A MAKER OF REVOLUTION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 153, 27 June 1908, Page 4

A MAKER OF REVOLUTION.

The arrest of Tilak, the notorious Poona agitator, shows not only that the Indian Government is thoroughly determined to crush out sedition, but that the forces that make for revolution in India are still actively working toward the accomplishment of their design. There is no more remarkable nor sio-ni-ficant figure in India to-day than this man Bal Gandaghar Tilak. He was at one time a member of the Bombay Legislative Council; he is a scholar of rare accomplishments, and his book on "the Arctic Home of the Vedas," written while he was imprisoned for inciting to sedition, was highly praised by no less ah authority than Professor Max MuUer. He is, like mrosr, Hindus, a fluent speak-

er and a born agitator and intriguer; and his vernacular newspaper the "Eesari" is one ot tne iew native journals commanding a large circulation, and run at a handsome profit. Beyond this, he seems to be endowed with a singularly cool, calculating, and far-seeing mind, and he has devoted all his undoubted ability and his 'immense influence over the natives to the task of stirring up a Nationalist movement against the English. Tilak holds that he has personal wrongs to avenge; for he apparently believes that he has been the victim of judicial animus, and he has brooded over his grievances till they have obscured every other consideration in his mind. His primary object is certainly to get rid of the English; but Englishmen who have watched him carefully doubt if he would be satisfied even then. "Tilak stands for nothing but destruction," says one distinguished AngloIndian. "He is an apostle of Anarchy"; and it is likely that this professed exponent of Indian Nationalism is really

at heart one- of -those peTverse»«nd impracticable spirits who can see nothing but. evil in constituted authority, and who seek their, Tnilh>nriiTrr»i in the destruction of law and order, and, the assertion of their individual impulses without' regard "to the rights or' interests of the community, or st*te, ; or nation around them. ,-■■ ,\ .•-.-■ t - \.. i

But be Tilak's ultimate object, his immediate purpose is the expulsion of the English from'"lndia ; and to achieve this end. he has. .worked for many years with remarkable pertinacity and skill to organise a Nationalist party strong .enough to impress the, British authorities with a lense-qf its. power, and docile' enough to do hjs bidding, without regard to consequences. Not tfiat he is regarded with alfection or esteem even by bis compatriots. Tijak's position, says the Indian correspondent of the "National Beview," would be peculiar in any country.- 'It is not too much'to say that he is almost universally disliked and mistrusted, and by most Moderates he is regarded with absolute destestation. At times" he"" appears to stand almost alone. But defeat only makes Tilak more domitable than ever." Last year he attempted te break up the National Congress at Nagpur, and Kis failure would have" crushed a weaker man. But Tilak is "the most determined man in India." He is the only Indian politician of the day with a single purpose, which he pur. sues with tireless vigour; and though he failed,last year at Nagpur, he succeeded entirely in wrecking the National Congress this year at -Surat. -By running the famous Lajpat Bai, the editor, as President of the Congress and then throwing him over for a nominee and creature of his own, he forced the Moderate party to oppose him, and then turned his Extremist followers lose upon them. The Congress broke up i n a free light, and the Moderates, who had practically made themselves responsible for its conduct,, were discredited in the eyes of the natives as well as the British authorities. But Tilak's chief purpose here was to humiliate, the Moderate party and destroy its influence: He Is convinced that nofhing- can be achieved by half-measures, and he is .as much the irreconcilable ■ foe of Naoroji and Dr. Ghose, and even of Surendra Nath Banerjee, "the crowned King of Bengal," as of the English themselves. For a brief space, the outrageous excesses Of the" Extremist party at Surat reduced him to silence. But he was only biding his time. "His sinister figure dominates native politics-with a persistence which no amount of opposition can subdue." He has done his work well, and his arrest on a charge of preaching sedition can only cheek his malign activity for tho moment. "If Tilak were. to die or to disappear to-morrow," says the observer whom 'We have' already quoted, "the forces he has set in motion would continue to work. He has sown too wide and too deep for the ' fruits of his. labours, to wither now. . Extremism or Tilakism, call it what you will, is a living force in India, and its existence is a grave portent and a dangerous menace." It would be rash to predict ■ the outcome of the Nationalist struggle in India, but the sudden emergence of Anarchism upon the scene suggests that the forces with which the" Extremists are working may easily get "beyond control, and that Tilak may some day have good cause to* be £ terrified handiwork.