NORTHWESTERN
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
EVANSTO'N
ILLINOIS
»SHIIATH TRIMBkK TELANG
►
THE MAN AND HIS TIMES. /
-N»
BY
VASANT. N. NAIK, M A.
9i
PUB1.1SHED BY
O. A. KATESAN & CO.. MADRAS*
PRICE RE. ONE.
CONTENTS.
1
Introductory
I
Birth : Early YIiars and Education
10
Characteristics
1»
Profession
20
Social Reform
37
Literary "Work
55
Telang's Work in the Field op Education.
73
Politics
80
The End
152
ßiograpliies of Eminent Indians
A Series of Ualform Booklets each with a Portrait
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»
Db.dabhai Naorojl K. T. Teland
Sir P. M. Hehta Surendranath Banerjea
Dinsha Eduljl Waeha Romesh Chunder Dutt
Mahadev Oovind Ranade Ananda Mohan Rose
Sri Ramakrlshna
Paramahamsa
Swami Vivekananda
Hon. Mr. 0. K. Ookhale
Dr. Rash Beharl Ghose
Lala Lajpat Ral
Ravi Yarma
Torn Dutt
W. C. Bonnerjee
Bndruddfn Tyabji
Sir Byed Ahmed
Lai Mohan Ghose
M. K. Gandhi
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DEWAM C. BANGACHABLU.
DEWAH BAHADUB B. BAGUNATHA
BAU, C S I.
RAHIMTULLA MOHAMED SAYANI.
PREFACE.
This sketch would perhaps have never been
written but for the suggestion of an esteemed
friend. The writer has approached the task in
the spirit of sincere love and admiration for the
personality which had continued to exercise great
fascination over his mind since he began to read
about the topics that were near to the heart of
the great and good man that forms the subject of
the sketch,
Telang's best work was accomplished in days
that touch no living chord in the hearts of the
men of the present generation. Our life has
fallen on times more stirring, full of stress and
«torm, times in which there is " an agitated
turmoil of confused passions, hesitating ideals,
tentative virtues and groping philanthropies."
We are on the eve of changes that were perhaps
undreamt of then. Yet the present being but
the ripening of the past, the knowledge of the
past out of which we have grown ia indispensable
for proper guidance and steady action. That
past has a double charm and comes laden with
deeper instruction when it is unfolded round a
íi PREFACE,
personality that played such a prominent part in
it. The years between the seventies and nineties
of the last century, however tame they may
appear to us now, have a deeper significance for
us as being the epoch of pioneer work. Those
were the years when the foundation was laid of
many an activity, the ripening of which is yet to
come. In all these activities Telang played a
very conspicuous part. The knowledge of his
life, his ideals, his methods of work and his aspi¬
rations will not come amiss, nay, is bound to be
immeasurably useful in an age when passion is
apt to run riot and " enthusiasm is made to do
duty for reasoned scrutiny."
The sketch can lay no pretentions to the name
of a biography. It is but an humble essai on the
part of the writer to understand the man and his
times and to draw for himself a picture of the
man as accurate and faithful as possible from the
very scanty Materials at his disposal. For this,
he had mainly to depend on files of old news¬
papers. Such materials, however, as he could get
were in themselves suflS-cient to reveal to him the
workings of an essentially progressive and rational
mind, such as would have been highly useful in
guiding the helm of ajOfairs in these critical times
PREFACE
• • •
U1
liOrge of heart and brain as he was, there was a
sweet simplicity about Mr. Telang which, as his
friends attest, endeared him to all alike. Should
the writer succeed in awakening an interest in his
readers for the man to whose memory he has
offered this humble tribute, and in persuading
them to turn to the study of his speeches and
writings scattered in files of dusty newspapers
and reports, he will consider himself amply re¬
warded. Shoulcf this work stimulate any reader
to undertake a more comprehensive biography the
writer will consider himself blessed. Because the
life work of a man like Telang so rich both in the
qualities of the head and the heart ought not to
pass without a detailed description of all things
pertaining to it. The memory of Telang and his
like ought to be ever kept green. It is not a duty
so much to him as it is to ourselves.
In conclusion the writer craves leave of Mr.
G. A, Natesan to say that he cannot be suffici¬
ently thankful to him for undertaking the publi¬
cation of this sketch.
VASANT N. NAIK.
PREFACE
personality that played such a prominent part in
it. The years between the seventies and nineties
of the last century, however tame they may
A
appear to us now, have a deeper significance for
us as being the epoch of pioneer work. Those
were the years when the foundation was laid of
many an activity, the ripening of which is yet to
come. In all these activities Telang played a
very conspicuous part. The knowledge of his
life, his ideals, his methods of work and his aspi¬
rations will not come amiss, nay, is bound to be
immeasurably useful in an age when passion is
apt to run riot and " enthusiasm is made to do
duty for reasoned scrutiny,"
The sketch can lay no pretentions to the name
of a biography. It is but an humble essai on the
part of the writer to understand the man and his
times and to draw for himself a picture of the
man as accurate and faithful as possible from the
very scanty %aterials at his disposal. For this,
he had mainly to depend on files of old news¬
papers. Such materials, however, as he could get
were in themselves sufficient to reveal to him the
workings of an essentially progressive and rational
mind, such as would have been highly useful in
guiding the helm of affairs in these critical times.
PREFACE
Iiarge of heart and brain as he was, there was a
sweet simplicity about Mr. Telang which, as his
friends attest, endeared him to all alike. Should
the writer succeed in awakening an interest in his
readers for the man to whose memory he has
offered this humble tribute, and in persuading
them to turn to the study of his speeches and
writings scattered in files of dusty newspapers
and reporls, he will consider himself amply re¬
warded. Should* this work stimulate any reader
to undertake a more comprehensive biography the
writer will consider himself blessed. Because the
life work of a man like Telang so rich both in the
qualities of the head and the heart ought not to
pass without a detailed description of all things
pertaining to it. The memory of Telang and his
like ought to be ever kept green. It is not a duty
so much to him as it is to ourselves.
In conclusion the writer craves leave of Mr.
G. A. Natesan to say that he cannot be suffici¬
ently thankful to him for undertaking the publi¬
cation of this sketch.
VASANT NAIK.
The "Friends of India" Series
This is a new Series of short biographical sketches of
eminent men who have laboured for the good of India,
which the Publishers venture to think will be a welcome
addition to the political and historical literature of the
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gallery of portraits of permanent interest to the student
as well as to the politician. Copious extracts from the
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Indian Añairs are given in the sketches. Each volume
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Lord Morley Charles Bradlaugh
Lord Ripon John Bright
Sir William Wedderburn Henry Fawcett
Mrs. Annie Besant Mr* A.«0. Hume
Lord Minto Sir Henry Cotton
Edmund Burke Lord Macaulay
The Leader :—Will bo a welcome addition to the
political and historical literature of the country.
TJie Modem Beviete :—On the cover of each volume is
printed a portrait of the subject ot the sketch and the
stories are told in a lively and interesting manner, with
short extracts from notable speeches delivered. The
series should be welcome to the public.
The Central Hindu College Magazine :—Useful little
biographies of well-known men and women. These keep
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THE EMPIRE-—Admirable little biographies.
K. T. TELANG.
KASHINftTH TRIMBAK TELANG
INTRODUCTORY.
In the long and chequered history of this
ancient lancl, no influence perhaps has touched tho
life of the people to such large issues as the politi¬
cal domination of Ëngland with all the accompany¬
ing elements of its civilization—its literature, its
philosophy, its administrative methods, and its
practical bias.
Henceforth a position of splendid isolation became
for India a thing of the past. It was pushed in ^
the midst of the world-struggle for weal or woe.
The contemplative East could no longer continue
to live in detachment, absorbed in the ecstasies of
the inner world ; active enthusiasm of humanity
joined to well disciplined liberty, the dominating
characteristic of the West, must needs awaken a
permanent and active response in the heart of the
East.
Telang was born at a time of a great life of
thought and activity,
" It was an age of splendour'' says Sir Narayan Chanda-
varker, when humanity seemed to stand at the start
of a quickened life, with the promise of a bright future
for modern civilization. In politics, it was the age of
the Reform Bill, of Free Trade, of the Abolition of
Slavery, of statesmen of towering personalities like
Palmerston, Peel, Gladstone, Disraeli, Cobden, Bright,
Clarkson and Wilberforce. In social reform it was the
2
age of the Emancipation of Woman, of Elizabeth Fry and
Florence Nightingale. In literature, which for the period
reflects its currents and character and the ideals of its
people, it was the age of Wordsworth, Tennyson and
Browning, reflecting through them " the mighty hopes
that make us men." The spirit was of humanity,
of good tidings, of great joy for all, breathed by the
times in nearly all departments of life and human
activity And its most remarkable feature was that the
spirit found itself personified, as its central figure, in
the homely life, the pure character and pious aspirations
of the Queen who sat enthroned as the Goddess Victory,
wielding England's power then broadening with the
circle of the Sun, The professors, English, Scotch or
Irish, who came to teach in our Colleges and share in
the work of our Universities, were men, who more or
less breathed this spirit of the times and sought to impart
it to the young men brought within the sphere of their
influence. These young men caught the ardour, the
sentiment of humanity and of the brotherhood of the
human race, man's growing power as Nature's conqueror
and interpreter, and placed as they were in a society
where—on account of the superstition of ages—all seemed
dark, they felt that a light appeared to them in the very
midst of the surrounding darkness."
Besides, the educated men of those times had one
great advantage in their favour. There was then a
d;eraand for educated Indians exceeding the supply of
Offices under Government ; and in point of worldly
prospects, the hard struggle of the world was not for
them. They lived in an environment of hope realized,
of help and encouragement given all round. But
their aim was a life of fulness. For, that was the ideal
of the times. With the stimulating examples of sturdy
faith and outstanding character illustrated before their
very eyes by men, whose names and memories are yet
green among us—men like Wilson, Harkness Fatten,
Reid, Howard, Grant, Birdwood on this side of India—
to name but a few out of a list that is large enough in
its names—the first two or three generations of our men
of higher education were men of liberal thought, a wide
outlook on life and humane sentiment.
3
A full and rounded life as much for the indivi¬
dual as for the nation was the badge of the school
of which Telang was, though the youngest, yet
the most brilliant representative. His most in¬
tense longing as Sir Raymond "West has pointed
out was " for the progress of the Hindus towards
perfection in knowledge, wisdom and purpose".
The prominent members of the school that cherish¬
ed this noble hope and worked nobly for its reali¬
zation, in the last generation, are Dadabhoy
Naoroji, Pherozshah Mehta, Ranade and Telang.
To the lovers of steady reform in all the spheres
of national life, no names are dearer than these on
this side of India. The last of the noble band
though the youngest, was the first to depart
from this world. Eight years later died Ranade.
The first two. Providence has yet kindly spared to ^
us. Dadabhoy bowed down by the weight of years,
is resting from his plough, enjoying his well earned
repose after a cai'eer of strenuous toil, single-
hearted devotion and unparalleled self-sacrifice in
the service of his country. Mehta, the robust
optimist, the bold, sagacious and keen sighted
statesman, his faith in liberalism undimmed by
the wear and tear of time, is yet the fearless but
wise champion of the people's rights. All of them
hearken us back to the earlier decades of the latter
half of the nineteenth century so eloquently des¬
cribed by Justice Chandavarker. The statesmen that
were then sent to preside over the destiny of this
country looked upon it as a solemn charge com¬
mitted to their care, to be raised slowly but surely
to a position of dignity and honour among the
free nations of the world. Men like Canning and
4
Lawrence, Metcalfe, Munro and Elphinstone kept
this aim steadily in view. The Proclamation of
1858 further sealed the noble tradition introduc¬
ed by these wise administrators. In the field of
political reform that document became henceforth
the charter of the people's rights and liberties. It
placed before the educated men of those times a
goal to strive for. Certainly the times in which
Telang and Ranade worked were not the
times for defining ultimate political ideals.,
Indian political life was yet in its crude and incipi¬
ent stage. The politics that men of the last genera¬
tion discussed was parochial politics. Only on two
occasions between the years 1850- 1885, did it as¬
sume a national aspect. The Vernacular Press Act
in the reign of Lord Lytton and the Ilbert Bill in
the reign of his successor, shook the country to its
very depths and roused the educated Indians to act
like one man. These questions added a momentum
to our activities undreamt of before. From that
time politics burst forth from its narrow bands^
and developed a unity of aim. Soon after, the In¬
dian National Congress was formed. Men. from
différent parts of the country could meet hence¬
forward on a common platform. Ideals were de¬
fined and aspirations found a channel for expres¬
sion and fulfilment. Newspapers began to discuss
public questions in the light of a common policy.
Methods of work underwent an organizing pro¬
cess. An Indian Nationality based on common
ideals, common interests and common sympathies
was conceived of as a possibility however remote..
In the wake of the Congress came the Social Con¬
ference, an institution that was ridiculed, fought
p
o
shy of and its purpose travestied in its early days,
but which is dominating the minds of the people
«ven as the political problem is getting to be
more acute, more fraught with serious issues, and
more hard to grapple with, because more complex.
The need for greater cohesion, gieater unity,
greater enlightenment, a stronger moral fibre,
thrusts forward questions like mass education,
social purity, social justice, a free scope for the
development of personality which means freedom
from the bondage^ of hide-bound traditions. The
elevation of the Depressed Classes, the education
and emancipation of women, the protection
of the rights of the minors, the freedom of
conscience—all these are becoming accepted
lines of reform. The fight is now over the methods.
Such questions have become firm-rooted in
tlie conscience of the various communities consti¬
tuting the people of India. The bonds of caste
and creed are becoming more elastic and loosened
under the pressure of the need for greater harmony
and co-operation between the diflferent social units
that go to form the Indian nationality.
The new environment that has been thus creat¬
ed is as much the product of the silent but
energetic efforts of the educated men of the
last generation, as that of the pressure of out¬
ward circumstance. It is , the harvest of the
patient toil of these pioneers of Indian pro¬
gress. We are now in the full glare of the
noon. The vision that seemed enchanting to
them in the mist of the grey dawn has faded into
the light of common day. They worked in the
face of that vision. We, their successors, have to
6
press forward without it. But the lines of work
are well chalked out, the path is clearer, because
of the laborious thought bestowed by them. The
work of the genius is accomplished. It is the
man of action that is now required. Character is-
the sore need of the times joined of course to-
wisdom, sobriety and right direction.
The four men named above had much uphill-
work to do in their own times. They had to
work in the midst of the darkness, apathy and
ignorance of their own countrymen. In the field
of politics they had to do their best not to thwart
progress by raising unwarranted suspicion. In
the work of regeneration to which they set them¬
selves, active sympathy and co-operation was, to-
start with, slow in coming. When they urged
t theii- views upon the ofl&cials, they were asked to
set their own house in order before advising
Englishmen on their duties. They were told that
being a microscopic minority their representations
could not be considered as those of the general
mass of people composing the country.
If they turned to their countrymen, appealing
to modify their own ways of life to suit modern
conditions, they were reproached as " bastai d
bantlings of Western civilization", desecrating old
and venerable institutions by their unwise
criticism. Both the officials and the reactionists
joined hands in regarding their respective institu¬
tions as sacrosanct. Thus these men were between
two fires.
Some of the schools devoted themselves to poli¬
tics. Others would, first turn the search-light
7
inwards to free reason from the bondage of
superstition and social usage. Midway between
these stood Telang and Ranade as apostles of re¬
form all along the line. We are not here concern¬
ed with demagogues who made this or that reform
a party-cry, ranging themselves into opposite
camps with a wide gulf of prejudice yawning-
between them. With the school typified in the
person of J)adabhoy, Mehta, Telang an5 Ranada
there was no spirit of exclusiveness. They had
" preferences but mo exclusion." They were not
politicians to the exclusion of social reform, nor
again, were they social reformers who leave
politics severely alone. Such onesided personali¬
ties cannot be ranged under their banner.
The greatness of these men lay in the zeal with
which they worked to educate other men into the
faith which had fii-st dawned upon their minds as
the result of Western education. They had studi¬
ed the history, philosophy and literature of the
West under noble masters who gave them a true
and sympathetic insight into the working of West¬
ern institutions. The study of Aristotle, Plato, Mill,
Spencer, Macaulay and Burke had given them a
firm grasp of political principles. The study of
these authors had also saved them from the dan¬
ger of making rash experiments where the ques¬
tion was of rebuilding a decaying or decadent so¬
cial fabric. The history of nations like Germany
and Italy, England and America, afibrded them a
true light in which to view their own prevailing
conditions. By the light thus vouchsafed, they
penetrated into the causes of their own degenera¬
tion and fall. It also suggested to them certain
8
remedies for shaking off the wasting malady
preying upon the vitals of their country. They
strove hard to bring together the scattered
elements of national life. They dug the furrows
into which the seed of new ideas could be fruit¬
fully sown. They had to work in the subsoil of
national life. They began from the beginning.
They planted the seed of corporate activity. They
laboured hard to show what was really praise¬
worthy in the old. They worked not for revival
but for progressive adaptation. The work of
the pioneers is often thankless and wearisome.
The masses cannot appreciate it. The fruit
could not be immediately gathered. Disappoint¬
ments, misunderstanding, impatience on the part
of the followers, blame from the multitude, hosti-
• lity of the men in power, indifference, heedlessness,
a surly attitude if not actual persecution—all these
have to be borne, with the gaze firm fixed on the
future. This is the price the leaders have to pay
for séeing ahead of their times. They have to
draw inspiration " by painting the golden morrow
on the midnight sky of sorrow." To enter the
promised land is a happier destiny. But to toil
on from day to day at the process of renovation is
sublime. The task of hastening slowly is more
arduous. It demands a balanced mind and a steady
hand. It requires circumspection, a historic sense,
a due measure of the needs of the times, and of
the limitations of the environment. It implies
tact, * sobriety, wisdom and farsightedness. It is
the possession of qualities such as these that
entitles man to true leadership. Such leaders
alone are capable of laying the solid foundation of
9
true nationality. Leaders like Dadabhoy, Mehta,
Telang and Ranade in the earlier generation may
not make noise or win popularity but theirs is
the glory of the silent oak.
Whatever of stir and activity we find in our
midst today is the direct product of their perva¬
sive influence. If they had been born in a coun¬
try where the preliminaries of national life were
all made up, they would have reaped a richer har¬
vest. They would have shaped august decrees or
written monumental works. Their names
would have shone resplendent in the annals
of the civilized world. But finding them¬
selves in the midst of a fallen nation, all their
energies had to be concentrated on the work of
setting up the back of that nation. Their fame is
less, their names may pass into oblivion, but their
souls have passed into that of their nation, which,
if it ever becomes conscious of its high destiny and
attains it, will do so because of them. The flame
may be extinguished but its radiance has contribut¬
ed in no small degree to the illumination that is
to come. Theirs was a glorious mission^—a
mission of revivification. These pioneers of new
India, with all their shortcomings, worked in all
sincerity, love and enthusiasm for the realization
of their own dream. If we can work better to-day,
if the future reveals itself clearer to us, let us not
forget that we are rising on their shoulders. They
cleared up the mist and ushered in the dawn.
They were a noble band and of that noble band
Telang was the youngest and the most brilliant
representative.
10
BIRTH : EARLY YEARS AND EDUCATION.
Telang was born on August 30th, 1850. He
belonged to a middle-class Hindu family. His
family was one of the twelve Saraswat families
that had left their native home in Goa early in
the last century, to seek their fortune, in the busy
and commercially growing city of Bombay. His
father and mother were quite uneducated as we
understand education npw. But they were
characterized by mother wit, were pious and frugal,^
with noble tmditions of respectability and steady
virtue behind them. His mother was gentle and
amiable. These traits of a sweet and amiable
disposition, Telang shared in no small degree.
Generally speaking it is not possible to trace far
back the pedigree of any Hindu family. Its
origin gets lost in obscurity even like the linea¬
ments of the Rishi to which it traces its Gotra.
There are no established family traditions. If new
traditions are formed, the women of the family
being generally ignorant, the children do not catch
their spirit which is best imbibed at the mother's
knee. The personality of the mother in an averago
Hindu home is merged in that of her husband.
