
The main reason of Tilak’s anger was that he thought that Ranade and Gokhale were making liberalism and disciplined conduct as their own monopoly concern to allow the British government to take advantage of the other political forums and sections. The formation of the Deccan Forum meant that Tilak could no more hope for the cooperation of Ranade and Gokhale.
But Ranade never came out in open in the political tug-of-war within the Congress. His disciple Gokhale did that part and became the leader of the soft line group of Congress whereas Tilak led the charge of the hard line group.
Social reforms
Gokhale was clear in his mind that without social reforms Indian society could not make any progress as social evils were the very cause of the backwardness and ignorance of the natives. And liberalism was the basic element of social reforms. The social evils were the products of narrow-mindedness bred by ignorance, he thought.
Tilak did not agree on this point. For him the political freedom through agitations and the movements was the cure for all the evils.
He was not totally against the aims and the objectives of Deccan Society. He too wanted the Indian society freed of caste and communal discrimination. He too believed in equality of all in the eyes of the law. He was not for disowning law and rising up in rebellion. To a great extent Mahatma Gandhi too supported his view.
But his too much emphasis on the native culture betrayed his communal outlook.
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