Gopal Krishna Gokhale - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Gopal Krishna Gokhale

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gopal Krishna Gokhale pronunciation, CIE (Marathi: ) (9 May 1866 19 February 1915) was one of the founding social and political leaders during the Indian Independence Movement against the British Empire in India. Gokhale was a senior leader of the Indian National Congress and founder of the Servants of India Society. Through the Society as well as the Congress and other legislative bodies he served in, Gokhale promoted not only primarily independence from the British Empire but also social reform. To achieve his goals, Gokhale followed two overarching principles: non-violence and reform within existing government institutions.

Gopal Krishna Gokhale

Contents
1 Background and education 2 Indian National Congress and Rivalry with Bal Gangadhar Tilak 3 Servants of India Society 4 Involvement with British Imperial Government 5 Mentor to both Jinnah and Gandhi 6 Gokhale Institute 7 Death 8 Impact on Indian Nationalist Movement 9 Further reading 10 References 11 External links

Born

9 May 1866 Kothluk, Ratnagiri Dist., Maharastra, India

Died Organization Political movement

19 February 1915 (aged 48) Mumbai, India Indian National Congress, Deccan Education Society Indian Independence movement

Background and education

Gopal Krishna Gokhale was born on june 09, 1866 in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, a state on the western coast of India that was then part of the Bombay Presidency. Although they were Chitpavan Brahmins, Gokhales family was relatively poor. Even so, they ensured that Gokhale received an English education, which would place Gokhale in a position to obtain employment as a clerk or minor official in the British Raj. Being one of the first generations of Indians to receive a university education, Gokhale graduated from Elphinstone College in 1884. Gokhales education tremendously influenced the course of his future career in addition to learning English, he was exposed to western political thought and became a great admirer of theorists such as John Stuart Mill and Edmund Burke.[1] Although he would come to criticize unhesitatingly many aspects of the English colonial regime, the respect for English political theory and institutions that Gokhale acquired in his college years would remain with him for the rest of his life. Gopal Krishna Gokhale, was one of the founding social and political leaders during the Indian Independence Movement against the British Empire in India. Gokhale was a senior leader of the Indian National Congress and founder of the Servants of India Society. Through the Society as well as the Congress and other legislative bodies he served in, Gokhale promoted not only primarily independence from the British Empire but also social reform. To achieve his goals, Gokhale followed two overarching principles: non-violence and reform within existing government institutions.

Indian National Congress and Rivalry with Bal Gangadhar Tilak

Gokhale became a member of the Indian National Congress in 1889, as a protg of social reformer Mahadev Govind Ranade. Along with other contemporary leaders like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Dadabhai Naoroji, Bipin Chandra Pal, Lala

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Lajpat Rai and Annie Besant, Gokhale fought for decades to obtain greater political representation and power over public affairs for common Indians. He was moderate in his views and attitudes, and sought to petition the British authorities by cultivating a process of dialogue and discussion which would yield greater British respect for Indian rights. Gokhale had visited Ireland[2] and had arranged for an Irish nationalist, Alfred Webb, to serve as President of the Indian National Congress in 1894. The following year, Gokhale became the Congresss joint secretary along with Tilak. In many ways, Tilak and Gokhales early careers paralleled both were Chitpavan Brahmin (though unlike Gokhale, Tilak was wealthy), both attended Elphinstone College, both became mathematics professors, and both were important members of the Deccan Education Society. When both became active in the Congress, however, the divergence of their views concerning how best to improve the lives of Indians became increasingly apparent.[3] Gokhales first major confrontation with Tilak centered around one of his pet projects, the Age of Consent Bill introduced by the British Imperial Government, in 1891-92. Gokhale and his fellow liberal reformers, wishing to purge what they saw as superstitions and abuses from their native Hinduism, wished through the Consent Bill to curb child marriage abuses. Though the Bill was not extreme, only raising the age of consent from ten to twelve, Tilak took issue with it; he did not object per se to the idea of moving towards the elimination of child marriage, but rather to the idea of British interference with Hindu tradition. For Tilak, such reform movements were not to be sought after under imperial rule when they would be enforced by the British, but rather after independence was achieved when Indians would enforce it on themselves. The bill however became law in the Bombay Presidency.[4] In 1905, Gokhale became president of the Indian National Congress. Gokhale used his now considerable influence to undermine his longtime rival, Tilak, refusing to support Tilak as candidate for president of the Congress in 1906. By now, Congress was split: Gokhale and Tilak were the respective leaders of the moderates and the "extremists" (the latter now known by the more term, 'aggressive nationalists') in the Congress. Tilak was an advocate of civil agitation and direct revolution to overthrow the British Empire, whereas Gokhale was a moderate reformist. As a result, the Congress Party split into two wings and was largely robbed of its effectiveness for a decade. The two sides would later patch up in 1916 after Gokhale died.