Being herself ignorant she cannot educate her
children. Thus we grow up ignorant of our past both
individually, and as units of a nation. Generation
after generation grows up in this fashion. The
pride of the family or the country as such is never
engendered in us at that period of life, when the
mind is most plastic and the heart tender and
susceptible to deep impressions. The awakening
comes later. Home education, as long as the
mother continues to be ignorant, is bound to
11
»
remain a thing only to sigh for. We read of the-
mothers of Macaulay, Dufferin, Wííshington and
Napoleon. What a powerful factor they formed
in shaping the life and character of their sons ?
Can we say as much of our great men ? Do we
know as much of their mothers ? As Sir Raymond
West remarks, " of Telang's mother one knows
little, the feeling of the Hindus as that of the
Greeks being that a matron's best renown is to
be little spoken of."
It was early in life that Telang was sent to-
school to learn his vernacular. Even at that
early age he seems to have been very studious.
Not that he was weak or of solitary temperament
as we find many boys to be who take to their
books eagerly in childhood. He was serious
because he was precocious. Otherwise he had his
full share of joviality and animal spirits. Precocity '
of talent is what marks him from others. He-
finished his vernacular studies in due course
T\dnning prizes from the Deputy Educational
Inspector, Rao Saheb Yishwanath Narayan
Mandlik, with whom in later life he was
destined to rub shoulders on a common plat¬
form. He was sent to learn English at
the Elphinstone School at the tender age of nine.
The headmaster of the school was one W. H.
Smith and below him was the late Ardesir Fram jee
Moos. In the school it was not enough for him
to leam his daily lessons. He supplemented them
by additional reading to be able to give satisfac--^
tory answers to his teachers on all the general
questions that arose out of the lessons prescribed.
That method of study once acquired remained
12
with him through life and he was never unprepar¬
ed for anything. He was never hardpressed for
time, at the time of the examination. It is said
that frequently he was found playing chess on the
verandah of a neighbour's house even on days im¬
mediately preceding the examination. In the
Middle School he won a prize in English in 1861
and he was selected on the occasion of the prize
distribution to recite the poem on the death of
Sir John Moore. He won another prize in 1862,
It was at this time that his attention was drawn
towards Marathi poetry, and to be able to appre¬
ciate its spirit he began the study of Sanskrit
under a Shastri, His fellow student was the
famous linguist and the first Indian Civilian,
Shripad Babaji Thakore. He was now promoted
to the Matriculation class where his fellow stu-
* dents were Jamsetji Ai'desir Dalai, Gajanan
Kiishna Bhatavdekar, Rao Shaeb Tullo, Thakore,
and Nadkarni. All of them rose to distinction
in their respective walks of life. While we
are narrating Mr. Telang's school career, we
think we ought to find space for what Mr. J, A,
Dalai has to tell us about the way they carried
•on their general reading. Mr. Dalai says ;—
Mr. Telang's reading was not condned to the prescribed
books but was wide-spread even from the school
days. In the school we used to purchase books of all
sorts from a Boree who daily came with a pack of books
and took his station at the foot of the main staircase.
The plan was to purchase a book,—a novel, a poem or a
biography,—for eight or ten annas down and to get the
book changed for another on payment of one anna.
In his secondary course Mr. Telang proved
himself an apt pupil, with a special bias for Ian-
13
guages. His tutors marked him out as a promi¬
sing lad, took special care to cultivate his tastes,,
not however at the sacrifice of subjects absolutely
needed for the University Examination. The late
K. M. Parmanand who was his teacher in the
school and who became afterwards his trusted
friend and a revered and sage guide in all public
matters, guided him in getting up his Mathematics
thus making his path smooth for success at the
University. Under the able guidance of Parma¬
nand, his proficiency in Mathematics was so mark¬
ed that he secured a prize in that subject and in
English in 1863. He passed the Matriculation in
1864 with Sanskrit for his second language. At
this time he got from his principal as a prize
MaxMuller's History of Sanskrit Literature. It
was also during this period that he became an ar¬
dent student of Marathi poetry, the love for which
he retained through life. Mr. Telang was known
in after life to be a brilliant conversationalist. He
would quote often from his favourite English
poets. This trait of his manifested itself also at
this time in connection with Marathi poetry, the
choicest couplets of which he would quote on occa¬
sions to the delight of his friends and teachers.
Mr. Telang passed his Matriculation at the age of
fourteen. While at college he showed the same
deligence and passion for general reading that
marked him out at school. He won the Junior
scholarship in 1865 and senior scholarship in
April 1866 passed his F.A. in December,
won another scholarship in 1867, secured the
Raja of Dhar Prize and Ganpatrao Vithal prize
in English.
14
At seventeen, be took bis B.A., degree, at
nineteen, he passed the M. A. examination in
languages. Six months later be obtained the
Bbagwandass scholarship in Sanskrit which then
meant a separate and a severer test than at
present. The same year he passed his LL.B.,
•examination. Three years later he passed the
Advocate's examination. Thus at twenty two
he qualified himself for the legal profession.
From seventeen to twentytwo he was a fellow
at his college. It was during this period that he
formed the habit of strenuous application and
laid the foundation of that accurate, deep and
extensive knowledge which made him the versatile
scholar that he was known to be.
At college Telang and his fellow students used to
hold weekly meetings where lectures were delivered
and debates took place. Another meeting was
usually held every Sunday evening in the school
of Nana Shankar Sett at which Telang used to
preside. Several educated men in Bombay attended
these meetings of the students and took part in the
debate. Even at that early age Telang used to ex¬
pound the topic under consideration and sum up the
discussion on it with an eloquence that called to
the mind, it is said, the gentle and deep flow of a full
fed river. He put forth his views in a subdued tone
with a sweet reasonableness that was catching.
The practice of speaking at these debates contri¬
buted in no small degree to nurse the wings of the
future orator. His favourite subjects at college
were logic, ethics and literature. In Sanskrit he
was soon to make his mark as an erudite scholar.
Jamsetjee Ardesir Dalai and Ambalal Sakarlal
15
Desai have given to us in their anniversary ad¬
dresses on Telang pen-portraits of the college life
of those days from which a few facts may
be gleaned here. First of all the classes wei*e
very small in number so that the professors could
bring themselves into personal and close contact
with students, judge of their aptitudes, mould
their habits and tastes, shape their character and
watch and tend their intellectual and moral gr owth
from daj^ to day. As regards the feeling animat¬
ing the students of those times, Mr. Dalai writes
as follows :— *
We were like members of a small family, inspired
with a joint-family desire of working for the good of the
compact body, which cannot be the case when the num¬
bers are over-flowing.
Self-help was again much more in evidence then,
owing to the absence of annotated editions. Mr.
Dalai says.
We were left to our own personal efforts and resour¬
ces. Only with the help of the dictionaries, we had to
cudgel our brains and make our way forward. That
begot and strengthened the habit of self-reliance and
honest original work.
As an influence of personal example, hear what
Mr. Dalai says about the Principal of the College,
Mr, Chatfield,
He was the first who impressed you with what a
great professor from Oxford could be like. He would
■call us even on holidays and lecture to us for hours at
a stretch, while we filled our note-books alter note-books
chiefly on Bacon and the Greek philosophers. After
carefully observing him, we learnt that simplicity in
dress, modesty in conduct and contempt of wordliness
were the necessary concomittants of a really educated
man. Merely by his lectures and example, he moulded
16
our methods of study, our characters and our morals-
He infused in us a zeal for hard work and assiduous
reading for which we must be grateful to him.
Telang*s failure to secure the 1st class at the^
B. A. is accounted for by Mr. Dalai in the
following manner.
Instead of Mathematics, Telang took up History,
Political Economy and Logic with a classical language.
History was considered so hard in those days, that all
avoided it, who could. In his subjects he stood first.
The subject was considered difficult because no text
books were proscribed or recommended and long periods
had to bo brought up for the examiaation.
Both Dalai and Desai are unanimous in
pronouncing Mr. Telang's college career to be
uniformly smooth and brilliant. They assert that
the professors had a high opinion of his ability,,
intelligence, industry and good conduct.
Those qualities of the bead and |,heart which in due
course ripened into the sterling worth, which raised Mr.
Telang to the proud position of one of the leaders of
thought and action on this side of India, showed their
early beginnings in the college days.
Mr. Ambalal S. Desai says about the impression
that Telang made upon him in his College days as
follows :—
His I highly intelligent face arrested the attention of
all students who met in the spacious eorridors of that
picturesque bungalow on the Gowalia Tank which was
then occupied by the Ephlinstone College.
During the five years that they were thrown
together Mr. Desai noticed in him the following
remarkable characteristics.
1. His great industry
While some of us chatted away our time, during the
intervals of our lectures, he was generally reading some
17
Eoglish classic, some work of fiction, a drama or a novel.
By thus utilizing his spare moments, be had during the
first two years of our course, read almost all the novels
of Scott, Lytton, Dickens and Thackeray and all the
plays of Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, With all this he
was never behind the class in any subject.
Not that he had not his hours of enjoyment.
During the interval between the examination and
the result, the students whiled away their anxious
hours by flaying at chess or cards in Mr. AmbalaFs
room.
Mr. Telang's industry says Mr. Desai, was not of
the plodding kind like that of Shankar Fandurang Pandit,
nor was it obtrusive. His application was often relieved
by high humorous talk, by jovial remarks and jokes that
relieved the tension of the mind. His manner was
marked by frequent pleasantry. He was never grave or
morose, never cold, distant or peevish. Yet he could
easily turn from the light to the grave. It cost him no-
effort. The transition was quick and natural to him.
The expression of the face changed. It became thought¬
ful.
2. Next to his industry, Mr. Desai notices
his singular powers of concentration and detach¬
ment.
He never complained of any interruption or distur*
bance or never murmured that he lost the thread of his
subject. After the diversion of a game of cards or
chess, it did not cost him any effort to collect his ideas.
This concentration was aided by a placid and cheerful
temper, that was seldom ruffled.
3, Clear and quick power of comprehension
was also among his great natural endowments.
There was no subject which he did not clearly and
easily understand. Although he did not take kindly to-
Mathematics, he could easily master the large quantum
of Mathematics that was compulsory. With those
2
18
horrible diagrams in Drew^s geometrical conies, he was
as familiar as the best of us.
4. His strong and retentive memory is yet
another trait noticed by Mr. Desai. Mr. Desai tells
us of an occasion when they had to recite 40 to
50 verses from a text book of poetry.
Telang and others who relied on their memory, gener¬
ally managed to prepare the task by the time ten or fifteen
others had been up to the process. One day Professor.
Hughlings sent for Mr. Telang at the very beginning and
severely rebuked him for his negligence and asked him to
get up the task. Mr. Shripad Babaji Thakore got up
the work in 7 minutes, Mr. Telang ^n 15 minutes and
the rest afterwards.
Among the moral traits of IMr. Telang which
Mr, Ambalal Desai notices is his freedom from
vulgarity and meanness. " There was no levity of
manner or spirit about him though he indulged in
jokes and pleasantry." He was also, he tells us,
free from vanity and self-conceit. He had
even then a singular command of graceful English
style. His college essays were often praised by
the professors. But this never turned his head.
Another characteiistic was his natural tact. He
had " the knack of hitting off the frailties of
others in a pleasant way which always pleased and
never offended". He was ever a true friend helping
every one who approached him. In matters of
English literature he was a useful referee. He
was always frank and had a warm sympathetic
heart. Mr, Ambalal says " Even after we had
separated, he bore a true regard for most of us
and rendered us substantial assistance without
letting us know that he had done so." In dress and
manners he was exceedingly simple. " Simplicity
19
ivas the pervading tone in those days and to this
Mr. Telang was no exception". One drawback
Mr. Desai notices in those days as contrasted with
these.
We had no games in those days but there was a
gymnasium attached to the college with a Parsee gym¬
nastic teacher. The attendance at the gymnasium was
not compulsory and though some of us availed ourselves
of it, Mr. Telang^s attitude was one of indifference, if
not posi^ve aversion.
Characteristics.
"We have brou^it down the narrative of ^tr.
Telang's life to the end of his college career. We
have quoted amply from the addresses of two of
his contemporaries. Before we pass on to his pro¬
fessional career, it would not be amiss to dwell
for a short space on some of his remarkable char¬
acteristics.
Foremost among them were self-directiveness
-and self-reliance. The paramount impulse to
learning came in his case entirely from within.
There was nothing in Telang's immediate sur¬
roundings calculated at an early age to create an
atmosphere of high thoughts impelling to lofty
endeavour. There were no traditions of learning
established in the family. It was instinct and
nature that supplied the moral motive power,
English education was then a valuable passport to
mateiial prosperity and to a position of eminence,
and perhaps ambition, " that last infirmity of no¬
ble minds" had its share in reinforcing the procli¬
vities of the precocious youth. His again was a
surer aim. To the ideal that he formed early in
life, he stuck with a tenacity, strenuousness and
20
self-possession remarkable for his age. There was^
nothing of drift about his doings. The goal tO'
be attained was deliberately fixed and all hi&
energy was bent upon accomplishing it. *
He was elected for the profession of an Advocate
and he stuck to his resolution inspite of an offei"
of the Headmastership of a High School on a
salary of Rs. 300, made to him by Mr. Peile the
then Director of Public Instruction, Mr. Peile iit
pressing the offer said that any graduate at
Oxford would willingly accept in England, the
salary of Rs. 300 to start with. Mr. Telang
refused. He wanted to follow in the footsteps
of Ranade and Bal Mangesh Wagle who had'
preceded him at the Bar. Mr Jamsetji A. Dalai
remarks on this :—" Perhaps there was afflatus
divinus within him of his future career as an
advocate, orator and leader of men." The same
" deliberate purpose and timely preparation "
characterized Mr. Telang's action throughout
life.
Early in life, again, he had resolved to throw
himself whole-heartedly in the public life of his
country. In his own community, he had the
example of Dr. Bhau Daji. We have carefully
to note in this connection his leanings in the
college.
Mr. Telang, says Mr. Dalai, regularly passed
his leisure hours in our small reading room. In
1866—67 stirring speeches were made in the House of
Commons by Gladstone, and Telang used to read them
carefully. Professor Candy was alao a constant reader
there and when he was in the mood for it, would listen to
our request to read the speeches loudly. He had a
good dclirery and Telang must have unconsciously
21
learnt some turns of elocution from our worthy Professor
of Mathematics."
With the same singleness of aim, he set himself
to acquire precision of thought and expression.
In those days educated men being few and
far between, could be easily picked out. Friend¬
ships were formed and common ideals evolved
naturally out of the exchange of ideas. Mutual
action* and reaction kept them steady in the
routine of public life. The University men form¬
ed a band inspire^ by common aims, a luminous
centie attracting all of common sympathy, because
sympathy could not be expected in the encircling
darkness. Men like Dadabhoy Nowroji, Nowroji
Furdoonji, Sorobji Shapurjee Bengali, Dr. Bhaoo
Dajee, Sir Manguldass Nathubhoy had already
chalked out a path for others to follow and young
aspirants readily followed. The struggle of life
was not so keen ; problems had not become so
complex ; paths had not diverged ; the future was
not overcast with a leaden hue. There was the
zest of youth in the indulgence of its own energe¬
tic life. The men of those times saw glorious
prospects, but they did not discern the fatal bar¬
riers that closed the approach. A youth of bril¬
liant parts like Mr. Telang readily fell into the
way of his predecessors and soon attained a con¬
spicuous position. With the self-knowledge that he
possessed, he set himself unflinchingly to the task
of equipping himself for the responsibility that
he was determined to take upon himself.
Mr. Telang applied himself to the training of
his mind with all the zest and pertinacity of a
young enthusiast. He was always thorough and
22
painstaking. It was a rule with him never to
commit himself to a question before he had best¬
owed laborious thought upon, and matured his
views about, it. Discipline of the mind was what
he prized most. He trained his mind as a machino
for sifting facts and grasping truths, by a well
planned course of study undertaken immediately
after his graduation. He passed his B. A. at the
age of seventeen. While he was reading for his
M.A. degree, he studied for a few months. Geome¬
try and Trigonometry once a^ain, to steady his
mind and acquire the habit of concentration. He
next took up "Chillmgworth*s Religion of the Pro¬
testants" for study, carefully reproducing in his own
language the argument of the book and analysing"
its thought. The next work to be taken up for
{)erusal was Plato's Dialogues in Jowetts' transla¬
tion. He then turned to Strausse's " Criticism of
the Bible " and studied it with the same laborious
process of summarizing and analysis. He next
took up the study of the Bhagwatgita and in order
to catch its spirit, he translated it into English
verse. This effort at translation, strengthened
his mastery of English style. From the Bhagwad-
gita he turned to Shankar Bhashya which he stu¬
died very critically. The study of Shankar Bha¬
shya unsettled his faith in forms and dogma and
gave a rationalistic bent to his mind. All this he
accomplished before he passed his M. A. during
the course of two years. The course of study he
followed trained his mind in habits of analytic
thought. It trained and sharpened his critical
faculty and imparted acuteness and vigour to his
intellect. It taught him how to weigh evidence and
«
23
detect the flaws and irrelevancies in an opponent's
argument. It gave him the power of sifting truth
from conflicting ideas.
After his M. A. examination he pursued the
work of intellectual culture still more strenu¬
ously. He took up the study of Mill's writing,
especially his Logic and Political Economy. He
did not skip them over but studied them with
close attention, with all the thoroughness and
patience of a real student, in order to assimilate
their contents and be penetrated with the spirit
of their teaching. From Mill, to Huxley, Tyndall
and Herbert Spencer was a natural step. These
were the four masters to whom he went to
school in the formative years of his life. Herbert
Spencer influenced him greatly and to the last
days of his life he was a passionate student of his
writings. In addition to these, he was a close
student of every new book in English literature
that was sent out. He read Browning's Bing and
the Book thrice to take in its full meaning.
He read Matthew Arnold's Poetry and Essays in
Criticism. The latter he read and re-read as models
of style.
Telang*8 chaste and simple English, his knack of argu¬
ment, the clearness with which he put his points, both in
his speeches and writings, and the absence of rhetorical
flourishes in them, were mostly due to the influence
which a close study of Mill exercised on his mind.
As a student, Telang's work was both intensive
and extensive. It broadened his vision, strength¬
ened his hold on general principles and freed him
from the narrowness and cramped outlook of a
specialist. It expanded his mind, filled him with
24
the lofty ambition of turning knowledge into power
for good. He moved into the ampler air, that
braœd him. Academic honours may have been
missed. But a first rate intellect fed on liteiuture
and philosophy, ensured him a career of public
usefulness and splendid literary work, such as was
denied to those who merely worked within the
ring fence of prescribed te3ct-books. Telang un¬
derstood University Education in the true signifi¬
cance of the term and therefore when the oppor¬
tunity for work came, he was not found wanting.
The habit of strenuous toil, the* moral and social
discipline, the vision of something to work for and
attain—that was what Telang achieved during the
interval of five years between his graduation and
his entrance into the profession of law. He felt
confident of success, because he had taken pains
to know wherein his strength lay and had
developed himself accordingly. Humility and
reverence grew in him with the growth of years
because having delved deep in the mine of know¬
ledge, he knew how inexhaustible its treasures
were. That took off all self-conceit.
"Whether in quietude or movement, he was
always a man with a purpose, never the loiterer
or lounger, never apathetic, never a sufferer from
that worst malady of the human soul—
cheerlessness and cold." Telang possessed what
Morley has called " innate moral health." With
such a preparation he entered the arena of life
and laurels fell to his share as much in his
profession as in public life. Nature had endowed
him with splendid gifts and Telang proved true
to them by txrrning them to bénéficient use. As
25
-a student again Telang moved in the company of
men like Dr. Bhandarkar and Banade. He thus
■caught their sobriety of tone and their high and
lofty sense of life. Life came to be with him a
high and noble calling and not something to
shuffle through.
Moral puiity was imbibed in the healthy and
strict regimen of his orthodox Hindu home.
Telang ,was a serious minded youth. There was
a strain of healthy conservatism in his tempera¬
ment. Defiance of authority he knew not. He
was tender-hearteti and sensitive, full of the milk
of human kindness. Obedience and reverence
were his first law. What his parents and elders
told him to do, he meekly did. He could not per¬
suade himself to revolt against their decrees.
