In Deccan Education Society Gokhale had made a spectacular progress from a member to a minister in a matter of three years only. He was merely 22 years old youngman. He had matured very fast in those three years. He had his own fast learning capacity and was helped on by all the associates who were academics.
Justice Ranade made a great impression on him and was the biggest influence. Mahadev Govind Ranade was known as a superman of Indian intelligentsia. Ranade inspired Gokhale to take the route and become what he himself had aspired to but could not due to a host of reasons. So, he wanted to see his dreams realised in Gokhale. He paid special attention to Gokhale and in guiding him.
Ranade was a great character and had an impressive personality. He was one of the founding fathers of the Congress party. He also was the founder of number of organisations in Maharashtra.
Ranade had started his professional career as a professor of economics and then went into the law. He ultimately reached the post of a judge of Maharashtra High Court.
The people held him in high esteem. It was not because of his being a judge but for his patriotism. He was truly a nationalist of a very fearless nature and a man of wisdom. Due to his patriotism he became suspect at several points of time in the eyes of the colonial rulers. He was believed to be a mole of the militants in the administrative system. There were a lot of racialist zealots among the British servants.
The fact was that he was no revolutionary but without doubt a patriot who dreamt of his country becoming a free nation.
By nature and being an educated mind he was secular. He was just the antithesis of communalism. Ranade respected all religions without necessarily having faith in their dogmas. He was a social reformer but did not snarl at all the traditions or customs as long as they were not obnoxious.
He fiercely opposed child marriage and openly supported widow remarriage. He would overtly take part in celebrations wherever widow remarriage was organised. He had to face the ire of the traditionalists for this.
The orthodox elements even got him declared a pariah. His family was socially tormented. Like Agarkar he too raised his voice against the evil customs like widow burning, taking the girl child as a curse and shaving off the heads of widowed women.
Ranade was serving as a judge under the colonial rule yet he never hesitated to criticise wrong acts and policies of the administration and the government.
Gopal Krishna Gokhale came into contact with Ranade in 1885 when both happened to be in the same meeting which was held in the Hirabagh School. Ranade always remembered their first meeting because it happened in curious circumstances.
Gokhale was one of the organisers of the meeting. He had stationed himself at the gate of the school to check the invitation cards of the guests. Ranade had forgotten to bring his invitation card.
Gokhale refused to allow him in.
The president of the meeting Anna Saheb learnt about the gaffe and he ran out to greet Ranade and usher him in.
When Gokhale learnt about his mistake he felt very embarrassed. But Ranade had taken the faux-passe in good spirit. Instead of being upset he was greatly amused.
Later, when Gokhale arrived at Ferguson College after his appointment on its teaching staff Agarkar himself formally introduced him to Justice Ranade. In the very first meeting Ranade was impressed with Gokhale. Then they usually met and interacted.
It should be noted that their meetings were not like that of friends. It was more like on the lines of guru and shishya. The guru was Ranade and Gokhale his dear shishya. Gokhale had to learn a lot from Ranade. From 1887 to 1892 Ranade imparted social and political education to Gokhale.
Ranade was a dedicated political thinker and his theories plus objectives were known to all. Everyone greatly valued his political analysis and accepted it as the agenda for India’s freedom.
Gokhale immensely benefitted from the association and the teachings of his guru. Gokhale adored his guru. But he was not a blind follower. He only concentrated on the political teachings.
Ranade’s religious beliefs or abhorrence to certain traditions were no concerns of him. He just watched without giving any importance to that aspect of Ranade’s character.
A celebration that Gopal Krishna Gokhale attended is very amusing.
It happened in Pune.
A Christian organisation had organised a function in which prominent citizens of Pune were invited. The gathering at the function was to be addressed by a Christian preacher. After the function ended the guest were treated to tea. The Christian organisers served tea cups to Ranade, Gokhale and Tilak. Traditionally Hindus would not accept any food or drinks from the beef eaters.
The three were in a fix. They did not know what to do.
Even social reformers had to be careful in such matters.
The religious bigotism was strong in Hindu society. Orthodox elements could charge them of having sold their souls to Christians betraying the religion they were born in.
The Brahmin priests had brain washed the Hindu masses into believing that accepting any eatables or drinks from Muslims and Christians was defilement of Hinduism. And that such person deserved to be ostracized from the Hindu society.
Ranade, Tilak and Gokhale took a sip, or just put their lips to the rims of their cups without actually drinking tea and just put down the cups.
An organiser, Gopalrao Joshi was enjoying the predicament of the three gentlemen. He was keeping a sharp eye on the proceedings. He used to print a newspaper.
Next day he carried the news of Ranade, Tilak and Gokhale accepting tea from Christians.
It raised a storm.
Brahmin mobs demanded expulsion of the three defiled and degenerated persons from the Hindu society.
Dharma guru Shankaracharya prescribed that the sinners could cleanse themselves by donating four annas each to some poor Brahmin. It was a cheap and easy way out although very ridiculous.
Tilak at once did the cleansing act.
But Gokhale and Ranade refused to do so. They maintained that they had committed no sin in accepting tea from the Christians. They would not make any compromise on principles.
To please his guru Ranade, Gokhale used to do hard work. He would study till late at night, sometimes beyond the midnight to the wee hours of the morning. Ranade himself was a hard task master. He would not let Gokhale sleep until he had completed his assigned task. And he was a man hard to please.
Even an excellent performance would evoke only ‘Just about Okay’ from him.
Ranade led a very disciplined life. Even among friends he avoided joking or jesting, saving uncharitable remarks, sarcasm and small talk. He himself would not indulge in any of these and expected his friends to spare him from the same. He wanted every issue to be settled on the basis of facts and figures. He would like to win over his opponent through reasoning.
But Gokhale was just the opposite. He believed in defeating the opponent in debate. Ranade thought that it was a bad habit. The reasoning could win over an enemy while a defeated person would become enemy for ever. Ranade made Gokhale give up his debating habit and he succeed.
Later, Gokhale admitted that his guru was right. The reasoning proved profitable in the long run.
He learnt to respect the enemy and his articles became more civilised and graceful. Ranade guided Gokhale to determine and define the agenda of his life. He became more clear about his objects :
q To dedicate the life to political and social services.
q Never to compromise on basic principles as a social worker and not to let himself be misled by the false praise of others.
The principles to be adhered to as a social worker were as under :
- Unshakable faith in the truth.
- Readiness to accept the mistakes.
- Commitment to social goals.
- Respect to moral values.
