Makers of Modern India

by Ramachandra Guha

  On Hindu-Muslim Cooperation

  In 1906 the Muslim League was formed as a party independent of the Indian National Congress. Three years later, the principle of separate electorates was conceded, whereby a proportion of seats in the Legislative Council were set aside for Muslims elected by other Muslims. In the background of these potentially polarizing events, Gokhale urged for better relations between Hindus and Muslims. The excerpts that follow are from a report of a speech originally delivered in Marathi in July 1909.3

  … After glancing briefly at the past history of the two communities and the contributions made by them to the progress of the world, Mr. Gokhale proceeded to consider their respective positions at the present day in India. The Mahomedan minority, who were a little over one-fifth of the whole population, was very unequally divided among the different Provinces. In the Punjab and East Bengal they actually formed a majority of the population, being a little over one-half in the Punjab and about three-fifths in East Bengal. In Bombay, on the other hand, they were only one-fifth, in West Bengal between one-fifth and one-sixth, in the United Provinces one-seventh, in Madras about one-sixteenth, and in the Central Provinces less than one-twentieth. The bulk of the Mahomedans did not differ from the Hindus in race, but they had to remember that religion was a most powerful factor in life and it modified and sometimes profoundly modified race characteristics. In numbers, in wealth, in education and public spirit, the advantage at present lay with the Hindus. They had also so far contributed far more than the other community to the present national awakening in India. But they were greatly hampered by caste, and by temperament they were mild and passive. On the other hand, the Mahomedans were burdened with fewer divisions, their social structure rested on a more democratic basis, they had more cohesion among them, and they were more easily roused to action. The worst of the situation was that over the greater part of India the two communities had inherited a tradition of antagonism, which, though it might ordinarily lie dormant, broke forth into activity at the smallest provocation. It was that tradition that had to be overcome. And though there were certain special difficulties in their way and the task at times appeared well-nigh impossible, it was no more impossible than what Europe had to face for more than two centuries in the fierce antagonism between Protestants and Catholics. Spread of education, a wide and efficient performance of civic duties, growth of national aspirations and a quickening of national self-respect in both communities were among the forces which would ultimately overcome the tradition. The progress in that direction was bound to be slow and there were sure to be repeated set-backs. But they must believe in final success with all their will and persevere ceaselessly against all odds. It was a common-place of Indian politics that there could be no future for India as a nation, unless a spirit of co-operation of a sufficiently durable character was developed and established between the two great communities in all public matters. They could not get over that, no matter how angry they might be at times with one another. And those among them who wished to devote themselves to the promotion of such co-operation had no choices but to refrain as far as possible from joining in controversies likely to embitter the relations between the two sides, and exercising forbearance and self-restraint themselves to counsel it in others. The speaker was of opinion that a special responsibility lay in the matter with the Hindus, who had an advantage over the other community in regard to the spread of education and who were therefore in a better position to appreciate the needs of a growing nationality. They could also do a great deal towards the establishment of better relations if some of them devoted themselves to educational and other useful work among Mahomedans for the special benefit of that community. Such work could not in course of time fail to be appreciated, and it would powerfully help in gradually substituting confidence and goodwill and co-operation in place of the present distrust and suspicion and aloofness.

  Having thus dealt with the general position Mr. Gokhale proceeded to express his view of the controversy that had agitated the country during the last six months. Much of the excitement, he said, had been due to a misapprehension of the character and scope of the new reforms. Mr. Gokhale stated his own position in [the] matter quite frankly. He had all along been in favour of special separate electorates for important minorities but he wanted such electorates to provide not the whole of the representation to which the communities were entitled but only so much of it as was necessary to redress the deficiencies and inequalities of general elections; and he wanted the same treatment to be extended to other important minorities than Mahomedans where necessary. Mr. Gokhale held strongly that in the best interests of their public life and for the future of their land they must first have elections on a territorial basis in which all communities without distinction of race or creed should participate and then special separate supplementary elections should be held to secure the fair and adequate representation of such important minorities as had received less than their full share in the general elections …