Imbibing the pure atmosphere of the home, he
remained " spotless pure" throughout his life. From
these softer traits in his character emerged some
defects as a public man. Here we are only con¬
cerned with the mental and moral traits that made
him the man he became. There was, to adapt the
words of Justice Ranade to the context, in Telang,
rather the making of a rose that would blossom
forth in all its fragrance and beauty—fill the air
with its sweet scent than that of a giant oak that
withstands the shock of storm and lightning.
If we turn our attention to the early essays of
Mr. Telang written between the age of 20 & 30
such as the essay, " Was the Ramayana copied from
Homer" or the ^ Date of Shankaracharya ' or
the reply to Dr. Lorringer, ' Was the Gita copied
from the Bible' ? we shall find that they are anti¬
quarian and polemical. They evince pre-eminently
26
the analytical and critical faculty rather than the^
synthetical and constructive. The manner of detect¬
ing flaws in an opponent's argument, the skillful
marshalling of his own evidence, a keen eye for de¬
tecting the relevancy or irrelevancy of a certain
statement with respect to the question under
discussion, added to the luminous exposition
of his own theory—all these elements of dialec¬
tics are clearly evident in them. The style
of these essays is clear, logical and lucid, with¬
out rhetoric, appeal or colour. It is sup¬
pressed and more often understates. The quali¬
ties that distinguish it are mainly forensic.
Occasionally, the pages are interspersed with a
happy quotation from literature or philosophy, in¬
troduced not as a flower but to clinch the argu¬
ment, and to make the whole more luminous. The
motive in all these essays is truth, and truth Te-
lang " searched with sighs." Hence soberness, wis¬
dom, sweet reasonableness, " the pale flame of
strenuous self-possession " rather than heights or
depths. There is incisiveness in the style but nei¬
ther bombast nor sting, nor satire. There is an
amount of self-restraint which grew with years
and gave to his subsequent writings a dignity, a
poise, a tone of wisdom and calm judgment.
Mr. Telang's style is rarely animated. It never
exhorts. It has more of light than heat or motion.
There may not be found in Telang's w^ritings
passages in a lofty key like those that can be^
culled from the writings of Ranade, when the old
man warmed up and in tones of half-admonition
and. half-appeal delivered truths that rose to
the height of visions. Ranade felt truths
27
intiitively and poured forth from the fulness of his.
head and heart. Often, his were the calm tones
of a sage, knowing all, suffering all and striving
to infuse hope and courage into the failing heart of a
waverer. "His was a stately style, which had little
of Anglo-Saxon English, but it arrested attention
by his bold and brilliant generalizations and his
vigorous historical imagination." Telang's forte lay
elsewli^re. Telang's intellect was logical. It was
less synthetical or architectonic. This is not to
say that it was not constructive. But his manner
of handling a subject was to turn it round and
round in all its bearings, to anticipate all possible
objections, and examine the case for the opponent
and then to develop his own thesis along side of
the refutation of his adversary's arguments. There
is an art of examination in all his writings.
Whether we read his replies to the note of Mr. Mala-
baii, or his letters on the Age of Consent contro¬
versy or his minute 6n education, it is in the very
act of answering the objections that he develops
his own stand-point. It is an essentially Socratic
method. And it was strenuously cultivated
from early manhood. It is one of the mental traits
evident in youth. It was to be a' powerful weapon
in his hands in later years, a weapon never used,
be it understood, for unfair triumph, but
exclusively in the service of what he thought and
felt to be true, proper and wise. This mental
habit stood him in good stead at the bar and with
a fund of ever increasing knowledge at the back, it
threw his talents into greater and greater relief and
ensured him the respectful hearing of the Court_
Telang had fully realized that that man alone can
28
play aright the noble role of a teacher who had him¬
self trodden long and reverently the path of true
discipleship. In fact the two were never divorced in
his case from each other. Like a true teacher that he
became, he always continued learning. He taught
efficiently because he .always kept an open mind
ready to assimilate new ideas and welcdme new
light. He had firmly grasped the truth that it is
ideas that rule the world. Large views, balance,
equipoise, lofty ideas alone enable a man to effect
a synthesis between the old and the new. The
spread of correct views was especially necessary in
the transition stage of society. Public opinion, he
felt was a balance of many forces, and every force
must come into play that that opinion may
be rational, enlightened and progressive. To
build up such an opinion was the task to which
he set himself. He poured all his mind, energy
and heart into that one aim. Learning, scholar¬
ship, leadership, the spiritual gi-aoes of chamcfcer—
all these were directed to that end. That is his
glory, that is his claim on posterity. Ours shall
be the shame if we do not utilize the treasures of
noble thought and wise conduct that he has left
behind and do not exert ourselves to see that his
principles triumph both in our own lives and
through us in the life of the nation. They alone
will lead us to moral strength and political
efficiency and through them to material pr osperity
and national greatness. They are grounded in the
immortal truth of the poet, namely, that " Self
knowledge, self reverence and self control alone
lead to sovereign power," be it an individual or
society.
29
This master key, Telang sought to possess during-
the formative years of his life aad no wonder that
his future career shed such a lustre on his life and
enhanced the reputation and prestige of his
country abroad.
PROFESSION.
We have brought down the narrative of Mr,
Telangis life up to the end of his student caieer. We
saw what mental and moral habits became ingrained
in him partly as the result of the severe discipline
to which he subjected himself, and partly as the-
result of the healthy atmosphere in the home and
at college, breathing as it did the spirit of lofty
endeavour and reverence for truth. Let us now
turn to his life, in his profession as a lawyer and a
judge. Though it is as a public man, a citizen, a
sober and sagacious patriot, a worker in the
field of reform—be it political, social or edu¬
cational—a philosopher seeking to impart a true
tone and liberal ideas to all our movements, a
statesman successful in coping with opposing
tendencies and guiding the stream of public
opinion into proper channels that Telang is-
entitled to our gratitude, yet as our task is that
of sketching a life story, this aspect of Mr.
Telang's Hfe cannot be altogether ignored.
The profession of law was not then so over¬
crowded as it is now. Mr. Telang belonged to the
second generation of graduates turned out by the
University. Men of far inferior calibre who took
to that profession then had made their piles.
Imagine then what a golden harvest was ready for
the reaping to one who had far better qualifications'
30
in point of special study and a wider field in
which to exercise his professional talents than
is open to ordinary L. L.Bs.,—not to speak
of his transcendant gifts, and the strenuous
discipline by which he had drilled them for
use. At the same time another fact ought
not to be ignored. Mr. Telang compared with
his European rivals was only an inexperienced
youth. Men like Mr. Latham, Sir Andrew Scoble,
Seargent Atkinson and others then monopolized
the practice at the Bar. TheEuropean element had
a greater preponderance then* than at present
and was also more ably represented. The only
Indian Advocates that had preceded him were Bal
Mangesh Wagle and Ranade. Wagle was the only
practising Hindu Advocate. Ranade had taken up
a Government post, Mehta and Tyabji were
struggling forward in the profession like himself.
In the seventies of the last century Native solici-
tors also were few and far between. For a
struggling young Indian to make his mai-k in
rivalry with a formidable ai^ray of experienced
European barristers, it was even then an uphill
work, howsoever intelligent he may have been.
In six months' time, it became plain to all that
Telang was marked for success. As Sir Raymond
West puts it, in viitue of that sympathetic
faculty which Telang possessed in quite an un¬
usual degree, he almost at once acquired the
" English tone of the bar and moved morally and
■dialectically on a platform absolutely the same as
that of his learned friends" from Europe. His
politeness, his courtsey, his capacity to take pains,
his attractive delivery, his power of close reasoning
31
áind above all his humility won for him the heart of
his colleagues. Sir Raymond West remarks that
there was at times an over-subtility in his argu¬
mentation. At times he was wrong or far less cau¬
tious in choosing his major premises, but it was all
fair play and whenever Telang insisted upon any
point, there was sure to be some solid reason at
the back of it. He would argue tenaciously and
reply with good humour to all the contentions
raised by the court but he never heckled. When¬
ever he saw that his contention stood on a weak
basis, he gave over.* Hence the J udges always gave
him a respectful hearing, considering that they
were safe in his hands. There was no attempt to
mislead the court.
Mr. Telang had not "the brusque overpowering
readiness" of the master of debate and hence
cross examination was not his strong point. But
in the marshalling of facts, in the clear statement
of relevent issues, in the, interpretation of texts
and in logically arguing from them to the conclu¬
sion he was equal to any other competent rival.
" He presented his case with an engaging candour
which won the confidence of the Bench".
Mr. Telang had in him all the qualities ' of
a jurist. His arguments soon drew the attention
of the Court upon him and judges began to com¬
pliment him openly from the Bench. Sir Michael
Westropp, the then Chief Justice, more than
once referred to him in terms of marked approba¬
tion both in the open court and in his judgments.
Tliis naturally caught the attention of the public.
His assiduity, his passion for excellence, his sense
of duty, kept him steadily on the level which he
32
had attained by his brilliance. Many a man is-
apt to dwindle down or be intoxicated with the
fumes of his own praise. But Telang knew more
than anyone else, that it is even harder to keep to
the height once attained than to attain to it.
Vanity was never one of his weaknesses. He was-
self-respecting but never haughty. Triumph did
not turn his head. Eminence was never a giddy
height to him. He fixed his gaze ever higher.
What was yet to be reached, loomed larger before
his eyes. Success at an age when people have to
serve a long apprenticeship in obscure toil and'
under severe drawbacks, did not spoil him. The-
more fortune smiled upon him, the more keenljr
was he awakened to his own responsibility. Thu&
at the age of 39 he attained that far shining
eminence that was a marvel to all. At that age-
when judgeship was offered to him, he accepted
it because he thought it would afford him rest and
seclusion to carry on his- literary pursuits. From
the money point of view it was a distinct loss to him.
But we are anticipating. As has been remarked,.
Telang kept on steadily rising in the profession.
It was however his argument in the famous Man-
kuvarbai case in 1876 that brought him into
prominent notice. The Chief Justice was so much
fascinated by it, that it was for a long time a fa¬
vourite topic of conversation with him. From
that time, his rise was doubly assured and the road
to professional eminence became perfectly smooth.
It was a case of Bündu law and the spirit of
modernization which characterized his later atti¬
tude towards it, that became first evident in
that case.
33
Though Mr. Telang's knowledge in all branches
of law was-thorough going and deep, in Hindu law
he towered head and shoulders above others.
His Sanskrit scholarship helped him there immense¬
ly. He knew the genius of Hindu law as no one
else knew it in his time except perhaps Mr.
Mandlik. He was also deep read in the literature
and philosophy of the Hindoos and knew well
their ancient history from first hand sources. His
critical acumen was of the finest. Hence he in¬
terpreted the text of the Mitakshara and the
Mayukha in theit* proper spirit. Sir Raymond
West says, " It was refreshing sometimes to
hear him arguing for modernization, while on the
other side an English Advocate, to whom the
whole Hindu system must have seemed more
or less grotesque, contended for the most
rigorous construction of some antique rule." Mr.
Telang's sympathies were broad and cultured.
They were enlisted on the side of progress. He
knew as being one of themselves what hardships
some of the Hindu customs inflicted upon the
followers of the Hindu Dharma Shastra. " He
felt very strongly that in Hindu law, as elsewhere,
life implies growth and adaptation." He argued
that if custom had fixed the Hindu law, custom
may as well ameliorate it. He had sanction for
such a modification in the attitude of the authors
of the difierent Smritis. The various commenta¬
ries and glosses with which they tided over the
difficulties of their own times, furnished the
strongest argument for elasticity in the application
and interpretation of the texts. The translations
of those who could not possibly catch the spirit
3
34
of the whole, being themselves alien, were
misleading.
He therefore argued from the original texts
and argued as an authoritative scholar on knotty
points. That was another distinction for him.
Mr. Telang, before he became a distinguished
lawyer, had already acquired reputation as an
antiquarian scholar by his two essays on the
Ramayana and the Bhagwatgita in which he
sought to refute the theories of Weber and
Lorringer, His essays before the Student's
Literary and Scientific Society dh Shankaracharya
and other kindred subjects were in the same
line. That gave him a precedence over his
other colleagues in the matter of Hindu law.
Besides, his was a rational turn of mind. There
was no quibbling or sophistry about his interpret¬
ations. These were always broad-minded. They
never erred on the side of narrowness. They
were for bringing the law into line with modern
needs, and complexities of modern Hindu social
life. He knew where custom pinched the most.
He strove to remove the hindrance, if it could be
logically removed by the interpretation of the text
according to the sanction of the dijfferent original
Nibandha-karas. His judgments on Hindu law
as a judge and his pleadings as a lawyer are an
attempt in that line. The modern liberal tradi¬
tion of interpretation that obtains in the Bombay
High Court was initiated by hinn and is being
maintained by his successors who are as much
imbued with the spirit of true reform as himself.
Mr. Telang worked as a Judge for a little short
of four years, for nearly a year of which he was
35
încapicitated for real work. It is to be regi^etted
that he had not many opportunities during the
space of three years to render very remarkable
services in the evolution of Hindu law as was
■expected. However, the few opportunities he had
he utilized best and helped to clear up the law of
succession to Stridhan property. He also made
elear the distinction between the Mitakshara and
the Mayukhi% in the matter. He laid down intelligi-
"ble and sound canons for finding out the heirs to
Stridhan and these canons have stood the test of
time.
There was a case in his time referred to the
full Bench, wherein the question was whether a
son could claim partition of the ancestral estate
•contrary to the wishes of his father who was
desirous of living with his brothers. Mr. Telang's
judgment on this question differed from that of
his other colleagues. It brings out clearly his
strong points. He was in favour of allowing the
son's claim to prevail. The judgment is a monu¬
ment of Sanskrit scholarship and research and
shows his analytic faculties at their best. It
reveals a sound grasp of original texts though it
ignores the practical side of it and the conservative
instincts of the people. The other judges up-held
the right of the joint family, as approved by
society. The c\istomary law was entirely in
favour of the J oint family system and was for
upholding the partiarchal type of it. The Joint
family system could not stand with the progress
•of time and the development of individualism. So
separate rights in the collateral members were
Tecognized and the recognition was extended
36
to the son who was allowed to claim the partition
from the father against his wishes when separate-
from his ■ brothers and nncles. But society
does not allow the son to disrespect his
father's wishes and force on him separation
when in union with his brothers. His son's
claim to partition in this circumstance was
always disapproved and discoxiraged, Telang
ignored this aspect and tried to push the Shastraic-
rule in favour of the son.
The following sentence from his judgment sums
up his attitude on Hindu law.
It seems to me obviously more safe and logical as it
is more in accordance with the Hindu methods of inter*
pretation in the case of such works as the Mitakshara
to gather together the principles which can be collected
with reasonable certainty and accept whatever conclu*
sions can be logically deduced from those principles^
unless such conclusions are found to be opposed to other
well established principles or of course to any proved
custom. This is tíie only proceedure that in my opinion
can be legitimately adopted unless indeed we are prepar*
ed to hold that the Hindu law is a mere farrago of
arbitrary rules and not a coherent system based on
logical grounds.
Perhaps the ease that made most noise during
the time that he was practising as an advo¬
cate was that of Dadaji vs, Hakhamabai. In
that case Telang was the counsel for Bakhamabai.
In that case he pleaded for the cause of female
emancipation. He asked the court to annihilate
the husband's right to restitution by refusing
to apply the remedy of the English court for en¬
forcing the right in case of refusal by the wife,
on the simple ground that the Hindu law contain¬
ed no remedy for the enforcement of the right
37
by imprisonment of the wife in case of refusal.
Such a decision would, he said, remedy the evils
of early marriage wherein the wife has no choice
iind can be married to anybody who, may after¬
wards turn out to be a wretch. Mr. Telang's atti¬
tude created at the time much consternation in the
Hindu Society, as it was regarded as an incitement
to young women to refuse intercourse with their
husbands i^ they regarded them as unsuitable
after they had attained years of discretion.
We have quoted these two specific instances at
somewhat great length to bring home to the rea¬
ders the spirit of his attitude towards Hindu
law.
Both as a lawyer and a judge he helped a great
deal to formulate aright the canons of Hindu law
and it is to be regretted that a man of such parts
and such special knowledge should have been cut
off too soon to leave behind a monumental work
on the subject. No one was better fitted for the
undertaking both by his Sanskrit- scholarship, his
broad general culture and above all his literary gift
of luminous treatment.
ButTelang as Sir Raymond West has said
never allowed the scholar, the educationist, the
public man to be submerged in the lawyer, and
it is to his public life that we must now turn to
derive instruction and help for our own guidance.
That is what matters most to the lay mind.
SOCIAL REFORM.
Those who live only in past are like fossils,
those who live only for the present are no better
than animals, those alone deserve to be called
3S
men who not forgetting the past, or shirking the
present, work for the future. Man alone of all
creatures never is but always hopes to be. It is in
the spirit of this faith that Mr, Telang went to
work in every sphere of public life that claimed
his attention. To adapt the words of the present
Viceroy used in another connection "his watchful
eyes were fixed on the horizon of the future^
though he was not neglectful of the successes of
the present or unconscious of the triumphs of the
past,"
Further, in regard to Telang's activity in the
field of social reform, a clear distinction has to be
made between what constitutes a philosopher and
a propagandist. To introduce improvement in the
processes and social life of mankind presupposes
two sorts of preliminary activities, the activity of
a propagandist who throws irresitible energy
into the work he undertakes and the activity
of the man of thought who provides a sound
philosophical basis for the action undertaken.
The man who studies the evil to be removed,
notes its proportions, analyses its causes and
surveys and describes the whole situation and
suggests the line of action is as indispensable to
the success of a cause as the practical worker who
supplies the momentum of personal example.
Great changes " says Mr. Hobbouse the author of
Liberalism, " are not caused by ideas alone but they are
not effected without ideas. The passions of men must
be aroused if the frost of custom is to be broken or the
chains of authority burst, but passion itself is blind
and its world is chaotic. To be effective, men must act
together and to act together they must have a common
understanding and a common object. When it comes to
39
be a question of any far reaching change, they must not
only conceive their own immediate ends but must
convert others. They must communicate sympathy and
win over the unconvinced. Upon the whole they must
show that their object is possible, that it is compatible
with existing institutions or at any rate with some work¬
able form of social life. They are driven on by the re¬
quirements of the situation to the elaboration of ideas
and in the end to some sort of social philosophy and the
philosophies that have driving force behind them are
those which arise after this fashion out of the practical
demands of human feelings."
These words cçrrectly describe the work that
Telang and Ranade did in the field of social
reform. As Ranade has put it in his lecture on
Revival and Reform."
It is not the outward form but the inward form, the
thought and the idea which determines the outward form
that has to be changed if real reformation is desired.
Telang himself has expressed it thus in one of
his lectures.
"Tou must rely more on a long patient toilsome
process of diverting the feelings or to express it differ¬
ently, making the soil unfit for the growth of thoseonis-
placed sentiments and misunderstood traditions in the
same way as, according to a great scientific teacher,
science does not attack the weed of superstitions directly
but renders the mental soil unfit for cultivation. You
cannot say, you ought not to say here, Cut this down,
why cumberth it the ground " You must improve here.
You must infuse new vitality and new vigour into the
old growth."
In fact such has been the attitude of all reform¬
ers in our land from the time of Raja Ram Mohan
Roy down to our own day. Their position was
not so much that of the schismatics as that of
progressivists. To men with no ideas or to the
40
slaves of " frost bitten custom," they may seem so.
But to a dispassionate critic, their work must
appeal as a work of progressive adaptation. No one
in the land had greater revei*ence for the past
than these " creative geniuses," as Fraser, the
author of the " Literary History of India " calls
them, " who are destined to shine clear as glowing
sparks sent out in the fiery furnace where the old
and the new were fusing."
