2nd August 2020

 Musings.......

Freedom Fighters - Part 2 

Gopal Krishna Gokhale 

If my first article on Freedom Fighters was on Bal Gangadhar Tilak, it would be wrong if my next is not about the great Gopal Krishna Gokhale.  In many ways both of these people had parallel careers. 

Both were Chitpavan Brahmins, both attended Elephinstone College, both became mathematics professors, and both held important roles in the Deccan Education Society. 

The similarities however ended here as Gokhale was the leader of the Moderate group within the Indian National Congress while Tilak was the leader of the Extremist faction within Congress. 

Born in 1866 in Maharashtra, Gokhale joined the Indian National Congress in 1889 as a protégé of social reformer Mahadev Govind Ranade. 

Together with Ranade, he worked in the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha where he held the position of Secratary. 

He founded a parallel Deccan Sabha in 1896. 

At only 20 years of age, he delivered a public address concerning “India under the British Rule” and was appreciated for his speech and command over the English language. 

Gokhale published a daily newspaper “Jnanaprakash” which allowed him to express his reformist views on politics and society.  

In 1905 he was elected the President of the Indian National Congress and it is then that he founded the “Servants of India Society”.  This was aimed at ‘the expansion of Indian education’.  Gokhale felt that the Indian Civil Service did not do enough to provide Indians with opportunities to gain political education.  This void he wished to fill through his society. 

In 1908, Gokhale founded the Ranade Institute of Economics. He started the English weekly newspaper, The Hitavada. 

Gokhale was a Moderate and worked with the aim of constitutional and administrative reforms. He believed in working within existing British government institutions would lead to such reforms.  This led to his confrontation with the more aggressive nationalists such as Tilak. 

Things got to a level of confrontation in the historic Surat session (1907) of the Indian National Congress where it famously split. 

Gokhale was elected to the Bombay Legislative Council in 1899, to the Imperial Legislative Council of the Governor General of India in 1901 and again in 1903. 

Gokhale’s deposition before the Welby Commission on the financial condition of India won him accolades. His Budget speeches in Legislative council were well known and astute.  

Gokhale played a leading role in bringing about the Morley- Minto Reforms of 1909 ( India Councils Act 1909 ) which brought in for the first time, limited Indian involvement in the governance of British India.

Widely regarded as Mahatma Gandhijis Political Guru, Gopal Krishna Gokhale was a liberal nationalist. 

Gokhale visited South Africa at Gandhis invitation in 1912 and mentored Gandhi in his early years. 

Gandhi famously wrote in his autobiography about Gokhale describing him as “ pure as crystal, gentle as a lamb, brave as a lion, and chivalrous to a daily and the most perfect man in the political field “.  

Despite his deep respect for Gokhale, Gandhi was against Gokhale in his faith of western institutions as a means of achieving political reform and chose not to become a member of Servants of India Society. 

 Gandhi wrote a book in Gujarati dedicated to his mentor titled  “Dharmatma Gokhale”. 

Gokhale was a scholar, social reformer, worked for the expansion of education and rejected the use of reactionary or revolutionary ways. 

Despite ideological differences, Gokhale campaigned for the release of Lala Lajpat Rai ( an Extremist ) who was jailed by the British in Mandalay. 

Without doubt one can say that Gokhale was one of the greatest Indian liberal freedom fighter who in his later days wanted the two factions of the Congress to unite.  

RC 

Food for Thought.......