Servants of India Society

In 1905, when Gokhale was elected president of the Indian National Congress and was at the height of his political power, he founded the Servants of India Society to specifically further one of the causes dearest to his heart: the expansion of Indian education. For Gokhale, true political change in India would only be possible when a new generation of Indians became educated as to their civil and patriotic duty to their country and to each other. Believing existing educational institutions and the Indian Civil Service did not do enough to provide Indians with opportunities to gain this political education, Gokhale hoped the Servants of India Society would fill this need. In his preamble to the SISs constitution, Gokhale wrote that The Servants of India Society will train men prepared to devote their lives to the cause of country in a religious spirit, and will seek to promote, by all constitutional means, the national interests of the Indian people. [5] The Society took up the cause of promoting Indian education in earnest, and among its many projects organized mobile libraries, founded schools, and provided night classes for factory workers.[6] Although the Society lost much of its vigor following Gokhales death, it still exists to this day, though its membership is small.

Involvement with British Imperial Government

Gokhale, though an earlier leader of the Indian nationalist movement, was not primarily concerned with independence but rather with social reform; he believed such reform would be best achieved by working within existing British government institutions, a position which earned him the enmity of more aggressive nationalists such as Tilak. Undeterred by such opposition, Gokhale would work directly with the British throughout his political career in order to further his reform goals. In 1899, Gokhale was elected to the Bombay Legislative Council. He was elected to the Council of India of GovernorGeneral of India on 22 May 1903 as non-officiating member representing Bombay Province.[7] He later served to Imperial Legislative Council after its expansion in 1909. He there obtained a reputation as extremely knowledgeable and contributed significantly to the annual budget debates. Gokhale developed so great a reputation among the British that he was invited to London to meet with secretary of state Lord John Morley, with whom he established a rapport. Gokhale would help during his visit to shape the Morley-Mentos Reforms introduced in1909. Gokhale was appointed a CIE (Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire) in the 1904 New Year's Honours List, a formal recognition by the Empire of his service.

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Mentor to both Jinnah and Gandhi

Gokhale was famously a mentor to Mahatma Gandhi in his formative years. In 1912, Gokhale visited South Africa at Gandhi's invitation. As a young barrister, Gandhi returned from his struggles against the Empire in South Africa and received personal guidance from Gokhale, including a knowledge and understanding of India and the issues confronting common Indians. By 1920, Gandhi emerged as the leader of the Indian Independence Movement. In his autobiography, Gandhi calls Gokhale his mentor and guide. Gandhi also recognised Gokhale as an admirable leader and master politician, describing him as 'pure as crystal, gentle as a lamb, brave as a lion and chivalrous to a fault and the most perfect man in the political field'.[8] Despite his deep respect for Gokhale, however, Gandhi would reject Gokhale's faith in western institutions as a means of achieving political reform and ultimately chose not to become a member of Gokhale's Servants of India Society.[9] Gokhale was also the role model and mentor of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the future founder of Pakistan, who in 1912, aspired to become the "Muslim Gokhale". Even the Aga Khan ( the Spiritual Head of the Islamic sect of Ismaili Khojas & grandfather of the present Aga Khan) has stated in his autobiography that Gokhale's influence on his thinking was probably considerable.