It must be at the same time admitted that
Eam Mohun Roy, Keshab Ohunder Sen and
Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar were men cast in
the heroic mould. They had the energy and the
fire of the prophet in them. They could brave
persecution and stand firm like towers of strength
when the world was spinning around them. Such
was not the temperament either of Telang or of
Ranade. The strongest element in them was
thought and not passionate enthusiasm that braves
opposition and overcomes obstacles. They were too
soft-hearted for that. Hence some lapses in the
practical part of their work which cannot and
ought not to be condoned. They could not tear
themselves away at the call of duty from the
affection of the family which wound like tendrils
round their hearts. This feature of Telang's life
is most pathetically brought out in the last
coversation that Mr. Telang had with Mr. John
Adam who worked along with him on the Congress
platform and who wrote an obituary notice of
him for the columns of India.
In that obituary notice Mr. Adams writes as
follows :—
41
In devotion to parents, wife and children he was not
-out-stripped by the pious ^nias himself. Indeed, and
be would have been the last to wish that in writing his
opitaph 1 should slur over aught—it was tliis overpower*
ing sentiment that led to what was, in the opinion of
many, the one discordant trait in his character. No one
saw more clearly than he the need of reform in some of
the social customs of the Hindus, no one had advocated
it more strenuously. It was then a great shock to many
when less than a year ago the once stalwart reformer
consented tq the marriage of his own daughter at a
prematurely early age. Yet for a man of Mr. Telang's
intellectual temperament it needed perhaps more courage
to go back ever so, little upon his own career than to
^refuse the request of a wife sick unto death and who
shall say the premonitions of his own early call. Any
how he was not a man to make a vicarious sacrifice.
Twelve months ago, I saw him in his own house in Bom¬
bay, when suffering acutely from a painful complaint
which, there was every hope, that a comparatively simple
-operation would cure completely. Although 1 knew
that one effect of the disease was to produce a strange
nervous tension that causes the bold to shrink from tlie
simplest remedy, I yet ventured to express my surprise
that he of all men should shrink from so easy an ordeal.
^ Ah" he said, "if it were only myself, the doc^iors could
fio what they like with me to-morrow. But my old father—
adopted father too, remember, and mother have the most
inveterate objection to the slightest use of the knife, to the
shedding of a drop of blood* While they live if I do not
go first I shall never act against their wishes." " You will
probably think me a fool " he added, with his happy
«mile, "but after all I am a Hindu of the old stock and I
•can no more help being that than you can help being a
Scotchman."
" I had long before heard," continued Mr. Adam,
that the same cause had prevented him' from visiting
England ; but 1 had hardly expected that education
would have made such a capitulation to ignorance.
Doubtless the problem is a difficult one in domestic
•ethics but the concrete example teaches us to judge no
42
man harshly in his solution of it, Ánd the lesson is
judge not that ye be not judged,"
The tender vein of sympathy with a failing as-
much characteristic of Telang as of E-anade run¬
ning through this long passage must not blind us
to the almost fatal effect that such lapses are likely
to have on a cause which these leaders of thought
cherished so dearly in their hearts. But, with
this reservation the " double and 'divided exis¬
tence " which they had to lead must soften our
hearts to those who have beerf great intellectual
forces in their time and who 'taught us to see
clearly and aim wisely. If there have been men
among us prepared to take a step forward in
the cause of social reform, is it not as much
due to the inspiration they gathered from the
high precepts of these noble masters, as to their
personal courage and strong fibre ? No doubt the
faith was strong in these, but among the elements
that went to broaden it, deepen it and make it
cultured, the teaching and preaching of the two
whose loss we still mourn, must have contributed
no small share. The influence of mind upon mind
is subtle and unconscious but it is deeply penetrating
or else the company of high thoughts would be
merely an idle phrase. When we look at the lives of
Telang and Ranade this consideration ought not
to be ignored. The vision that they saw, they
communicated to all. If they could not live up
to the light within them, ours is the misfortune
and partly the blame also. The moral and mental
chaos of ages has left behind effects from which
even the best of us are not free.
43
Men like Ram Mohun, Keshab Chunder Sen^.
Karsandas Mulji and Vishnu Parshuram Shastri
Pandit are seated on a loftier pedestal. Compared
with them, so far as action and the force of
personal example are concerned, Telang and
Ranade are lesser luminaries. Yet they are not
the less the beaconlights to guide us. It is
through them and by them that we should count
upon rising to a loftier height. Let us accept
them for what they were. Let us learn their
message and cease to pine for what they were not»
Telang's opinions on social reform may be best
gathered, from his two lectures in Marathi
delivered before the Hindu Union Club—a club
by the way which he founded to bring about har¬
monious relations between the different sections
of the Hindu Community, by affording the-
members of different castes scope for meeting on a
common platform, to exchange views, mix in social
intercourse and to contribute by their combined
efforts to build up the social, moral and literary
life of the future. These lectures are ;—
1. The relative importance of Shastra and
Custom.
2. Compromise in social matters.
There are two other writings which also give us
an insight into his standpoint, his reply to Mr.
Malabari's notes on "Infant Marriage and Enforced
"Widowhood," and his much discussed as also-
much misunderstood lecture delivered before the
Student's Literary and Scientific Society on "Must
social reform precede political reform " ? His
brief address as the President of the Indian
Social Conference as also his lecture on Western
44
Education in the Bombay Presidency delivered be¬
fore the Elphinstonian Social Gathering in 1890, as
well as his T6ply to the letter of an enthusiastic
i-eformer, Mr. Y. N. Banade, afford additional
glimpses and perhaps his ripest as certainly
his most final conclusions on the same topic. The
energetic campaign he carried on in 1891 against
the partizans of orthodoxy in the Age of Consent
Controversy, who had raised the cry of religion in
danger and who wanted to taboo State interfe¬
rence, shows his fervour, insight and his wise and
manly attitude. Earlier in the year 1886, when a
meeting was held in the Madhav Baug under the
presidentship of Mr. Mandlik to send a petition
to the Viceroy protesting strongly against Mr.
Malabari's " meddlesome attitude" in regard to
Hindu Social questions and his urgent demand for
-state interference, Mr. Telang attended the
meeting to propose an amendment to the effect
that the Hindu community was alive to its own
shortcomings and would try to reform Social
Institutions from within and that therefore the
state need not interfere. That amendment was
not allowed. Later on he insisted in the Age of
Consent Bill Controversy that the state had every
right to interfere for the sake of justice and
humanity even if the Shastras were against the
proposed measure. When the opponents raised the
■cry that state interference in social matters was
against the pledge given in the Proclamation of
1858, he took a still higher ground and said that
no person had a right to renounce his duty and
that this distinction between the renunciation of
right and the desertion of duty required to be
45
maintained as between a sovereign and a subject
even more strongly than between an ordinary man
and man. Furthermore, it was the duty of the
sovereign to protect his subjects from unjust
harm.
^^This is in truth the Sovereign's paramount duty—
tho common ground on which the champions of meddle¬
some state interference must join hands with Manu on
the one side and with Humboldt and Herbert Spencer
on the otheiu"
The prime function of the state is to secure life,
Neither Queen Victoria nor any other sovereign
has the power of saying directly or indirectly,
" we shaU not protect our isubjects from unjust
harm."
There was ample evidence to show that unjust harm,
aye, fatal barm was occasionally done to the child wives
by the husband's prematurely claiming to exercise the so
called marital rights upon their person. And therefore
the pledge even if given can not be obligatory in such
cases.
Mr. Telang further showed that the Queen's
declaration was levelled at religious persecution
properly so called and at similar proceedings in
exercise of irresponsible or unrestrained power.
It had manifestly no bearing whatever on
proceedings based on extra spiritual and practical
considerations.
" Can it be said " he asked, " chat the equal and
impartial protection of the law is enjoyed by all, when
a girl can be ravished by her husband with impunity
even before she becomes apta viri ?
**Tbe construction which men like Sir KomeshChandra
Mitter put on the Proclamation must logically end," he
argued, " in their association upon this question with
the Begum of Oude who in her counterblast on the
46
Queen^s Proclamation said among other things, " To eat
pigs and drink wine, to bite greased cartridges and to
mix pig's fat with flour, sweetmeat, to send eiergymeo
into the streets and alleys to preach the Christian reli¬
gion, to multiply English schools and pay people a month¬
ly stipend for learning the English sciences, while the
places of worship of Hindus and Mussalmans are to this
-day entirely neglected. With all this bow can the peo¬
ple believe that religion will not be interfered with ?
"Consequences are the beacons of wise men " savs Pro¬
fessor Huxley. We may ask Sir R.C. Mitter and those who
^argue like him whether they think that good government
and progress of the people may be ever expected to come
if the British Government accepts as authoritative their
-construction of the Queen's Proclamation? That cons¬
truction must logically involve, for instance, the shutting
■up of the Schools and Colleges, where a system of As¬
tronomy is taught that must knock on the head the
absurdities of the Hindu Jyotish which forms an inte¬
gral part of their ritual of marriage. It must also
involve a condemnation of all police regulation of Hindu
and Musulman processions, for is not that clearly an
interference'with religions worship ?" Yet in the flrst
case you dry up absolutely the fountains of all progress,
in the second case, you destroy the Pax Britannica
which is the necessary condition of all progress."
He winds up the discussion on the cry of reli¬
gion in danger with the following warning to the
Government.
If where the claims of humanity are implicated, the
British Government is to hold its hand and put forward
a plea of non possumus^ it will write itself down as un¬
worthy of its best traditions and will announce a
principle of action that if logically carried out will
destroy the possibility of any solid good resulting from
its presence in India,
Mr. Telang's contributions on the "Age of Consent
Controversy" form very stimulating reading. They
reveal his learning, his critical acumen, his power
47
of interpretation, and the dignity, moderation and
fair play with which he carried on the fight for
what he considered the cause of truth, humanity
and justice.
Telang was a great believer in the philosophy of
Herbert Spencer. He quoted with approval most
of Spencer's dictums and pointed out time and
again that the sura total of his attitude on ques¬
tions of social regeneration was embodied in
Spencer's essay on Manners and Fashions. Spen¬
cer was a stern individualist. He left much to
the natural operation of things. He was not a
believer in a hot-house and artificial process of
growth. In his pamphlet on " The Man vs. the
State " he has carried a severe campaign against
excessive state legislation. His views on such
matters emphasize only a certain standpoint.
The rules of action which Spencer laid down may
be true of a highly evolved state of society like
that of England. But in a society where status
plays such an important part, and which has been
arrested in its growth by the accretions of ages, a
push has to be given by some external agency. It
is only under external pressure that the dull and
well-nigh lifeless mass will move, if it moves at
all.
The Gospel of let alonism which Spencer preach¬
ed has become an exploded theory in the land
of its birth. Much less is it applicable here where
voluntary co-operation, individual initiative, pub¬
lic spirit, respect for the rights of man, a due
sense of civic duties and responsibilities are so
much at a discount. The family, the community,
the village, the town and the country move here
48
in separate grooves without being interlinked
in one chain of corporate life. Until a steady
gi'owth of general education introduces a solvent
in these hardened moulds, let-alonism and least
resistance are bound to be mischievously operative
on their bad side only.
That Mr. Telang was won over to the side of
state legislation in social matters is clearly shown
by his attitude in the Age of Consent Controversy,
even as his intellectual master, Herbert Spencer
gave his reluctant sanction to Mr. Malabari's pro¬
posal as we read in Mr. Karkaria's book. Telang
felt the hopelessness of the reformer's efforts unless
he was backed up by the state. "The hberty of man
consisted in being forced to find out the right
path and to walk thereon."
Mr. Telang was the greatest champion of the
woman's cause. He looked forward to female
education as the most effective agency for
bringing about a desirable change in social
matters. In his note to Mr. Malabari he
widtes :—" It is to the spread of education
of our girls, not to the limitation of University
honours, or official loaves and fishes to certain
classes of our boys that I am inclined to look for
the remedies of existing evils. That indicates my
view as regards social reforms generally." Our
slaves are our masters in the house. Try to
educate them, give them light and light in the
possession of woman will turn into lightning,
and all pernicious traditions, degrading customs,
evil influences in the household that prevent
the growth of a healthy atmosphere will fall
of a heap into ashes at the touch of that spark.
49
He was certainly not for anglicising the Indian
household but he wanted to turn it into neat,
orderly, and an enlightened home, enamoured of
purity and holiness where the personality of the
woman and the man was not stunted by rigid and
iiTational restrictions and where the current of
spiritual energy flowed freely as the result of the
contact of mind with mind and heart with heart
in free fellowship and mutual sympathy and love.
Education will teach woman her duties better. A
free participation in the aspirations and ideals of
the husband woulS forge a bond firmer than mere
unconscious submission. Woman is at the present
day a meek and lowly thing if not quite a chattel.
Baise her and you raise the manhood of the
nation. That was the way he argued. " It would
be rash," he said on one occasion " to deny her
the light of Western culture which had borne so
much good in your case. It would not do to confine
her merely to the reading of the Puranas. Let
her read them by all means but with trained intel¬
ligence, with a discerning eye and not mechanically
' as she is wont to do at present. Let home influen¬
ces be the purest. Give hei- perfect freedom to exer¬
cise her reason and develop her personality. Do not
stultify her, else you stultify yourself. Baise the
age limit of marriage. That will ensure full
physical growth and give them time to learn more.
The husband and wife grown up, will understand
each other better. There will be mutual reverence
and love, and posterity will benefit by it. That
was the standpoint he took with regards to
women's rights and duties. Female education he
regarded as the cruxe of the whole question of
4
50
social reform. Towards widow remarriage, his
attitude was of the heartiest sympathy. He be¬
lieved that as the age limit in the marriage of
girls would rise, the question of widow remarriage
would press less and less. He was for meeting
the orthodox half way in this matter. He first
insisted on the marriage of virgin widows, press¬
ing on all the while for the realisation of the whole
programme. He found in the Shastras if not a
direct yet an indirect sanction for widow remarri¬
age and in the Epics, a full sanction in the episo¬
des like that of Damayanti which he has quoted in
one of his Marathi lectures. He admitted that it
was a lower ideal, yet taking into consideration the
average human l^ing with all the helplessness,
■economic pressure and temptation to which such a
human being is exposed, that ideal must find its
full support from the society. The widow who
i-emarries if not supported, should at least come
under no social bar. A remarried widow was as
honourable a woman as any other if there was no
fault to find with her in matters of social discipline
that is, if she lived a pure, holy and quiet life of a
true householder.
Mass education and the elevation of the depress¬
ed classes had not been, strictly speaking, the
questions of the day in his time. But Telang
enjoined it as a sacred duty devolving
upon the educated men to diffuse the light that
they had received among their less fortunate
brethren. He believed in these matters in the
theory of downward filtration. The agency for
the diffusion of knowledge among the masses
must be the men of higher education. He was
51
therefore against starving higher education in
favour of the Primary and the Secondary. He
beheved that as education would be diifused among
the lower classes, their level was bound to rise
and his general temperament was certainly against
keeping them down by narrow minded, cruel and
•unjust restrictions.
In the matter of caste, Telang was for making
their bonds elastic. He was only for the 4 castes
advocated in the Gita, It was often his
exhortation to overcome caste-pi*ejudices and con¬
quer hatred. " E)rive away mutual jealousies" he
said, "if you are not able to sink caste-distinctions."
So long as there are differences in social usage
among different castes it would be pernicious to
forcibly efface caste distinctions. " A vegetarian
Brahmin " he said on one occasion, cannot live
happily with a flesh-eating Shudra girl apart from
many other degrading customs that obtain among
the latter class. Level up the whole society by
infusing ideas of good, right and clean living,
liberalize men's understanding, broaden their
outlook, bring home to them the importance of
unity in the face of the world—conflict, and
gradually as education advances, as men see more
of the world, as they read and study aright the
signs of the times, caste barriers will break down
and vanish away. That was, briefly told, his
attitude towards the Institution of caste. Telang
was if not against at least out of sympathy with
sectional societies. He suggested however a
compromise in the matter in one of his lectures.
He said that if they were altogether indispensable
for the promotion of education and reform within.
52
the community, their managing board should be
composed of enlightened men irrespective of
any caste. He cites as an instance the Marathi
Education Society founded in his time which had
on its managing committee men like Nulkar and
Ranade. " Such a course alone would prevent it,"^
he said, " from being an obstacle in the way of
future amalgamation ior national education."
Telang was above all things against the spread
of moral and social anarchy. He was for orderly
progress. Order and progress, he said, must go
hand in hand. In more than one lecture he has
warned people against the catastrophe of the
French Revolution which was brought on on the
one hand by the inveterate obstinacy of the upper
classes to introduce change, and on the other by the
proud precipitance of the soul that characterized
the illumination of the period.
The whole social fabric collapsed because of the
tension on both the sides. He exhorted the
orthodox most solemnly to try to avert a crisis
and the reformers to be wary and circumspect.
He proposed to rear up new institutions on the
foundations of the old. He quotes with approval
the method of Englishmen in 1688. His aim was
to bring about a synthesis and a harmony out of
the blending of the old and the new. " The best,
the most cultured, the acute, and the learned from
both the parties should join hands," he said, "to
come to a definite solution by free and unbiassed *
discussion and settle a line of action for
the less gifted to follow." That was the
method of the Smritikars who were by no means
the immovables that they are proclaimed to be.
53
In tîie absence of light from the direct seers, the
ruhiSj let us follow the path of the great and the
high souled according to the precept of Yudhishtira,
That was the solemn charge he gave to his
people. He advocated the foundation of the
»conference, an idea subsequently realized by
Justice Ranade. The Conference that he wanted
was of the best men from both the camps but the
orthodox fought shy of it.
Mr. Telang's revei*ence for the past was born of
■deep and first-hqnd knowledge. He was not an
obscurantist. He knew the merits and the
•strength of the ancient people of Bharatkhanda,
but he knew full well how their descendants had
#
^myed from the path into the wilderness of ri-
iîualism, «ceremonial, superstition and rigid dogma,
under the domination of caste, the separative
tendency was growing faster. The glorious tradi-
ttions of the Vedanta and the Upanishads evoked
only a Tip-sympathy. They were utilized only to
score off a dialetic victory over the foreigner.
Their practieal spirit and application to life had
long ceased. We had erected other idols at whose
shrines we worshipped. We had absorbed every
foolish fetish into our corporate life and hugged
it when lapse of time made us forget its origin,
as the true child of the soil. We would keep
this grotesqiue edifice, so fantastic and inconsistent
in parts venerable from human touch. The Shaiva,
1ihe Vaishnava and the Shakta, each regarded his
own creed as the creed of the past and set up for
it a claim as the heirloom from the Rishis. This
divided the Hindu Social fabric into sects, caste
within caste, ring within ring and introduced dis-
54
integration which left it too efíete to oflfer resistance
to the new forces. Telang saw wherein the mischief
lay. He strove hard to spread right notions by
speeches, writings and essays. He enjoined upon
the educated men the need of thinking out every
problem for themselves, of tracing it to its very
source and of forming deliberate opinions, so that
when time for action comes they may not be
swayed hither and thither by the shifting gusts
of opinion. Thought, deep, mature and patient
was the duty of the educated. Thought he
regarded as one of the forces that contributed to
right action. He typified it in his own life and he
wanted others to share in the delight and blessing
of the free exercise of thought on all matters,
Hindu customs and ways of living are imder-
going a pulversing process. You cannot,, because
of the sweeping tide of the times, stick to the old,
"W'^ill you then drift ? Are you not to drill your
forces of thought, feeling and acticm, to be consci¬
ous and wise agents in the woi^king out of the har¬
mony. "We are" he said, " in a transition stage."
The old cannot have the same hold upon us. The
new is knocking at the door. Adjustment has to
be brought about. Play your pait manfully in the
process. Let knowledge,wisdom and purpose grow
mature among us. It is only what we win by effort-
that becomes really ovu*s. All else is an encumb¬
rance. He painfully mentions in his almost last
address that the educated classes were not alive to
their duties. They chose to drift. One defect he
noticed among them was that they did not perse-
vere enough. The boon of intellectual emancipa¬
tion could not be fully enjoyed unless the moral
55
qualities of the rulers were studied and cultivated,
" The undermining influences of Western educa¬
tion," he said, " were incidental results which must
accompany great changes that had taken place in
the country." If they were rushing on with the
speed of a torrent, it was yet a better state of
things than mere stagnancy.
