Tilak and Gokhale Revolution and Reform in the Making of Modern India

Tilak and Gokhale, Gandhi's immediate predecessors in the Indian independence movement, could not be more contrasting figures. Tilak is often portrayed as an extremist; Gokhale a moderate. Yet their individual contributions, while so different from each other, were reliant upon a constant interaction--each responding to the other's pronouncements and policies. In the final analysis, it was Gandhi's ability to synthesize the nationalist tendencies of Tilak and the moral principles of Gokhale that gave the independence movement its ultimate form and success. Stanley Wolpert, a leading scholar of Indian history, makes plain for the first time the importance of the relationship of these two great men to the shaping of India's destiny.