Gokhale Institute
The Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE), commonly known as Gokhale Institute, is one of the oldest research and training institutes in Economics in India. It is located on BMCC Road in the Deccan Gymkhana area of Pune, Maharashtra. The Institute was founded with an endowment offered to the Servants of India Society by Shri R R Kale. The Servants of India Society are the trustees of the Institute.

Death
Gokhale continued to be politically active through the last years of his life. This included extensive traveling abroad: in addition to his 1908 trip to England, he also visited South Africa in 1912, where his protg Gandhi was working to improve conditions for the Indian minority living there. Meanwhile, he continued to be involved in the Servants of India Society, the Congress, and the Legislative Council while constantly advocating the advancement of Indian education. All these stresses took their toll, however, and Gokhale died on Feb 19 1915 at an early age of forty-nine. Bal Gangadhar Tilak, his lifelong political opponent, said at his funeral: "This diamond of India, this jewel of Maharastra, this prince of workers is taking eternal rest on funeral ground. Look at him and try to emulate him".

Impact on Indian Nationalist Movement

Gokhale's impact on the course of the Indian nationalist movement was considerable. Through his close relationship with the highest levels of British imperial government, Gokhale forced India's colonial masters to recognize the capabilities of a new generation of educated Indians and to include them more than ever before in the governing process. Gokhales firm belief in the need for universal education deeply inspired the next great man on the Indian political stage, Mohandas K. Gandhi; his faith in western political institutions though rejected by Gandhi, was adopted by an independent India in 1950.

Further reading
S. Wolpert, Bal Takla Tilak and Abhinav bindra Krishna Gokhale (1962) J. S. Hoyland, Gopal Krishna Gokhale (1933)

References
1. ^ Stanley Wolpert, Tilak and Gokhale: Revolution and Reform in the Making of Modem India, Berkeley, U. California (1962), 22. 2. ^ Cited by John Hume in his acceptance speech for the 2001 Gandhi Peace Prize. Reported in Seminar Magazine No.511 March 2002, accessed at [1] (http://www.india-seminar.com/2002/511/511%20comment.htm) July 26, 2006 3. ^ Jim Masselos, Indian Nationalism: An History, Bangalore, Sterling Publishers (1991), 95. 4. ^ D. Mackenzie Brown, Indian Political Thought from Ranade to Bhave, Los Angeles: University of California Press (1961), 77.

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5. ^ Stanley Wolpert, Tilak and Gokhale: Revolution and Reform in the Making of Modem India, Berkeley, U. California (1962), 158-160. 6. ^ Carey A. Watt, Education for National Efficiency: Constructive Nationalism in North India, 1909-1916, in Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 31, No. 2 (May, 1997), 341-342, 355. 7. ^ India List and India Office List for 1905 (http://books.google.co.in/books?id=3VQTAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA2-PA213& dq=central+provinces+and+berar&cd=6#v=onepage&q=central%20provinces%20and%20berar&f=false) . Harrison and Sons, London. 1905. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=3VQTAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA2-PA213&dq=central+provinces+and+berar& cd=6#v=onepage&q=central%20provinces%20and%20berar&f=false. Retrieved 11 February 2010. 8. ^ Leadbeater, Tim (2008). Britain and India 1845-1947. London: Hodder Education. p38. 9. ^ Jim Masselos, Indian Nationalism: An History, Bangalore, Sterling Publishers (1991), 157.

External links
"Gokhale, Gopal Krishna". Encyclopdia Britannica (12th ed.). 1922. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myihBR--Lhw&feature=player_embedded Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gopal_Krishna_Gokhale&oldid=520238113" Categories: 1866 births 1915 deaths Indian independence activists from Maharashtra Presidents of the Indian National Congress Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire Marathi people Members of Imperial Legislative Council of India Members of the Council of India People from Ratnagiri Indian economists This page was last modified on 28 October 2012 at 09:05. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

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