In the matter of reform his motto was hasten
slowly. Ii>his note to Mr. Malabari he said,
We must work as ardently as if our efforts were to be
crowned with success at once. But on the other hand,
we must be contentée take the fruits as they come in the
fulness of time and not be despondent or impatient if the
customs which have stood for centuries do not at once
fall of a heap at the blast of our trumpet.
In his last address he said, "it was the duty of
every one to understand and appreciate the past
and selecting all that was possible from it, apply
it to the altered circumstance of to-day. All this
was to be done with moderation, wisdom and
right direction." His message may be sumed up
in the words of Justice Ranade :—
The true reformer has not to write upon a clean
slate. His work is more often to complete the half
written sentence. We cannot break with the past alto¬
gether. For it is a rich inheritance and we have no
reason to be ashamed of it. But while respecting the
past, we must ever seek to correct the parasitical
growths that have encrusted it.
LITERARY WORK,
We are now turning to perhaps the most inward
phase of Mr. Telang's life, the work which he
cherished most and to which he would fain have
devoted all his energies if circumstances had so
shaped his career. In India, men of superior
56
talents cannot without great loss to the country
adopt the life of the literary recluse. Our condition
in that respect somewhat resembles that of France
at the time of Diderot, Voltair and Bousseau.
liiterary work of an abiding character has to be
postponed before the more imperative need of
what Mr, Gokhale has called " the liberation of
the Indian mind from the thraldom of old world
ideas and the assimilation of all that is highest
and best in the life, thought and character of the
West". Hence it is that the actual literary output
of our countrymen falls so short bf expectetion.
Telang's literary work may be divided under
three heads 1. The books he translated or annota¬
ted. 2. The various essays on antiquarian topics
contributed either to the Journal of the Bombay
Branch of the Boyal Asiatic Society or to the
Indian Antiquary. And 3. his miscellaneous
essays on varied topics read either befoi*e the
Student's Literary and Scientific Society, of
which he w^s for many years the Secretary, or
before the Hindu Union Club. The purpose of
the last was to give an incentive and stimulus
to correct thinking on the topics of the day.
Telang believed in what may be termed the
import and export of knowledge. " His own wide
knowledge was continually transmuted into virtue
an active desire and power to lead others into the
path of enlightenment and reason, to support
them until they should become self-supporting
and in their turn leaders of men, helpers and
friends of mankind". - To the natural wealth of
his intellectual gifts, he was able to add an
invaluable store of European ideas, knowledge and
57
'principles. The light thus vouchsafed he always
utilized " not merely to stare on" as he puts it in
one of his addresses but " to discover onward
things more remote from our knowledge." The
•essays classed under the third head are efforts to
discover "onward things." Such was the very 1st
•essay he read before the Students* Literary and
^Scientific Society in 1869 on " Our Roads," in
which he strove to define the aim and purpose
before our educated men in the light of the con¬
flict between the old and the new. Before the
isame Society he read in 1875 an essay on
■" Intellect and its Glory," in 1876, an essay on
the " Study of History," in 1878 an essay on the
" Ancient People of Bharatkhanda," in 1883 an
•essay on " Calcutta and its people," The subjects
•chosen for discourse show what was the principle
governing his intellectual activities. It wasbefoie
the same society that he read his much discussed
•essay on " Should Social reform precede political
reform "? It was an answer to Sir Auckland
Colvin who advised Indians like the typical Anglo-
Indian of the time, to first set their house in
order before they presumed to advise the rulers
on their duties. Telang set himself to rebut to
the two positions of the objector. That slavery at
home is incompatible with political liberty and 2.
that a nation socially low cannot be politically
great. As regards the 1st objection he says that,
so far as we have slavery and tyranny in the ease, we
^ave only a case of the Tyranny of the past, the present
being bound in slavery to it.
The phrase household slavery as used in the
•controversy is an entire misnomer. It is these so called
58
slaves within the household who form our great
difficulty.
He concludes this part of the argument thus.
The position in fact is this. Here we have what
may, for convenience, be treated as two spheres of
reforming activities. There is slavery in tlie one sphere,
and there is slavery in the other and we are endeavouring
to shake off the slavery in the one sphere as well as in
the other.
%
In answer to the second objection he adduces the
evidence of political progress in the 17 th century
England from Hallam. For the same period on
its social side he quotes from the famous 4th
chapter of Macaulay's History of England to show
how England was socially low in the matter of
female education, also in the matter of the house¬
hold slavery so much made of in the case of
India. So far the destructive criticism. The
i*est of the paper is devoted to developing the
theory of reform along the line of least resistance.
Secure first the reforms which you can secure with
the least difficulty and then turn your energies in the
direction of these reforms where more difficulty has to be
encountered. You will thus obtain all that vigour which
the spirit of reform derives from success and thus carry
out the whole work of progress with greater promptitude
than if you go to work the other way.
This doctrine when applied to different items of
any reform propaganda is sound enough. Its
application as to the choice between political or
social reform is doubtful. Neither the orthodox
party, nor the bureaucrat is amenable to logic
alone. Both are equally jealous in maintaining
their status quo. Reform all along the line
59
is therefore a safer and sounder doctrine. There is-
an interdépendance between social, political and
economic activity. All must be pushe.d with an
equal energy, strenuousness and patience.
As Mr. Gokhale has said, no striking progress^
in any particular field is to be looked for, unless
there be room for the free movement of the ener¬
gies of the people in all fields". Telang himself"
subsequentíy leaned to the same view. In his
address before the Social Conference he said :—
The need for improvement in political matters is not
greater than in social and the principles of movement in
both are in substance indentical whatever differences-
there may be in their applications.
As a principle of indi\ddual conduct, the doc¬
trine is pernicious in a conservative country like
India. "Human nature full and fond of the-
past, at least in India, is so inert and supine that
there is no danger of any reformer running head¬
long and revolutionizing society." Such a doctrine-
in India is bound to " wreck the cause and prove-
a plea for indolence and in-action." Every one,,
lover of repose as man is, will say with Erasmus
" I am a poor actor, I prefer to be a spectator of
the play". "We have Mr. Chandavarkar's testi¬
mony that Telang subsequently told him that ho-
never meant to enunciate the Doctrine of Least
Eesistance as a principle of individual action. He-
read two papers in Marathi before the Hindus
Union Club, one in 1886 called " The relative
importance of Shastra and Custom" and-1
the other in 1889 on "Compromise in SociaH
Matters," which was an application to Hindu >
Social reform of some of the principles enuni-
60
-ciated in John Morley's gi-eat work. These
i;wo papers embody what may be called Telang's
method of social reform. In the first Telang
quotes texts from the different Smritis, some in
favour of custom and others in favour of the
Shastras and next turns to the Epics to note
thei-ein the conduct of the high-souled, like
Dronaand others, to show that they introduced
changes in the canons of the Shastra to suit the
-exigencies of the hour. Therefrom Telang deduces
the proposition that there is a precedent in our
past history to introduce change in our mannera
-and customs and in the rulings of the Shastras
to suit time, place and circumstance. If we do not
restore, he says, to our Smritis the life and elasti-
'city, which they possessed in the palmiest days of
Hindu Society, our religion will cease to be a
living force, a state of things which is undesirable
- as, it is bound to lead to moral chaos.
In the second lecture he examines the applica¬
tion of the principles of compromise to (1) thought,
(2) speech and (3) action. In the 1st he advocates
absolute freedom. He warns his people against the
tendency of the human mind to find out argu¬
ments in justification of conduct rather than mould
conduct, according to convictions. He depreca¬
tes such a course as altogether unworthy of a
human being and in the end ruinous both to
himself and to the society of which he forms an
integral part. Right thought will impail; serious¬
ness to our conduct and will enable us to avoid
the prevailing attitude of the people in our midst
which is " to compound for the sins we are incli¬
ned to, by damning those you have no mind to.'*
61
In the freedom of thought, we should approach
the past with an unprejudiced eye with reverence
and with a true desire to know the truth. We
should also have a clear and coherent knowledge of
the fundamental principles of social, political and
religious growth. These spheres of activities
are interdependent and the knowledge of the laws
of social growth wdll help us with practical insight
into all of them. This knowledge is to be
acquired by the close and comparative study of
the history of different nations in all their aspects.
Telang enjoined it as a duty upon every educated
man to undertake such a study. In the expres¬
sion of opinion, we have to wait for an opportune
moment in order that it may tell. Speech
divorced from action is surely to be deprecated.
But there is also another side to it. Telang
expresses it in the words of Cardinal Newman.
It is not the advice divorced from action, but
the advice associated with hypocricy that should
come in for a severe condemnation. It is
enough if a man tries hard to live up to the
opinions expressed. Telang quotes here the
opinion of George Eliot, Criticism and discussion
are j;he greatest instruments of social improve¬
ment." To lay down the rule that none but those
who can live up to their opinions shall express
them, is to do society the utmost harm.
The expression of opinion is in itself one of the
causes that contribute to its realization. In the
expression of opinion, Telang would only make
an exception in the case of parents. In our
behaviour to our parents we should be silent
if our opinions differ from theirs. We are
62
towever to take care not to seem what we are not.
In all other cases there should be free expression
taking care to watch the most favourable time,
place and opportunity for their expression. In
the matter of conduct there is a rational and an
irrational method of compromise. Telang here
-quotes Morley.
It is legitimate compromise to say, I do not expect
you to execute this improvement or surrender that
prejudice in my time. But at any rate, it shall not be
my fault if the improvement remains unknovtn or
rejected. There shall be one man at least who has
surrendered the prejudice and who does not hide that
fact. It is illegitimate compromise to say " 1 cannot
persuade you to accept my truth : therefore £ will
pretend to accept your falsehood.
He then applies this canon to various items of
social refoi-m such as widow remarriage, foreign
travel, the abolition of caste, infant marriage etc.
In the sphere of action, we must also beware that
small reforms are often the enemy of great ones.
No doubt we cannot accomplish the whole pro¬
gramme all of a sudden, but the little that we get
must be a real stepping ^tone to the greater we
ultimately wish to obtain. He concludes the
essay with an exhortation to depend for progress
upon the strength of individual action, as in these
days of democracy it is the individual not the
society that constitutes the great determinant
of progress.
We now turn to the 2nd head of Telang's
literary work, his labours in the advancement of
Sanskrit scholarship and original research. Dr.
Bhandarkar has laid down three qualifications for
63
the man who would fruitfully devote himself to
this field of enquiry.
One who enters into that field is I'equired to be a
man of exceptional intelligence, a man with a clear head
and with very acute and keen reasoning powers. The next
requisite and a very essential requisite is that there
must be curiosity in him ; and the third requisite is
there must be a freedom from bias and thorough
impartiality in forming an opinion on any question
that comes forward«
All these qualities were found in combination
in Mr. Telang and he could therefore leave behind
him a legacy of materials " enough to make the
society distinguished for generations to come."
Telang was endowed by nature with a transcendent
intellect, which he had fm*ther strengthened and
■disciplined by the studies to which he had subject¬
ed it in the early years of his life. Speaking of
Mr. Telang's work as an oriental scholar, Justice
Chandavarkar said :—
Trained in the school of Mill, Huxley, Spencer and
Strauss and disciplined in the severe logic and close
dialectics of Shri Shankaracharya, Telang had more of
the critical than the constructive talent and was at his
best when he strove to detect tha flaws and fallacies in
opinions advanced and theories contributed by scholars.
He approached all these questions on antiquarian sub¬
jects with a complete freedom from bias or preconceived
theories and rigidly held with Emerson that a scholar at
all events must take into himself "all the ability of the
time, the contributions of the past, all the hopes of the
future'*. There was no point however small, which he
did not take into account and to which he did not
strive to do justice, in determining some knotty point
in antiquarian research.
We cannot do more than barely chronicle the
many papers he contributed to the Bombay
64
Bmnch of the Royal Asiatic Society's Journal and*
to the Indian Antiquary. It was after finishing
his studies and qualifying for the profession^
that he turned his attention to " antiquarian
work and the work of making researches into the
history of India, and the development of Indian
thought". It was in 1872 that the Indian Anti¬
quary was started by Dr. Burgess. Its first volume
contained two essays, by Telang, one is on the
'Dateof Nyayakusumanjali' and another is a short
note pointing out "that however right Dr.
Rajendralal Mitra might be in Êolding that there
was a time in historic memory, when the ances¬
tors of the Hindoos ate beef freely that time came
to an end sometime before Christ". In the same
volume appeared Rev; Boyd's translation of
Weber's paper in which the latter had set him¬
self to shaking the tradition of the extreme anti¬
quity of the Ramayana. Weber sought to show
that " the great Hindu Epic really dates from the
third or the fourth century A. D. and that it
contains clear internal evidence of an acqaintanee
with the Homeric Saga-cycle". Telang answered
the arguments of Weber in an essay called " Was
the Ramayana copied from Homer " ? He was not
a pseudo patriot who thought that shaking the
antiquity of the Ramayana was belittling to
national glor}'. He was induced to reply to the
contentions of Dr. Weber because be thought first
and foremost that they were based on an insuffi¬
cient and one sided evidence. Telang was a fair
critic. He was a disciple of Mill in that respect.
He knew how to weigh evidence. He used to
regret that " among us there was a disposition to
65
accept {much as a proof which hardly rested on
any good basis and to consider something as
history merely because people believed it to be
history. Telang from the beginning trained his
mind to get rid of this popular cant. Before
writing his well known paper in answer to Prof.
Weber he went through a coui-se of study in
Biblical criticism and read some works on the
" Proofs «of Bttstorical criticism." Mr. Weber
based his argument on the ground that the source
of Ramayana was to be found in a Buddhistic
myth borrowed from Homer, Telang meets the
argument by saying that
the Buddbiatic story may just as likely have been
borrowed from the Ramayana as have been the origin of
it. Secondly he says that concidences, so far as they
are coincidences are but slight and probably casual. In
the Folklore of Kortbern India there was for the
Brahminical and for the Buddhist author an ample store
to draw upon. It was in the highest degree improbable
that a Buddhist should be adopted as a Brahmanical
hero. On the other hand the Buddhists parting from
Brahmanism would still carry with them many of the
earlier myths and tradition of their race, but the
orthodox already amply supplied with legendary
materials would be slow indeed to find in a Buddhist
hero, a subject for adoration and adoption as their own.
That there was a Homeric poem in Sanskrit might
be true, the Ramayana would in a manner justify the
assertion, but that there was an Indian translation of
Homer as stated by Dio Chrysostom and others appears
wholly erroneous.
This was in substance Telang*s second argument.
The whole mental and moral atmçsphere in
which the Ramayana is steeped is so funda¬
mentally different from that of the Homeric
5
66
poems that no substantial inñuence of the latter
can be traced in the Indian Epic."
The geographical and astronomical references and
the literary notices of the poem on which Dr. Weber
relied for the late production are handed by Telang with
fairness and ability. Telang adds several affirmative
indications which support his own view that the com¬
position of the Ramayana must be referred to a period,
several centuries before the Christian era and before the
date assigned as probable by Weber. The criticisms of
the young Hindu scholar have been confirmed by subse¬
quent investigations both in India and Europe.
The publication of this in a pamphlet form gave
Telang a place of acknowledged prominence
amongst Sanskrit scholars. The essay was subse¬
quently published in the pamphlet form and
was highly praised by the academy.
The essay refuting the contentions of Dr.
Weber was read in 1873. Early in 1870 he had
read a paper before the Students' Literary and
Scientific Society on the life of Shankaiucharya.
The same year he contributed a criticism on
Dr. Kielhom's Sanskrit Grammar to the columns
of the Native Opinion, In 1871 he had read an
essay before the Students* Society on Mukti-
kopanishad. The Essay on Ramayana has ali-eady
been noted. The same year he wi'ote an essay on
the date of Shri Harsha for the Indian Antiquary.
In 1874 he read a paper before the Students'
Literary Society contesting the theory of Lorringer
as regards the Bhagwatgita, that it was
copied from the Bible. The Essay was afterwards
embodied as an introduction to the metrical trans¬
lation of the " Divine Lay" published in 1875.
67
In the same year he contributed four essays to
the Indian Antiquary ( 1 ) on the drama of Bana called
Parvati parinaya : (2) on Kalidas, Shi iharsha and
•Chand ; (3) The Ramayana older than Patanjal :
(4) Note on the Ramayana. The same year he
read two learned papers before the Bombay
Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, ( 1 ) on the
Ohalukya copper plates (2) the Date of Madhusu-
dhan Saraswati, the author of Gita Gudhartha
Dipika. In this paper he combated the views of
Lassen and Buçnouf that Madhusudhan lived in
the XVI century A. C. Telang came to the
conclusion that he flourished in the reign of
Aurangazeb either at the end of the fifteenth or
the beginning of the sixteenth century.
In 1876 he wrote a note in the Indian Anti¬
quary on Anandgiri's Shankarvijaya and read an
essay on Three Copper-Plates of the Kudamba
Dynasty before the Bombay Branch of Royal
Asiatic Society. In 1880 he wrote a note
on the useful Marathi Serial, the Kavyetihas
Sangraba, in the Indicm Aniiqumy^ recom¬
mending it to public attention as the work
devoted to the publication of original sources of
Maratha History. The same year he wrote an
essay on the Silhar Copper-plate for the same
monthly. In 1881, he contributed a review of
Mandlik's Hindu law to the pages of Indian
Antiquary, About Mandlik's Hindu law and
Telang's review on it Sir Raymond West writes
as follows ;—
Mandlik's Hindu law has added mateiially to our
means of forming a true comprehension of the Hindu
law as a living system, but it rests on an insufficient
68
colloction of the manuscripts of the Mayukhs, It
presents defects of scholarship and doubtful speculations
which invite criticism. Telang's observations may be
deemed an almost necessary pendant to the v^ork, for the
purpose of the lawyer who wishes to stand on a sure
ground*
In 1884 he read another essay on the Date of
Shankaracharya before the Students' Literary and
Scientific Society. He also read an essay on
Purnavarma and Shankaracharya and another
on the Gleanings from the Sharia Bhashya of
Shankaracharya befoie the Bombay Branch of the
Royal Asiatic Society. Of his many papers on
Shankaracharya it is said as follows :—
The most important of his contributions were
those devoted to determining the age of Shri
Shankaracharya, his opinion being that he flourished
in the reign of the Buddhistic King Purnavarma
who is mentioned by Hiuen-thsang as having been the
ruler of west Magadha. In Telang's opinion Purnavar¬
ma must have reigned at the latest in about 590 A.D. In
1885 he read before the Bombay Branch of the Royal
Asiatic Society an essay on the Date of Badarayana
the author of Bhramah sutras. He pointed out
that these Bramahsutras dated back to a remoter
age than 400 or 500A. D, assigned by Weber. This
closes the chronicling of his contributions to
Oriental Researeh. It is said about them that they
reveal his vigorous style and fertile imagina¬
tion," Mr. Telang was unequalled among his country¬
men as an exponent of the treasures to be found in the
*'rich mine of oriental literature". Mr. Telang's opinion
about the fixing of the chronology of Sanskrit writers is
expressed thus. He says in one place, It is almost
impossible to accept any one line of reasoning or any
single group of facts as conclusive about the precise date
of any book in Sanskrit literature, at all events in the
present state of Sanskrit Chronology when it is almost
literelly true that as an American Sanskritist puts it»
69
Indian literary dates are for the most part only so many
pins set up to be bowled down again."
We have so far dealt with Telang's essays on
Social reform and other kindred topics and with
his eassys on antiquarian research. We now turn
to the hooks that he annotated or translated. He
■edited two Sanskrit works for the Bombay
SanskritSeries,(l)Bhartrahari's Niti and Vairagya
Shataka* (2) The Mudrarakshasa of Veshakhadáta.
His metrical translation of the Bhagwatgita to
which is prefixed, his reply to Dr. Lorringer and
his prose translation of the same work for Max-
Muller's Sacred Books of the East Series complete
his work in the field of Sanskrit literature. His
essay onFree Trade and Protection written in
1877 for the Sasoon Mechanics Institute shows
his thorough assimilation of the literature of
Economics available in his day and his power of
applying economic principles to Indian conditions.
Telang like his master and friend Kanade advoca¬
ted Protection and made a strong plea against
treating economic principles as absolute Mathe¬
matical laws. The spirit of judicious enquiiy
dominates the whole essay. The concluding senten¬
ces of this essay are characteristic of the spirit
he brought to bear upon the subject.