  [W]hen any one said that his community was important and should receive fair and adequate representation, the claim was entitled to the sympathetic consideration of all. But when any one urged that his community was specially important and should therefore receive representation in excess of its fair share, the undoubted and irresistible implication was that the other communities were comparatively inferior and should receive less than their fair share. That was a position to which naturally the other communities could not assent. British rule was based on equal treatment for all communities, and the speaker trusted that the Government would never be so weak as to lean for support on any one community in particular. It was urged that the Mahomedans had ruled in India for five centuries. It must not however be forgotten that the Hindus had ruled for countless centuries before them and even afterwards, before the British came on the scene, the Mahomedan power had been broken and displaced over nearly the whole country by a revival of Hindu rule. Then it was said that there were large Mahomedan populations in other countries—some of them self-governing countries—and that invested the Mahomedans of India with special importance. Mr. Gokhale could not see how that mattered in determining the extent of the representation which the Government of India should grant to its own subjects, unless it was on the assumption that in the administration of this country, those whose heart was not with India were to have preference over those whose was. Moreover the same ground could with equal reason be urged by Indian Christians and by Buddhists. Lastly, as regards the higher traditional loyalty of Mahomedans to British rule, the claim was not historically tenable. And even during the last two or three years Mahomedan names had not been altogether absent from the lists of those speakers and writers against whom the Government had thought it necessary to proceed, though it must be admitted that the number of such names had been extremely small. Before concluding Mr. Gokhale referred to the speech recently made by His Highness the Aga Khan. He said that he read portions of that speech with considerable astonishment, and he could not help regretting that so well informed and broad-minded a gentleman as His Highness should have been labouring under so much misapprehension. His Highness had said that unless larger concessions were made to the Mahomedans, the Hindus would be exultant and triumphant. All that Mr. Gokhale could say about this was that His Highness was evidently not in touch with Hindu feeling in the matter. Not only was there no disposition among the Hindus to exult or to feel triumphant but there was actually a sullen feeling of resentment throughout the country, a feeling daily growing deeper and stronger that the Government had not held the balance even and that it had already leaned too much on the Mahomedan side. His Highness had further said that unless additional concessions were made to Mahomedans, it would mean a monopoly of political power to the Hindus. Mr. Gokhale said that he rubbed his eyes as he read that statement. Surely the Aga Khan could not be under the impression that what the Government proposed to do was to hand over the administration of the country to elected Councils with Hindu majo
rity in them. No, even with the Councils reconstituted as proposed the last word would still be with the officials. The enlargements of the Councils and the increase in the proportion of elected members were no doubt important matters, but they were not so important as to afford to any community a shadow of an opportunity to obtain a monopoly of political power in the country. As the speaker had often pointed out, the most important and the valuable part of the reform of Legislative Councils was the power proposed to be conferred on members to raise discussions on administrative matters. This power, if wisely exercised, would gradually give the country an administration conducted in the light of day and under the scrutiny of public discussion in place of the present administration carried on in the dark and behind the backs of the people. For this purpose what really mattered was the capacity, the public spirit, and the sense of responsibility of the members. How many members were returned by any particular community was not of much consequence, and a member or two more or less on this side or that would not make the smallest difference in practice. Mr. Gokhale earnestly trusted that Government would soon close the question in a definite manner and he was confident that before long the present soreness of feeling would disappear and normal relations again return between the two communities. When once the new Councils commenced to work it would be realized that there was no demand or scope there for work on sectarian lines and the man who worked for all would find his service appreciated by all communities. Controversies like the present were occasionally inevitable, but if they took care not to employ words or express sentiments which would leave soreness behind, they might succeed in averting the injury which otherwise was likely to result to the best interests of their growing nationality. They were all of them trustees of those interests, and the world and their own posterity would judge them by the manner in which they discharged that trust.

  A Call to Service

  This last excerpt comes from a speech delivered by Gokhale at Pachaiyappa’s College, Madras, in 1904, where he urged the young men in the audience to devote themselves to some form of national service. Typically, he asks them to serve their countrymen in general rather than enrol specifically in his own Servants of India Society.4

  … Gentlemen, it is now nearly 20 years since I first enrolled myself as a member of a body of men at Poona who had come forward to undertake the responsibility of spreading higher education among our countrymen. They had come forward to take up this work, because they felt convinced that the future of this country was bound up with the spread of higher education in the land, and that the resources of no Government, however liberally disposed, could cope single-handed with the problem of public education. Well, I threw in my lot with these men, 20 years ago, and although my active participation in that work has now come to an end, my interest in the welfare of students, in all that concerns their present and future, is as warm as ever. During these 20 years of my life, the greater part of my time has been spent in the society of students. With them some of my happiest hours have been spent. To them my best work, such as it was, was given, and on them my dearest hopes for the future of this land are based. It is, therefore, natural that I should rejoice whenever there is an opportunity for me to meet students, and I am sincerely pleased that the students of this College should have given me this opportunity to meet them …

  Gentlemen, I hope that the students of this College realize adequately the character of the work in which they are engaged within the walls of this College. It is true that our Colleges and Universities, even the oldest of them, are comparatively of recent growth, and so that venerable tradition which surrounds the ancient seats of learning in the West and which exercises so powerful a hold on the minds and imagination of the students there—that venerable tradition has yet to grow round our institutions. But in one sense the very newness of this College learning you seek, marks you off from the rest of the people of this land; marks you off, I hope not in sympathies and interests—that would be a misfortune—but marks you off as men to whom a special trust is given, marks you off as persons who have entered a new brotherhood with special aims and aspirations in life. I want you to see that in proportion as you realize this; in that proportion the purpose which those great persons who introduced Western education in this country had in view, would be accomplished.

