Gokhale’s appearance before Belvi Commission was a watershed event in his political life. Through his advocacy of India’s case he emerged as a leading patriot and an economist.
It brought him on the national scene in true sense.
The commission was set up to suggest the division of the departments between the governments of India and Britain. Apparently it appeared that the people of India were given no representation in the commission. The fourteen member commission appointed by the British Parliament was to safeguard its own colonial interests because only three members belonging to public organisations had been given place in it. The three members were Dadabhai Naoroji, Sir William Vaderburn and W.S. Cain. In this connection the Indians invited by the commission to present their views were Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Surendranath Bannerji, G. Subramaniam and D.E. Wacha.
The Commission had no intention of inviting Indians but as Dadabhai Naoroji was a member of the Commission it had to yield to his suggestion.
Gokhale was the youngest members of them all. It was the year of 1897 when he left for England a youngman of only 31 years. A section was opposing his inclusion for this very reason. But the opposition was not given much weight.
Then, the forceful way in which Gokhale pleaded India’s case impressed everyone and those who were opposing his inclusion were ashamed.
And Gokhale emerged as a prominent national level leader.
Before the commission he raised several issues related to the welfare of every Indian citizen.
He spoke, ‘Presently the Indian government controls the power in India. It also controls the provincial governments. Indian government is under the power of the Minister of India who is a member of the British cabinet which is controlled by the British Parliament. The Parliament is controlled by the British people who elect it. The Parliament merely reflects their will. It becomes thus clear that India is not under the power of the citizens of India but the citizens of England, So, how can it be any good to Indians? What can we hope from Indian government? Won’t it just try to gain maximum profits from India? The declaration of the Queen and various clauses are just there only to fill the pages of the thick volumes. India is just under one power and that is Minister of India.’
He further added, ‘The budget is presented just for debate, not for getting passed. Then, no budgetary amendments are allowed, because the budget presented is already finalised. The members are supposed to indulge in meaningless debate’.
Gokhale shed more light on the situation, ‘The clause 55 of 1858-Indian Administration Act stipulates that the revenue collected should be spent on the welfare of India. But the clause is always overlooked and ignored.’
He claimed, ‘During the period of the East India Company the revenue of India was better protected against misuse. The British rule is nothing compared to the rule of the company. We can say that British rule has proved clearly to be harmful for us. The East India Company was serving as a useful bridge between the governments of India and Britain. To some extent it safeguarded the interests of India. Under the present British rule the interests of India are completely being neglected.’
What pained Indians was that Britain was using revenues collected in India to finance its military adventures elsewhere. All the heads of the military administration were British. The European traders were legally allowed to fleece Indian people.
Railway lines were being laid to create access to the far off areas for exploitation of the natural resources that were untouched so far. The biggest misery of India was being a slave which could not be voiced against.
The country was badly shackled by the colonial rulers. The efforts were being made by the Indian leaders at least to loosen up the shackles to start with before making an all out attempt to break the chains of the slavery completely.
Gopal Krishna Gokhale was just doing that. He was not in favour of challenging the British without gaining strength, without making adequate preparations and prematurely.
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