We have declined to treat the cry against protection
B8 altogether reasonable, we have declined to use it as
concluding enquiry. But using the principle underlying
3t as a " guide," we have endeavoured to show, that the
actual facts and circumstances which meet us in this
country are not proper particulars " to be covered
under the principle. We have shown that in India,
Pretection will not lead to the evils which it has led to,
in other countries. We have shown that here it will
70
not foreclose as is does elsewhere—any benefits likely to
accrue to us but for its operation. Further-more we
have shown reasons for holding that it will prove of
positive benefit to us. Therefore we maintain that both
on the true principles of economic science and on
principles higher than any which economic science has
to deal with, the system of Protectionism is one which
ought to receive a fair trial in India.
Earlier he says, after quoting Cliffe Leslie " that
the wealth of countries is in proportion not to
their natural resources, but to the liberty for their
use," that it is a mockery and a delusion to speak
of liberty, when the native endeavouring to
develop the resources of Iiis country, can be under¬
sold and commercially ruined by the unlimited
competition of the foreigner. We may just as
well speak of the prisoner surrounded by a deep
and wide moat which he cannot cross over as enjoy¬
ing liberty, because for-sooth he has no fetters
on his person. We must have more real liberty
than unlimited competition can give us. And we
.must also be artificially nourished and protected
till we are able to stand with our own strength ;
then throw the doors open for the bracing air of
free trade.
Another essay of his deals with the social and
religious aspects of the history of the Marathas as
gathered from the examination of original docu¬
ments. It was delivered as a lecture before the
Deccan College in 1892. "Mr. Telang's paper
represents" * writes Justice Kanade in his preface
to the Rise of the Maratha Power, "the true
spirit in which Native historians should treat the
past history of their country". It has also a
melancholy interest attached to it. It was a sort
71
of prelude to the more comprehensive work on
the History th'è Marathas which he^ had under¬
taken to write for the Longmans.* The veiled
purpose of the essay seems to show to the inveter¬
ate opponents of social reform, that some of the
social changes which they style as daring innova¬
tions . calculated to revolutionize society, were
actually contemplated and in some cases enforced
by the slate on its own initiative and the seed of
degeneration was sown really in those times, the
growth of which the rulers to a certain extent
tried to check. It was not brought in by the
British nor its growth encouraged by the so
called go-ahead imitators of the "West,—the social
reformers.
Telang translated two books in Marathi, (1)
Chalmer's Local Self Government and (2) Lessing's
*Nathan the Wise.' In the preface to the 1st book
he explains the reasons that induced him to
undertake the work. Lord Kipon's Government
had gi-anted in 1884 the boon of local self govern¬
ment to the people. The Poona Sarvajanik Sabha
had sent round preachers to spread information as
regards the functions devolving on the people in
consequence of the boon conferred. Telang thought
it his duty to make available for those who did not
know English, a systematic treatise in Marathi on
the subject of Local Self Government.
The translation of Lessing's Nathan the Wise
was undertaken with the purpose of directing the
taste of Marathi readers to healthy, instructive,
elevating, first rate foreign literature. The tran¬
slation of Ile3molds and Boccacio threatened to
poison the spring of pure literature. Telang
72
wanted to stem the tide. The Drama was tran¬
slated also to inculcate the princi|0fc of toleration
on the mind of its readers.
We have now brought to a close this brief re¬
cord of Telang's literary work. Learning with him
was not a mere source of intense delight nor was it
only an intellectual pastime. He found in it"lamp
for his feet." It was not a miser's hoard to gloat
on with pleasure, but a treasure readily placed at
the disposal of others, for guidance, instruction
and to serve as an inspiration similar endeav¬
our.
The highest pleasure of his life was to live the
life of culture and rectitude. His inner nature
says Sir Raymond West was that of a meditative
saint. Telang became an evangelist to a large
section of his countrymen because as the ripest
fruit of his scholarship he furnished them with
fertile ideas on many of the questions that agitated
their minds and perplexed their souls. Telang's
greatness says Sir Raymond West, was at bottom
a Hindu greatness the greatness of a Scholar, of a
contemplative spirit, of a man of thought diffusing
light in many directions, and widenning the area
of human interest for the people whom he
represented. His scholarship was not directly
productive in great works. But ripening as it did
into culture it imparted breadth and compre¬
hensiveness to his views and freed him from
all " extravagance of judgment and exceptation". It
was because "he hailed the light that broke from
either side", that he was calm, free from the
turbulence of spirit that characterizes ordinary
and less cultured minds.
73
telang's work in the field op education.
To the Bündus, who are the inheritors of an
tincient civilization, learning and wisdom come
home as the greatest possessions in life in a
manner that they have seldom appealed to any
other race. The Brahmin, adorned with humility
and wisdom and impregnated with the truth of
the seer ^hat the treasures of spirit are above
and beyond all treasures, has been the pattern to
he lived up to and looked upon with veneration by
the common máfes. The liberation from the
bondage of Karma came through the burning up
of ignorance, the " Avidya " that threw a veil
between man and his Maker. " The Vedas, the
XTpanishads, the Darshanas, and even Logic
and Grammar were taught by the Bishis with the
single purpose of liberating the human spirit.
The treasures of the spirit were sought after for
their own sake, and material blessings came after
them as an indirect result. Such was the best
Hindu tradition with regard to culture.
Ko doubt we had during long years of
decadence considerably strayed away from the
path. But the inner spirit was there ready to
shine forth with revived splendour, the moment
it found even the slightest scope for self-
expression. When the gift of Western culture
was so generously offered to the Indian by
the high-minded official, and the charitably
disposed Christian missionary, the first men
eager to avail themselves of the new light
were the higher Castes in India. They became in
their turn torch-bearers to others. It is through
74
#
ß
$
them that the process of renovation was carried.
The educated Hindu became the natural inter¬
preter of ihe needs of the people. The needs of
the country demanded that he should work in all
the fields of activity before learning, culture, en¬
lightenment, had gone deep into the life-blood of
the country. To hasten the process of intellectual
emancipation, in order to bring his country on a
level with modern conditions was the ideal that
•
he steadily kept in view. He saw where the
Western and Eastern ideas differed radically. The
quiescence characteristic of the East, would not
avail it in the face of the energetic life of the
West. He realized clearly that national life
needed overhauling in every sphere of it, be it
social, moral, religious, economic or political. He
also felt that in order to effect this process wisely,
a change must come over the ideas of men.
Re-adjustment cannot come about without a
revolution in ideas. For that purpose a
thoroughly liberal course of studies that would
impregnate the mind with progressive spirit was
an indispensable condition.
Telang felt convinced that a new purpose must
be given to the life of every educated Indian.
The tranquil spirit of the sage must gather fresh
momentum for action from the energising know¬
ledge of the West. Corporate activity, organized
effort, the spirit of self-sacrifice in the service of
others—these moral qualities must grow in the
Indian youth. The Indians must become as
ambitious of social advancement, and as eager for
the means of securing it as the race with which
Providence had chosen to bind their destiny.
75
The educated Indian must be as successful in
mastering the problems of active life, as he had in
the past shown himself the master in tâe field of
speculative enquiry. He must make the nature
and the discipline afibrded by philosophic study an
instrument for furthering the present interests of
his people. His ideal being so high, the liberal
culture that the Universities should place within
the reach of the few that could enter its
portals must also, he thought, be sufficiently
comprehensive. TJie Indian had suffered too-
much from specialization in one diiection. Those
therefore that would advocate specialization at the
present day must beware th^t they do not repeat
the same mistake. If the ancient Hindus
culture was too religious, we must also guard in
the present day that it is not too scientific. The
directly humanistic studies, such as literature,,
history. Economics and Sociology are more vital
to the future of his country than Chemistry
Biology, Physics or Mathematics. The industrie»
of the country must thrive and scientific educa¬
tion, a highly specialized training is certainly the
need of the times hut it must be based upon
broad general culture, which will teach him above
everything what are his drawbacks, what are the^
special responsibilities that devolve upon him as
an Indian, an educated Indian and an interpreter
of the new light.
Mr. Telang was fully aware of the exigencies
of his own times and the peculiar position of his
country and hence his ideal of education was all
incluvsive. The curriculum which he drafted and
which was adopted by the Senate of the Bom-
76
hay University in 1891, was framed with this
ideal in view. Telang wrote :—
A B. A. cannot be and ought not to be expected to
be a maBter of any particular subject and an authority
upon it immediately after his graduation. A B.A. should
1 think, be a man who has had the general cultivation
which ought to be the basis of all special cultivation. He
should know English and a classical language, should
(have the discipline which Mathematics gives, should
know the elements of logic and of political Economy
And physical sciences and have a general knowledge of
the history of England and India*
The Curriculum in the Arts'Course of the Bom¬
bay University from P. E. to the B. A. was
framed with this leading principle in view. The
best opinion of the time was in Mr. Telang's
favour. On the Committee along with Telang
were men like Justice Birdwood, Dr. Mackhikàn
and James Jardine men distinguished for their
scholarship and free from the narrowness of the
expert. Telang extended the academic life of the
student from three to four years and gave him a
respite of one year from the annual round of exa¬
mination, at the end of the third year. His aim
was that that year should bo devoted to a steady
persuit of knowledge, to " browsing at large in
the library" and making a close and wider acquaint¬
ance with " the master minds of old". He transfer¬
red the group of History and Political Economy
from the class of optional to the class of compul¬
sory subjects. It was his opinion that eveVy
Indian ought to have a sound general knowledge
of. the history of his own country, of the vicissi¬
tudes it had passed- through, of its past
sufferings and triumphs, of its turmoils, of
77
«
its social and political mistakes, so that he might
play his part wisely in the work of amelioration
and reconstruction to which he must aá a patriot
dedicate himself. In addition to the knowledge-
of the history of his own country, he must also
know the history of England which was a modeî
for wise political action. England was in the
forefront of nations as the master of the art of
wise accomodation, of cautious advance and an
eminently practical if not logical synthesis between
the old and the new. Besides, England and India
were politically bound up. Action and reaction
between the two was inevitable and he, who by
reason of his education and traditional sympathy
was a natuml mediator between the two, must
understand both fully. The 'educated Indian,
however humble his sphere, had to be in his own
person the interpieter between the old and the
new if he was to be a potent instrument for the
good of his country. That task he could not very
well perform if the foundation for it were not laid
in the general knowledge of English history and
political Economy which more than any other
subject give him a hold on the true methods of
constructive work—be it in the social, political,
spiritual or economic sphere. The pecxiliar situa¬
tion of his country made the study of these sub¬
jects an indispensable necessity to him. Hence it-
was that Telang made them compulsory.
"We have dealt at great length on this rather
local topic because Telang's scheme is sought to
be discredited in certain quarters and his principle
is stigmatized as vicious. That system, it is said,,
produces encyclopsedic gramophones whereas the
78
system which is sought at present to be substitu¬
ted in its place, is in the opinion of at least one of
its champions, calculated to " promise a race of
quiet, modest, thinkei-s". We who think that
Telang's system if rightly worked cannot but be
benificence of have at least the consolation
to find that Telang erred at least in the company
of Alexander Bain, Sidgwick, Principal Muirhead
and even the scientist Huxley. We close this part
of our theme with a passage from Dr. Bain's essay
-on the University ideal.
The University must include the life beyond the
profession. We are citziens of a self governed country
members of various smaller societies, heads or members
of families. We have moreover to carve out recreation
and enjoyment as the alternative and reward of our pro¬
fessional toil. Now the entire tone and character of this
life outside the profession, is profoundly dependent on
the compass of our early studies. He that leaves the
echool for the shop at thirteen, is on one platform. He
that spends the years from 13 to twenty in acquiring
general knowledge is on a totally different platform ; he
is in the best senso, an aristocrat. Those that begin
work at thirteen and those that are born not to work,
at all, are alike his inferiors. He should be able to spread
light all around. He it is that may stand before the world
as the model man.
A few lines further in the same essay Dr. Bain
describes the ideal graduate thus :—
An ideal graduate is he who has such a hold of
ilie leading subjects, such a mastery of the various
alphabets as will make future reference intelligible,
and a continuation of the study possible. The founda¬
tions have to be widened. Making every allowance
for the variation of tastes and circumstances and
looking solely to what is desirable for a citizen and
a man, it is impossible to refuse the claims of
Historical and Social study. A share of attention
79
«hould be bestowed early on the higher Literature of the
Imagination. As in after life poetry and elegant
composition are to be counted as a pleasure and solace,
they should be taken up first as a study. The
highest work of all-original enquiry, needs a broad basis
of liberal study. Imperfect preparatory study leaves
marks of imperfection in the product.
Dr. Bain concludes with these words :—
A University stands or falls with its Arts Faculty.
This faculty should always be representative of the needs
of our intelligence, both for the professional and the extra-
professional studies. It should not be of the shop-
ohoppy.
These words exactly convey the ideal which
Telang kept in view in suggesting the reform in
the curriculum that obtained in his time. If
that system has proved as some of his critics
would try to show " an education by cram and
ometic" the fault lies not at the door of the system
bùt exclusively at the door of inefficient teachers
the dictators of notes and dry summaries, and
their co-workei*s, the equally incompetent examin¬
ers who ask questions that encourage cram. Not
to bring about a change in the staff or in
the method of examination hut to keep on
harping on a change in the syllabus of study
or in the constitution of the senate and the syndi-
oate is to offer us a stone where we ask for bread.
^We have dealt at great length on Telang's work
at the University because, Higher Education
claimed his greatest attention. Sir Baymond
West remarks as follows on the changes introduc¬
ed by him.
Telang consistently supported the cauf^e of genuine
learning in the University against repeated attack, and
80
the science of law, which has still to grow up in India,
may have much to owe to his exertions in settling the
present curriculum for the degree of LL. B.
t
As regards the other phases of the educational
problem, his views are to be gathered from the
minute of dissent he wrote to some of the recom¬
mendations of the Education commission appoint¬
ed by the Government of Lord E-ipon in 1882.
The object of the commission was to enable the
Government to know how the policy introduced
by the Educational despatch of 1864, had answer¬
ed its purpose ; " how far ^the superstructure
corresponded with the original design." The
commission was asked to suggest such methods as
it might think desirable with a view to more com¬
pletely carry out the policy therein laid down.
The Government, it was declared, was firmly con¬
vinced of the soundness of the policy and wanted
to further extend the system of public instruction
on a popular basis. The main heads which
Telang deals with in his minute are
1. The fixing of the minimum of school fee by
the Director ;
2. The relative importance of Higher and
Primary education;
3. The question of moral and religious
instruction ;
4. The appointment of a Consultative Board
composed of officials and non-officials. State and
private enterprise ;
5. Attitude of the state towards education in
general.
Before reviewing^ his minute under these
difierent heads it must be understood that Telang
81
1
9
like Dr. Gurudas Banerjee was for broadening
the basis of Education as a general policy, for
making it cheap, for affording full opportunity for
as many as could avail themselves of the
light of Western thought. He was against the
policy of exacting too high and unpractical con¬
ditions from the founders of new Colleges.
While yielding to none in his appreciation of
original^research, to which he had contributed in
no small degree by his own efforts, Telang held
that in matters of University Education
" breadth should on no account be sacrificed to
depth." We must welcome all light, especially the
" British light " he said on one occasion and it must
be diffused far and wide. " The greatest benefit
of English education was the seeds it had sown
for all kinds of reform"; and therefore he would
never throw obstacles in the way of his country¬
men that prevented them from acquiring that
education.
It was on this account that he was against con¬
ferring upon the Director of Public Instruction
the power of fixing the minimum of the fee-rate.
He is not prepared to accept what he calls " the
strained construction of the clause regarding the
fees in the despatch of 1854", (1) because the tra¬
ditions of his countrymen are against the rule and
(2) the experience of European countries does not
support it, " where a consistent attempt was
being made to reduce the cost of secondary educa¬
tion." Telang argued that education was not to
be made self-supporting by the increase of fees.
The Despatch of 1854 plainly indicates the wish
of its authors that the money of the state should
82
go as far as possible in developing education in
this country.
The next point he makes against the increase
of fees, is that it will discourage private effort,
the very thing which it should be the policy of
Government to foster.
I am concerned for those institutions which are not
but ought to be receiving aid, and those which may be
started hereafter and may properly ask for aid- 1 am
concerned for those which shall not aim at making
secondary and higher education as costly as possible but
which shall be started by men, who will within certain
limits, act on the traditions to which I have already
alluded. The work done is of a nature which the state
has undertaken to help and therefore has an absolute
claim to help«
2, On the question of mass education he says
1 unreservedly accept the view that without mass
education the country will never be able to enjoy to the
full the fruit which it has a right to expect from higher
education. But in this as in other spheres of education,
" the different branches of education should move forward
together. The pushing forward of primary education is
impossible without higher education« The one should not
be fostered by starving out the other, in the present
condition of India, it devolved as a sacred duty upon the
state to promote the popular as well as the superior
and secondary instruction.
In my opinion, said Telang, the whole religious,
social, political and industrial advance of the country,
depends on the steady adhesion to that enlightened
policy as regards high education which has probably
been the most generally approved portion of British
Indian policy in the past. In order that private
effort should be forthcoming in any district, high edu¬
cation must as a general rule, have been in existence in
that district for some time.
3. On the question of moral and religious edu¬
cation again, he found it difficult to see eye to eye
83
with the recommendations of the commission.
The proposed recommendation will be," he wrote,
impotent for good and may result in mischief."
As regards the advisability of institutihg a course
of lectures in the colleges " On the Duties of
Man and a Citizen," Telang writes "in a primary
school, lessons on the duties of a man would
be probably useful : in a secondary school they
would probably be innocuous : but in a collegiate
institution they would be neither useful nor
innocuous". The passage that follows is worth
quoting in full as 4t shows most clearly what he
regarded as the end and aim of college educa¬
tion.
The cultivation of the feelings and the discipline of
the will can never come merely from listening to dis¬
courses on the duties of man. On the other hand the
habit of analysis and criticism which is developed at
that stage may produce an effect contrary to that desir¬
ed. That sense of moral responsibility in man which
impressed Kant with the same awe as the starry heavens,
can receive no strengthening from lectures on the duties
•of a man, any more than the awe which the starry
heavens inspire can be produced by lectures on the rings
•of Saturn, or the phase of the moon. Such strengthen¬
ing must come from the emotions and will being worked
upon by the histories of great movements, the lives of
great men, and the songs of great poets. It must come
from the training of the will and emotions by the actual
•details of academic life, by the elevating contact with
good professors and fellow-students, by the constant
engagement of the attention on the ennobling pursuits
«. -of literature, science and philosophy ; by the necessity
so often felt " to scorn delight and live labourious
•days."
Lectures on the duties of man be said, " can at
the best lead to the cold decrees of the brain."
84
They have no effect in cooling down the hot
temper which leaps over those decrees.
As regards lessons on the duties of a citizen
what he calls political morality, he admits that it
might remove misunderstanding and dispel ignor¬
ance. But there is one great danger not to be
overlooked. Inconvenient results may flow from
the policy, especially in times of excitement. Tho
result would be " to drag the serene dignity of the
academy into the heat and dust of platform war¬
fare."
If the Professors' lectures tend *to teach the pupils
the duty of submission to the views of Government with¬
out a murmur of dissatisfaction, there is sure to come
up a set of liberal irreconcilables who will complain that
Government is endeavouring to enslave the intellect of
the nation. If the Professors* lectures are supposed to
lead to the opposite direction, there will be some Tory
irreconcilables ready to spring up and say even more
loudly and quite as erroneously that colleges supported
from state revenue are hot beds of sedition,
Telang raised an equally strong objection to the
proposal of preparing a moral text book as he
condemned the suggestion of lectures on the
duties of man and citizen. In support of his
view he quotes the failure of such an experiment
in Ireland.
While agreeing with the view of Lord Ripon
that all education was imperfect without religious
instruction, he could not see his way out of the
difficulties that would crop up the moment an
attempt were made to carry it out in practice.