  In one respect I think it is best to make an admission at once. One of the first objects of the Universities all over the world is to produce a class of men who would devote themselves to research and scholarship on the highest plane. I fear this is not possible in this country, at any rate not possible on a large scale for some time to come. In the first place the atmosphere must come into existence only slowly. Then our men do not enjoy those opportunities of learned leisure which are necessary for such work to be done. Further, those material equipments that are essential in the shape of libraries and laboratories are here of the poorest. You cannot, therefore, expect much work on this highest plane in this country for some time to come, and that should be admitted at once.

  There is, however, other work perhaps not so dignified in appearance, but not less useful for the immediate welfare of the country, that can be done by our educated men. You can recognize this education as a new factor in your life, as an ennobling influence under which you have now placed yourself. And that means that your studies should not end when your College career is over. For if this influence is recognized by you as an ennobling influence, you can never have too much of it. It is a reproach that is sometimes justly urged against you that your studies end with your College career, and this reproach you must try to wipe away. And if you do that, you will attain a higher measure of culture, a higher degree of refinement and you will have qualified yourselves better even for the ordinary duties of life than if you give up your studies the moment you leave your College. This is one of the directions in which all can take advantage of facilities that are placed at their disposal though you may not be able to do much work on the highest plane.

  In other directions too you may make yourselves useful. There is the call of duty on all sides, whichever way we turn. There is a great deal of work to be done in this ancient land. I do not stand here to preach one set of views in preference to another, but I simply point out the responsibilities that lie on you. You will soon be surrounded by duties of a pressing character. There is work to be done for the mass of your countrymen who are plunged in ignorance and superstition. This mass has been kept at a lower level of existence, from which level it has got to be raised. Then there is work to be done for the elevation of the status of the womankind of the land. A whole sex shut out from the intellectual life of a people—this is not good for any country. In religion many of the old institutions are existing only in form and the spirit seems to have fled from them. You have got to recognize that there is work to be done in that direction as well. Further, the whole country is on a low level in regard to political existence and that means arduous work for those who interest themselves in that question. Lastly, the industrial development of the country needs to be urgently attended to. In all these directions there is work to be done. It is true that it is not everyone who can undertake such work, but a fair proportion might be reasonably expected to take some interest in this work in one or another of the various fields that I have mentioned. This is the call of the duty which you will have to recognize when you leave College and take your place in life.

  Even if you are unable to do anything distinctive in this connection, there is one other direction in which you can all show yourselves worthy of the education you have received. Each one of you can do your duty all the better for the education you have received, can show that you recognize the responsibilities that devolve upon you better on account of the education that you have received. Many of us are apt to imagine that those who loom largely in the eyes of the public are the only ones that lead really useful lives. We sometimes talk and write as though only one or two individuals were really doing useful work and the rest only vegetating.
It is, however, a mistake to think so. A nation’s true greatness depends upon its average man and woman.

  Seven years ago I was privileged to go to England. There were, of course, great statesmen, great generals and men of great learning, men of great wealth but what struck me most was that the greatness of England was due to the fact that the average men and women there led more earnest lives, recognized their responsibilities better than we do, endeavoured to prove more serviceable to society than is the case here. It is in the life, thoughts and actions of the average man and woman that the solid strength of a nation really lies. You may not be privileged to make any large contribution to the world’s knowledge by research and scholarship, but every one of you can lead better, more earnest lives on account of the education you have received. If you do that in your own persons, you will have set a high example to those who come after you, and you will also have largely added to the moral energy of the nation. I therefore ask you to realize this, that it is in the power of every educated man to show that he is worthy of the education he has received, first by continuing his interest in his studies, secondly, by trying to be of service to his countrymen in any of the five fields I have just referred to, and thirdly, by leading in his own particular sphere a better, a more earnest, and a more dutiful life …

  * * *

  Chapter Five

  The Militant Nationalist

  Bal Gangadhar Tilak

  In the first decade of the twentieth century, the Indian National Congress was divided into two camps, referred to as ‘Moderates’ and ‘Extremists’ respectively. Gopal Krishna Gokhale was the preeminent spokesman for the first camp. The second camp was most eloquently represented by Gokhale’s fellow Chitpavan Brahmin, fellow native of Ratnagiri, and fellow resident of Poona city, Bal Gangadhar Tilak.