State managed schools can only find refuge under
the circumstances " in that remote haven of refuge
for the educationists—the secular system." It is
85
for private institutions started by the professors
of different creeds to undertake the task. It is
Tather in the indirect influence of the healthy
atmosphere of the class room symbolized in the
personality of the teacher and the general tone of
social discipline, that sound conduct must find its
nourishment and growth. Copy book morality
IS boui^d to fail of its effect by its very dryness
and limitation to some hour of the school work,
rather than to the whole time during which the
boy is in the school.
Recent events have forcibly drawn the atten^
tion of the authorities to the question of moral
and religious instruction. ^ Our education has come
in once more for condemnation as " godless edu¬
cation", It is but proper in such times to refresh
our memory with the thoughts of one of the best
and the wisest among us, so that whatever parti¬
cular course of policy may seem plausible to us
under the changed enviornment, we may not rush
precipitately into a course which, even if it may
for the time seem to heal the sore, is likely to
create still worse situation in the future. We
have to bewar e at least that the remedy is not
worse than the disease. Religious differences have
heen from days of yore, the greatest obstacle in
India, in the path of co-operation, harmony and
uirion for common ends. We have to be vigilant
lest the spectre of sectarianism may rise up onee
more to create chaos and confusion. It is in the
»
liome and around the family hearth that sound-
principles of conduct have to be inculcated. It
is the parents that must see how their childern
behave, what habits they form, in what company
86
they move, and what opinions they imbibe. The-
home and the community must set the proper
tone. There lies the true remedy. The School
and the college can only supplement the work. It
cannot be expected to do more.
For introducing elasticity and the spirit of
liberal and progressive ideas in matters educational
Telang advised the formation of a consultative
Board of education. " Even the trained officers of
government in the Education as in any other
department, will not find it ' disastrous to the
efficient discharge of their duties, if they now
and then take extra departmental counsel.
The spirit of the time at which Telang wrote
these words was one of intense sympathy with
popular demands and encouragement of private
enterprize. The Government then looked
forward to a gradual withdrawal of state
management and control and to the transfernce
of existing institutions to native enterprise.
Private effort was sought to be stimulated in
order that fi^edom and variety might be secured.
But even in these times, this suggestion which
was more than anything else calculated to
introduce a national element, in the system of
Instruction fell flat on the Commission. The
view which prevailed in the commission Telang
styled as " a bureaucratic and erroneous view."
It only reminds us of the old adage " Man
wills not when he can and cannot when he
wiUs".
We now come to the last two points discussed
in Telang's minute. I. State and private
4
87
enterprise 2. The attitude of the state towards
education in general,
Telang's view on private enterprise is already
foreshadowed in his discussion on the increase of
fees. He was for fostering private enterprise
by liberal grants in aid without the
imposition of conditions that would defeat the
very end of such an enterprise, which was to
cheapen education and make it available to the
poor boys "the salt of our colleges and schools."
He also advised the increase of provision for
free* student-ships which in the colleges and
high schools of Bombay was in his eyes
rediculously small being merely 5 per cent, of
the total number." The Free-studentships are
to be in addition to scholasihip. Moreover the
proportion of free students to be admitted should
never be fixed by the arbitrary percentage by the
Department of Public Instruction. It should be left
to the discretion of the Principal who ought to see
however that admission can be made without
making any individual class in the insti¬
tution unmanageably large. The state is thus
enabled to disseminate the benefits of its institu¬
tions wider without increasing by one pie its own
expenditure upon these institutions. It need
not be said that the boys to whom free-student-
ships are to be granted, must be deserving of
support on the score of character,, perseverence and
other intellectual and moral qualities. In recent
circulars of the Government of Bombay the policy
of the Government in the matter of fees, scholar¬
ships and the number of schools that Government
should maintain is once more defined. The spirit
88
of that policy runs distinctly counter to the trend
of suggestions noticed in this short review of
Telang's educational work. The Despatch of 1854
looked forward to the time when the state should
only exercise supervision and wise control over
educational institutions which were to be directly
under the management of private agency. The
Government of Lord Curzon initiated a policy
which virtually transfen*ed all control to the
central authority in the state. Stringent rules
were framed for the affiliation and support of
privately managed institutions. In the name of
efficiency, individual initiative was nipped in the
bud. The constitution of the senate and the
syndicate was so shaped and the expert element
secured such a preponderance of influence that the
University became for all practical purposes the
department of the state. The new order of things
thus introduced left no scope for the fi^ee play of
public opinion. If the populai voice was ever
heard it was heard only on suflTerance. It did not
find its freest expression on its own merits or by
right. If there is any agency that touches the
root principles of national life, that agency is
certainly education. That is the one sphere in
which light must be admitted from all quartei*s,
and not from the mere expert. Education ought
never to be confined within the brass bands of
officialdom. It is then apt to be cast in hard,
mechanic moulds, lacking in variety, breadth and
therefore lacking in life. Above all things educa¬
tion can never improve without men and money.
Without ample provision for these two levers, no
amount of other machinery can make it really
89
vitalizing. To this part of the states' duty Telang
drew the attention of Lord Ripon's Government
in the following words.
1 hope that the Governinent of Lord Ripen which
has already done so much for the country, will add the
educational to its many laurels and achieve directly or
indirectly the credit which Matthew Arnold gives to the
Oovernment of France on the Restoration after the
battle of Waterloo. " To the Restoration " he says, " is
due the credit of having first perceived that in order to
carry on the war with ignorance, the sinews of war were
necessary." Other Governments had decreed systems of
education for the people, the Government of the Restora¬
tion decreed funds. The question of popular education
is mainly a question of funds. What is wanted and what
we must trust to, is not the shortsighted economies in
the expenditure on Higher education, which have been
suggested by some irresponsible reformers of our
system, but effort on the part of the British
Indian Government to follow, at however great a dis¬
tance, the Imperial Government which has in ten years
increased its grant to education from £ 1940,000 to £
4,290.000 sterling.
We conclude this chapter with the pious hope
that these wise words wex e engraved on the heart
of every statesman who would initiate a liberal
educational policy among the subject races com¬
mitted to his charge. Yes it is not enough to dec¬
ree systems of education, Government must dec¬
ree funds. Men and money—the best available men
and the most liberal grant of money are the two
indispensable conditions of any change in the
policy of education, for that change to be fruitful
in solid good to the people.
POLITICS.
There comes a time in the history of every
country when its people refuse to be satisfied with
90
good government alone. They desire to partici¬
pate in the administration of their own country.
They feel -that their status, no less than their
interests suffer if they are not given adequate
scope for self-expression and self-realization.
Often the movement begins with a few, who have
had the benefit of education. Gradually it spreads
out in ever-widening circles.
The idea fills the air and is caught on by a
large number of people until at last it assumes the
form and shape of a prevailing sentiment. It
gathers in strength and its claim to recognition
becomes irresistible.
The aspiration for political rights marks the
growth of an impulse which a wise government
will always seek to enlist on its side. Especially
in a country, where a wide difference of national
traditions separates off the rulers and the ruled,
the tendency to widen the gulf still further by
refusing to listen to a claSvS which alone forms the
medium of mutual understanding is sure to be
fmught with serious mischief. True stateman-
ship consLsts in anticipating in due time the grow¬
ing aspirations of the people and forestalling them
by political concessions. Benevolent despotism
like " the cake of custom" is good only " for mak¬
ing the mould of civilization and hardening the
soft fibre " of a people for a freer form of govern¬
ment. The tyranny of despotism like the tyranny
of custom becomes crushing when it artificially
circumscribes the sphere of movement for the intel¬
lectual and moral energies of the people. Loyalty
sorely tried becomes sidlen and the people turn,
to use the phrase of an Anglo-Indian statesman.
91
" as quiet as gunpowder." To allow the situation-
to develop into this extreme stage marks the break¬
down of statesmanship.
Even in the most critical times of 1858, it was
the wise statesmanship of Canning that poured
oil over the troubled waters and bound the rulers
and the ruled in silken chords of gratitude,,
sympathy and mutual good faith.
The Proclamation of 1858 healed up the breach
still further by its noble declaration of equality of
treatment to all • irrespective of caste, creed or-
colour. It mtified and sealed all the pledges
given before.
If the people of India cherish England's name
with gratitude and love, inspite of the recurrent
periods of a re-actionary policy marked by a spirit
of haughty scorn for their cherished hopes, it is
because in the darkest hour of despair, she has been
able to send forth a statesman with a mandate to-
reassure the people, of England's good faith
towards India, a statesmen who by his wise
and sympathetic guidance is able to guide the
ship of the state in the right direction, making
England's rule broad-based upon the people's will.
That has been the sheet anchor of India's
loyalty. That is what keeps the faith of the
educated class unshaken in the British sense of
fairness and justice even in moments when that
faith is most sorely tried.
That faith was stronger still in the first genera¬
tion of educated Indians. Telang formed a
connecting link between that generation and the
following. He was the type and representativo
of new India. His political ideal and his political
92
method were the ideal and the method of the
generation that preceded him. He was brought
up in the school of Dr. Bhau Daji, Nowroji Fur-
doonji, Mandlik and Dadabhoy Nowroji. Their
patriotism was marked by sanity and self-control.
Their method of criticism was characterized by
what Bagehot has chosen to call " animated
moderation". There was indépendance of spirit
-and searching criticism. But the undertone was
a deep and rational feeling of loyalty. That
loyalty was as much based on reason as on self-
interest. They looked upon tho British connec¬
tion in the light of a Providential dispensation,
not merely in a spirit of fatalism but with the
strong faith of reasoned conviction. Western
education was the direct product of British rule.
It had sown the seed for all kinds of reform.
It was a great instrument of progress and
national unity. It had pushed the national life
along modern lines. It had introduced peace
and order. It had purified the methods of
administration and held up equality as the
principle of action in its dealings with the
subject-race. Years and yeai's must roll on
before India will be able to take her rank with
the progressive nations of the West. But the
-start was given, the beginning was made by the
-guiding genius of England. "UTiatever may be
the drawbacks of the British rule, it was in the
main bénéficient. That was briefly told their
faith. Besides, there was no alternative to that
rule Self-interest and good faith therefore
bound them in chains of loyalty to British rule in
India.
93
Their criticism of administrative measures was
consequently broadminded^ rational, and based on
the thorough knowledge of facts. It .was mark¬
ed by sobriety and thoughtfulness and wise
insight into the needs of the hour. Yet it was
far from being of a halting or hesitating character.
They were keen in detecting flaws and fearless in
exposinjg them. However, measures not men,,
was their motto. Mere cavil and abuse, they
thought, were calculated to weaken their case and
bring a reflection on the cause they championed.
In criticising tliè policy of the Government they
took their stand upon the pledges given from time
time by responsible statesmen. They condemned
particular acts not on vague, general doctrinaire
grounds but in the light of the broad line of
policy laid down in memorable documents like
the Charter Act of 1833 and the Proclamation of
1858, They had abundant faith in the resources
of constitutional agitation. Petitioning to the
authorities was not looked upon by them as a
policy of mendicancy. They claimed it as their
right and privilege to memorialize to Govern¬
ment on a felt grievance. It was also their duty
as much to the rulers as the ruled.
Their task was two-fold. They had to buÜd
up public opinion to strengthen their case. They
had also to turn the face of the state towards the
nation rather than towards the bureaucrats.
Their work consisted in securing for individual
Indians equality of treatment with individual
Englishmen. "With this end in view they agitated
for throwing open the responsible posts in the
adminiistration to worth and merit wherever it
94
was found. Fitness alone, they argued, should
be the criterion of elegibility, a rule proclaimed
long before, but observed rather in the breach
than in the performance. Competition rather
than patronage should be the governing principle.
To make the competitive test equitable in its
operation they urged upon the rulers the
advisability as well as the justice of holding the
civil service examination simultaneously in India
and England.
The other thing they sought to achieve was to
transform the purely personal fdrm of government
into one in which there was scope enough for
consulting and knowing the wishes of the people
With this object they set themselves to the task
of agitating for reform in Municipal franchise :
for the grant of local self-government which is
" the fittest preparation and the most convenient
stepping stone for anything approaching to a
«constitutional regime."
They also wanted that the legislative bodies
might be expanded, reformed and fostered into
useful institutions proving a convenient channel
through which the European element in the
government might obtain an insight into the
inner mind and the less obvious wants of the
native population. "
The pohtical struggle between 1872-1889, the
period of Telang's active work in the field of poli¬
tics turned mainly round these two principal
demands.
The State in India even in these days of expan¬
sion and reform is to use the significant phrase
•of Dr. Emil Eeich " an endless array of bureau-
95
crats". It was much more so in the early years of
Indian political life. Backed by the prestige of
England and with a free field before him for the
exercise of power, the bureaucrat of those days
considered himself self-sufficient. He was a law
unto himself. He resented criticism and consider¬
ed controversy as highly irritating. His policy
and measures were conceived and hatched up in
the dark and came upon the people with the sud¬
denness of a cataclysm of Nature. He went out
in search of arguments to bolster up his theory
howsever much it' violated all the fundamental
maxims of good government. He was a master in
the art of finessing.
Bureaucracy was indeed a splendid machine,
but its efficiency was marred by inelasticity. It was
to use the words of Sir Charles Dilke " secret and
irresponsible." Irresponsible autocracy, secrecy
of method, proud indifference to public criticism,
lofty contempt for advice, were the prevailing
modes of those times among the buieaucrats. The
good or bad management of finance, the equality
or inequality of taxation, the economy or waste
of revenue, a policy of peace or war, expansion or
retrenchment—all turned upon the whim or caprice
of the individual head of the Government. There
enough was no council powerful to control or guide.
The councils, to use the phrase of Telang, were
"" little better than a solemn farce."
This want of consistency and continuity in the
method of government, this defiant attitude
towards pubhc opinion, this triumph of personal
rule became most marked in the regime of Lord
Lytton. AU the acts of that regime, from the
96
wasteful expenditure of revenue on the Frontier
policy to the abolition of cotton duties, came in
for a sharp criticism at the hands of the non-
official public opinion both Indian and European.
Some of Telang's remarkable utterances were
dehvt-red at public meetings held to protest against
the reactionary measures of Lord Lytton. These
utterances reveal at once the sobriety, the self-
restraint, the power of close reasoning and
penetrating criticism, all pervaded by a vein of
subtle humour. The expression is remarkably
lucid, and singularly absent from " the foppery of
sentiment."
What were the reactionary measures of Lord
Lytton that brought home keenly to the people
for the first time, the mdical defects of a govern¬
ment in which the people had no voice and in
which as a consequence the fundamental maxim
of good government ran the utmost risk of being
systematically violated ?
The 1st act of Lord Lytton's regime that came
in for a severe condemnation at the hands of the
people was the Revenue Jurisdiction Bill of 1876,
a bill that was opposed by the High Court, the
Bombay Government and the people at large and
that was passed in the teeth of that opposition.
The Bill " transferred the cognizance of disputes
in which the fisc was concerned from the civil
courts to the revenue officers". The state of
public feeling on the radical injustice of the
measure may be gauged from the trenchant re¬
marks of the Bombay Gazette on the same.
The Bill has withdrawn the ordinary privileges of
British subjects and has involved them in a common
97
degradation as the hewers of wood and drawers of water
for the officials charged with the administration of the
Empire, It is not enough that every avenue should be
closed to the ambitions of men born in India, but recent¬
ly the great desire of the legislature apparently has been
to undo the work of the English conquerors who tried
to give the people the same securities that Englishmen
enjoy at home and to transform a civil government into
a mere Oriental tyranny. Trial by jury to these superior
persons is a mere relic of a barbarous age in
favour of which the stupid British people cherish an
absurd prejudice. Liberty of the press is the next
British institution marked for destruction and soon
the English traveller visiting these shores will have
the satisfaction of seeing among other curious Indian
antiquities the ruins of the English constitution.
The remedy suggested by the Bombay Gazette
for this grievous lapse was the remodelling of the
councils in a manner to make the voice of the
people felt in the administration of the country.
At a meeting held to petition the Secretary of
State to withhold his sanction to the Bill, Telang
made a speech much praised by the Gazette for
its lucidity. From that speech we cull the foUow-
ing passage which admirably sums up his view
on the subject.
Tl^e bill marks a tendency to bring people back to
the days of personal government. It is objectionable on
the ground that it vests in the Revenue officers authority
which they ought not to have, and takes away from the civil
courts a power which they ought to have against arbitra¬
ry action by revenue officers. It is not enough to be
just, the officers roust seem just. In the hands of the
judges, the rights of the ryots were perfectly safe ; in
the hands of the Revenue officers, though they might be
so, the ryots themselves will not believe them to be so
and that is a very strong reason why the Bill should be
condemned.
7
98
In spite of this protest the Bill became Act 10
of 1875. It was the mixing up of Judicial and
Executive functions—a principle disapproved by all
and the struggle against which began from this
early date—a struggle which has not yet resulted
in the abandonment of the procedure, the vicious-
ness of which has been admitted on all hands at
present. Telang's remarks show an admirable in¬
sight into the fact that an occasional defeat in a
civil court is a great support to Government in
the long run, because it bases British rule on the
moral approbation of the people, which depends to
a large extent on their faith in the Government's
sense of justice and fair play. That faith is
strengthened only when the Government is will¬
ing to submit its own acts to the jurisdiction of
the Courts which it has itself established.
The next speech which Telang delivered was on
the License Tax levied in 1878 to contribute to¬
wards the formation of the Famine Insurance
Fund. A meeting was held in the tent of
Wilson's Circus, as the use of Town Hall was
refused for the purpose by the Government, to
memorialize to the House of Commons against the
tax. It was shown " that the tax was faulty in
its details and odious in the principle, that it
struck too low and exempted on the one hand high
officials and on the other men of the learned
professions".
It was levied on traders who were the greatest
contributors to indirect taxation and on agricul¬
turists who were already heavy-burdened with the
enhanced duty on salt and who were already
paying the land tax, Telang showed the arbitra-
99
riness and absurdity of the tax by these re¬
marks ;
The grounds on which the proposal to* levy this tax
is based are first that those who have taken such great
pains in meeting the famine are not the proper persons
to be taxed in order to defray the expenditure that has
been incurred.
2. That in as much as these officers of government
are not to be taxed, therefore all other government offi¬
cers shall not be taxed and people who may in some sense
be supposed to stand in the same position ought not to
be taxed ? Because these ought not to be taxed therefore
the professional classes should not be taxed. Naturally
enough the only persons fit to bear the burden of taxation
were the traders and the agriculturists.
The absxirdity of the method is thus cleverly
brought out by carrying the principle to its logi¬
cal conclusion. There is humour enough without
sting or satire. Lord Lytton had asked, if we are
to tax all these classes where are we to stop at all?
Telang retorted why stop anywhere at all ; why
should any class be exempted from the burden.
. Let all contribute their share towards the Famine
Insurance Fund. Let not the agriculturists and
traders in addition to the burden of the tax to be
paid, feel the odiousness of it. It was in this
speech that he characterized the Legislative Coun¬
cils of the time as " little better than a solemn
farce."
When the independent members happened to agree
with a government measure their opinion was spoken of
as representing the general opinion of the public but
when they opposed any measure which the Government
thought fit to introduce, their opinions were spoken of
contemptuously as a mere individual opinion not repre¬
senting the general views of the public, with which the
Government officers were much better acquainted them¬
selves.
100
The next measure of Lord Lytton's that rousecf
the bitter oppositiod of the public was the Verna¬
cular Press Act, other-wise knowTi as the Gagging^
Act, The measure was hatched up in secret,,
introduced into the council without sufficient
notice to enable the public at large to discuss it
and passed in hot haste at a single sitting. The
Act was subsequently repealed by Lord E-ipon^
It sought to institute a censor-ship of the Verna¬
cular Press, not to put a check on an existing
evil but to prevent prospective mischief. The
censorship was limited only to the V^nacular
Press.
Telang in a series of articles to the Indu Fra-
hash exposed in detail the inexpediency,, the
futility and the inequity of the measure. In the
1st two articles he discussed the Act, section by
section, pointing out its many flaws with the
keenness of a lawyer, showing the injustice of the
whole Act. He complained that the court had no
jmisdiction in administering the Act. The word¬
ing of the Act was so loose as " to bring within
its sweep any inconvenient publication". It was
not " consistent with the loudly repeated belief
in the loyalty of the educated classes ".
" The tendency " he wrote, " to replace the reign of
law by personal government is, inspite of Sir Henry
Maine, becoming stronger in the country day by day.
Every officer will identify himself and his doings so far
with the government established by law in British India,
as to punish all adverse criticism of himself as being
" likely to excite disaffection". We hold, that
such restrictions on the freedom of the press are
unjust, inexpedient and utterly powerless to produce
the ends desired. Nay they are very powerful agents for
101
t)rÍDgiiig about the very resulte which they are designed
to avert."
As regards the clause which required the whole
matter to be submitted to the Government officer
before publication, Telang wrote :—
The officer will have his likes and dislikes, his feel¬
ings in the light of which he will look to everything
placed before him. What guarantee is there that the
|K>wer may not he abused even from the purest of inten¬
tion^
Telang concludes the second article on the Act
thus :—
It appears to us to be descent from the higher level
of political status which under the wiser British
Government, we had already reached, into the slough of
patriarchal rule and personal Government, If there
was one thing move than another to which an advocate
of the British government could point as marking
-unmistakably the Isuperiority of it to by-gone govern¬
ments, it was after the liberty of speech and thought,
this reign of law-liberty of speech, which is now become
to a considerable extent a thing of the past under the
provisions of the Geiging Act. The Reign of law is
passed, ceasing under the hands of these sapient legisla¬
tors who have been ruling the past few years.
The Government claimed that the Act was
modelled on the Iiish Act of 1870. Telang
:argued in the 3rd and 4th articles that " on every
'Circumstance the Vernacular Act differed from
that of Ireland." The outrages and terrorism of
Ireland had no* match in India. No member of
the Press hei-e had spoken of rebellion as the duty
of the Indian patriot. The whole Press had
discountenanced with one voice such violent acts
its those of the rioters at Pahna, in the Deecan or
iit Sumt. The riots were due to local causes»
102
They were neither instigated, nor encoui*aged,,
nor countenanced by the Press.
In Ireland again every sort of conciliatory
measure was tried and was found to have failed.
What has the Indian Government to show,.
Telang asked, to correspond to the Irish Church
Bill or the Irish Land Acts. What has the
Government done to allay the discontent arising
out of heavy taxation levied in the times of scar¬
city, famine and general poverty ? After this
question Telang mentions certaimgrievances which
ought to have been redressed. The passage is
worth quoting because it shows what were the
urgent demands of the educated classes in those
times.
Have natives yet been allowed the same opportunities
to be admitted to the civil service as the members of the
ruling race ? Has the drain on Indian resources for tho
home-charges been reduced ? Have not the Import
Duties been abolished at the same time that a new tax
has been imposed and this in the teeth of the solemn
declarations of Lord Lytton and Lord Salisbury and in
the teeth of the resolution of the House of Commons it¬
self P Has the dividing wall of bitter memories between
Europeans and Natives been yet broken down ? Have
not attempts been made to legislate away the old rights
of private individuals by Acts like the Abkari Act and
the Forest Act ? Has not the personal government been
increased under the Criminal Procedure Code and like
Acts ? Has any attempt been made to stop by the Indian
Penal Code the mischief alleged to grow from the Press
being free ? Intensely desiring as we do the continuance
of British rule in India, we are extremely sorry to find
our government holding an inexpugnable belief in it9
own perfection and lulled, so to speak, in the optimistin
sleep from which the attempt to rouse it, only entails
its supreme displeasure.
103
Teîang concludes the series in the following
passage which strikes a note of loyalty which was
the fundamental principle of his thoughts and
ambitions for his country as a citizen of the British
Empire. He says :—
We believe, we cannot yet rule ourselves, and we
believe that wo cannot get any foreign rulers as good as
the English. Wishing then as we do from whatever
motives for the continuance of the British rule, we are
extremely anxious that our rulers should do everything
which they reasonably and properly can and may do, to
keep the people at large contented ; for in the last resort
as eminent British'statesmen have always maintained, it
is on the contentment and good will of the people that
the British Empire can rest most securely. Therefore,
it must keep itself fully informed of the wants and feel¬
ings and thoughts of their subjects. And by the necessi¬
ty of the case, they being foreigners in the land, they
can have few better -sources of information than the
newspapers and journals written by persons who, as
being themselves of the people, necessarily know a
great deal about the people. We venture to say
in spite of the boast, that the ruling race has not yet
succeeded in understanding us.
These words are worth pondering both by the
academic extremist and the sundried bureaucrat.
To the former, they bring home the fact that
whatever logic may tell him, the ideal he holds up
is an impossible ideal and therefore beyond the
pale of practical politics. It is fraught with dire
consequences. He may propose to accomplish it
by peaceful means but as Mr, Gokhale bas put it,
" the Government, which does not want to see its
rule overthrown, will not long permit him to
retain their peaceful character." Moreover " it
means the sure destruction, or at any rate, the in¬
definite postponement of all opportunities for slow
104
but peaceful progress consisting in the develop¬
ment of " the muscle, capacity, character and the
spirit of sacrifice " in the average man. To the
sundried bureaucrat, they are a warning that there
is but one way to govern men and that is " to
get into their skins, to try to realize their feel¬
ings That cannot be well done except by rally¬
ing the educated classes to theii* side by wise
political concessions on which alone as Lord
Morley has pointed out, efficiency of a true, solid
and abiding character depends.
From the Vernacular Press -Äct, we pass on to
the abolition of import duties on cotton. The du¬
ties were abolished by the Viceroy, " overruling a
majority of his colleagues in Council." " The
Viceroy stood," as Telang puts it, "in a glorious mi-
nority of two against a very large number against
him." This was " one of the many indications of
a new departure in Indian policy." " It was an
indication of Government according to the whims
and caprices of individual officers and that the
Government by cabinets or councils was passing
away The condition was most unsatisfactory
and mischievous. Besides as Telang points out in
a meeting held to petition in the House of Commons
against the act, it was a breach of " promise
solemnly given to India indirectly through the
replies to Manchester both by Lord Salisbury and
Lord Lytton, that they would be no party to a
repeal of these duties, if there was to be substitu¬
ted for them some other mode of taxation ". Such
a taxation was imposed by the License Tax and
the raising of the salt duty. A revenue that
the state ahmdy possessed in the returns of cotton
105
duties, was sacrificed to burden the famine stric¬
ken ryots at the most inopportune moment with
-enhanced salt duty and the odious because partial
License Tax. Telang again pointed out with the
keenness of a lawyer that the License Tax levied in
1878, was for Famine Insurance Fund. But as
the Government had admitted that the Famine
Insurance Fund for which, it was announced
that the License tax was to be
religiously set apart had virtually ceased to exist,
i.e. no such fuod had been established out of the pro¬
ceeds of the tax in 1878 and as no provision was made
for establishing it out of the tax in 1879, therefore
although in name the tax was not new, it was in substa¬
nce a new tax for 1879. The tax levied last year was for
the Famine Insurance Fund. That levied this year was
for the ordinary current expenses of this year. That is to
say that it is in substance and effects new tax.
On these grounds the conditions for the aboli¬
tion of Import Duties had not been kept. Telang
thus treated the question, as of finance, pure and
simple. Two years before in an essay read befoi*e
the Sassoon Mechanics Institute, Telang had made
a strong case for the protection of industries by
the Import Duties. But in the speech under notice
Telang yielded the ground as regards Free Tradß,
showing the injustice of the measure to consist in
a bad management of the Finance. In the conclu¬
ding portion of the speech Telang points out the
impatience of autocracy and its exasperating influ¬
ence upon the people by a happy combination of
wit, satire «nd apt literary allusion. After con¬
demning the rebuke administered to the deputation
of the Bengalis by Lord Lytton as " unmerited,
ungenerous, uncharitable and unjust'% Telang con¬
tinues :—
106
Lord Lytton's reply to the deputation is exception*
able not merely for its fallacies, and incorrect statements»
not merely for its spirit and tone but also because of ita
being quite, unprecedented among the replies of Her
Majesty's representatives to Her Indian subjects through*
out the whole course of the British rule.
In that reply Lord Lytton said that he was
anxious to put an end " to a fruitless and irrita¬
ting controversy", Telang quoting the following
lines from Lord Lytton's 'Fables in Song/ descri¬
bing man as a paradoxical creature,
" Height measures he in depth, seeks peace in strife,
And calls ail this the poetry of life".
remarks,
His Lordship has undoubtedly sought peace in strife
both in our North-West where under the guidance of his
chief Lord Beaconsfíeld, he has gone in quest of a
Scientific frontier" and also in this affair of domestic
administration, for the problematical **peace", in the
future, of the stoppage of an irritating controversy, His
Lordship has resorted to a wide-spread strife in the pre¬
sent.
The curiosa felicitas which Telang praised in
Lord Lytton is no less conspicuous in his own
utterances, and his speech on Cotton Duties is all
through an admirable specimen of the same. This
closes the regime of Lord Lytton. The tide now
turned. The liberal ministry came in power in
1881 and sent Lord Ripon to fill the place of the
Viceroy. He redeemed once more the glorious name
of England as the mother of free institutions and
the jealous guardian of the interests of the country
committed to her care.
Lord Ripon's rule in India marked a transition
from the old to the new. The form of Govern-
«
ment was yet purely personal but a sincere attempt
107
was made to make it more and more "broad-based-
upon the people's will". It was a conviction with
Lord Ripon that England was to laboiu- not for
the material welfare of India alone ; she must
bend all her energies and her iron will, as he
expressed it in one of his last speeches, to raise the
people in the scale of nations by attending to their
intellectual development, political training, and
moral elevation. In all his measures, whether
they fleal with education, local self-Government or
repeal of the Yernacular Press Act, it was in this
spirit that " he endeavoured to discharge the
arduous task which for four years was entrusted
to his care."
In sketching the political career of Telang, if an
Indian's share in the efforts to raise the political
status of his own country, be at all designated by
that name, we are not concerne^ with all the
administrative measures of that noble and bénéfi¬
cient rule. "We turn at .once to one measure-
which more than anything else marked the temper
of the Government viz., its earnest and sincere
desire to treat all people alike, to do away with
privileges and exemptions as marking the govern¬
ing from the governed. AVe refer of course to the
Ilbert Bill—a measure which roused the bitterest
opposition on the part of the Anglo Indian Com¬
munity. The Ilbert Bill sought to do nothing
more than introduce an amendment in the
Criminal Procedime Code which empowered native
magistrates to try European Criminals. The
opposition to the Ilbeii; Bill was headed by
members of the Civil Service and as Sir Henry
Cotton has put it in his latest book, " the practi-
108
•cal unanimity of opposition to that measure was
as complete among civilian magisti'ates and Judges,
as it was apaong planters, merchants and members
of the legal profession". Lord Ripon was
" harassed beyond measure by the bigotry and
race feeling of his own countrymen". Mutual
denunciation and recrimination were rife in
Calcutta both in the Anglo-Indian and the Indian
Community. The Viceroy was openly insulted at
the gates of the Government House by the
Europeans. The European Community forgot that
it was European, As Mr. Wacha has put it " it was
scratched on its back and discovered to be
primitive Tartar."
Every one seemed to have lost his head. " Mat¬
ters reached such a pitch that a conspiracy was
formed by a number of men in Calcutta who
bound themselyes in the event of Government
adhering to the proposed legislation to overpower
iihe sentries at Government House, put the Viceroy
•on board a steamer at Chandpal Ghat and deport
him to England round the Cape".
" The dead wall of antagonism" by which Lord
Ripon was confronted became for him too hard to
oveicome single handed. As a result a sort of
compromise was effected, which was " the virtual
though not avowed abandonment of the measure
proposed by the Government." It was in Bombay
alone that " there was discerned nothing, or next
to nothing of that fury, abuse and wild fanaticism
which disgraced Bengal". The Anglo-Indians and
the Indians, though they differed from one another
conducted the discussions in the papers with a
dignity, moderation and sobriety, becoming true
109
citizens. It is the Indian community that at this-
time evinced in their conduct a spirit of loyalty
more loyal than that of the Anglo-Indians. They
accorded Lord Hipon enthusiastic support in all
his measures. A public meeting was held in:
Bombay to memorialize the House of Commons
from the Indian point of view. Telang, Mehta
■and Budruddin Tyabji were the principal speakers.
" Equality before the law as enjoined by the
Act of 1833 and the Proclamation of 1858 were
the two principal, points elaborated". Telang's
speech mainly dealt with the objections raised ta
the Bill by Sir James Fitzstephen, in a letter
contributed by the latter to the London Times.
It is characterized by perfect reasoning and calm
and judicious exposition. A spirit of self-rest¬
raint is manifest throughout. Telang was fully
conscious of the deep truth that no eloquence is
more convincing than the eloquence of simple
assertion, supported and sustained by the clear
statement of facts. The speech is remarkable for
its sobriety of tone and earnestness of conviction.
A calmer and more solid piece of forensic ratiocina¬
tion in the midst of the fiery whirl-wind of passion and.
prejudice raging outside the Presidency was never heard
before. It was also a fine example of that intense self-
restraint which the serene and farsighted statesman, who
is not merely the politician, puts upon himself during
an eventful crisis.
The speech is remarkable from many points of
view. It repudiates the gospel of force as symbol¬
ized in the attitude of some Anglo-Indian states¬
man who said that as India was won by tho
sword, it can only be retained, by keeping British
110
prestige intact. " The passing of the Ilbert Bill "
they said, " would shift the foundation of British
rule in India." They prophesied imperial ruin and
the collapse of British prestige. Of the fraternity
who held this view, Sir Fitz James Stephen was
the most conspicuous member. Telang chai-acteri-
zed Sir Fitz James Stephen's political creed as
the gospel of Force. That gospel was " in obtru¬
sive antagonism to the doctrines of modern liberal¬
ism in the broader and higher sense, as signify¬
ing those political principles ^ which for us in
India are embodied in the great Proclamation of
1858
é
Holding as Sir Fitz James did such a political
'«reed, Telang said, " Even his support, if he sup¬
ported any measure of Government which invol¬
ved any of these principles would be an occasion
-of embarassment." So much by way of preface,
'Telang answered point by point all the objections
raised by Sir Fitz James Stephen. We have not
the space to review his whole speech which is well
worth reading, we only note a pasvsage bearing on
the broad issue of England's work in India. Sir
Fitz James had written that the policy of Lord
Ripon's Government was inconsistent with the
foundations on which British power rests.
Telang replied that he denied it entirely. He
said
that the principles of L«rd Kipon*s administration
were in consonance with the long established principles
of the British Government as laid down by Parliament
and the Crown, and further that they were in accord
with the lessons to be derived from the study of past
history.
Ill
Then follows an eloquent passage which is worth
quoting in full as giving us a complete insight
into Telang's ideal of England's mission in India.
I remember being struck many years ago in reading
the history of the Romans under the Empire, with a
passage in which the author said that one great lesson to
be deduced from the history of Rome was that all con¬
quering nations, in order to render their Government in
the conquered countries stable and permanent, must
divest themselves of their peculiar privileges by sharing
them with the conquered peoples. Now, Gentlemen, we
all know that it is the proud and just boast of English¬
men, that they are thtf Romans of the modern world and
the British Empire is in modern days what the Roman
Empire was in ancient times. If so, are we wrong, are
we unreasonable in asking that the lessons of Roman
history, and as Merivale points out, the lessons of the
history of other ancient Governments also, should be
adopted by our British rulers V " Is it not quite
proper and reasonable for us to ask that the country¬
men of Clarkson and Wilberlorce, of Gladstone and John
Bright, should not only adopt those lessons but improve
upon them and rise superior to the countrymen of Mari¬
us and Sulla, the Triumvirs and the Caesars ? I venture
to say, gentlemen, that if Britons are now content to fail
to carry out those lessons and to fall short of the gene¬
rosity of the Romans, it will be regarded as not creditable
to them by the future historian. And as a loyal subject
of the British Government I should be sorry for such a
result.
Every point that Sir Fitz James Stephen put
forward against the Bill, Telang showed to be
characterized by an attitude of shortsightedness
and race-prejudice. Telang says " If I was an
opponent of the Jurisdiction Bill, I should be
afraid of his championship". When Sir Fitz James
Stephen put forward a plea in favour of special
privilege for Europeans on the ground that every
section of the Indian Community enjoyed a simi-
112
lar privilege recognized by law, Telang answered
that the privileges which the various Indian com¬
munities enjoyed were those of civil law. He
asks, '
what does it matter to John Jones whether the pro¬
perty of Rama, Ahmed or Mukerjee goes on his death
to his sons, his daughters, his father, or mother or
widow? But a law of Criminal procedure affects other
communities in a most important respect.
Sir Fitz James Stephen had remarked in his
reply to Mill that the British Government in
India was heading a revolution. Telang fastens
upon this statement and asks
if the Government is actually interfering with the
personal liberties of us unenlightened and uncivilised
natives, is there any thing wrong in their interfering
with those of the enlightened Brltions, with whose views
and opinions, feelings and wishes they are much more
familiar and in much great sympathy : Is there anything
unfair if we ask that the same measure be dealt out to
both ?
Sir Fitz James Stephen's argument was that
there were special tribunals for Europeans main¬
tained in Turkey and other countries. Telang rep¬
lies that
in foreign countries the European is protected from
foreign courts to be subjected to Brtish courts. In India
he is protected from one class of British courts to be
subjected to another ; the difference is quite manifest
between the two cases.
Another argument which Sir Fitz James Stephen
brought forward was that it was only natural that
everyone charged with a criminal offence should
wish to be tried by one of his own race and colour.
Telang replies: " This leads to a difficulty that
natives may have a similar wish". How does Sir
113
Fitz James Stephea meet that why ! he says that
while no native understands English sufficiently to
conducta trial in that language properly, attempts
are made to mark the expression, attempts are made
to get European Officers to study the Vernaculars
of the Country. Telang replied " For every Euro¬
pean that can be shown competent to conduct a
criminal trial in a vernacular language, we can
show at least one hundred natives even more
con^tent to do so in English".
Telang concludes a speech, which makes an
intensely instructive reading in the art of dialec¬
tics and clear, sober and able presentation of one's
own standpoint, by the remark which shows how
strong was his faith in Great Britain.
We bave a very good case ; let us take it before the
House of Commons. By past experience we know that
in such matters we can trust to the justice and sense
of fair play in the British House of Commons, Let us
leave this matter also to their judgment in the full con¬
fidence that it will be there on consideration free from
all local passion and local prepossessioo.
The House of Commons, as the events proved,
could do nothing to support its own Viceroy
against the clamour of the Anglo-Indian. Though
the Bill was not avowedly withdrawn, its shrink¬
age in the Legislative Council was tantamount to
a virtual abandonment of the principle it was
sought to enforce. The wisdom, sobriety and
right direction of which Telang spoke in almost
his last public address were the remarkable
features of the agitation over the Ilbert Bill, in
Bombay piloted by leaders like Telang, Mehta and
Tyabji deservedly known as the triumvirate of
Bombay's political life. Their attitude secured
8
114
the compliment of Lord Cromer who characterized
the public opinion of Bombay " as expressive of
the best type of political thought in India".
This appreciative sentiment" as Mr. Wacha has
told us, " had reference to the sobriety and
ability with which the great historical meeting in
Bombay in support of the Ilbert Bill was
conducted".
The next memorable speech of Telang was
in connection with the public meeting held to
commemorate the Viceroyalty of Lord Ripon. In
that speech he gave reasons for his participation
in the movement. Telang in that speech takes up
every measure of Lord Ripon and shows how in
all his doings the ryot was the object of his
" moving active sympathy". His policy deserved
praise because " it was diametrically opposed to
the policy of carrying taxation along the line of
least resistance which commended itself once to
some great masters of statecraft". There is an
underlying irony in this remark, because the great
master of statecraft Telang refers to is evidently
Lord Ripon's predecessor under whose administra¬
tion the finances of India were in a state of hope¬
less muddle. Telang sums up the spirit of Lord
Ripon*s rule thus :—
Whether we look at the repeal of the Vernacular
PresR Act or the resolution for making public the aims
and scope of Government measures, or the practice of
inviting people's opinions on contemplated projects or
whether we look to the great scheme of local self
government, or the manner in which Kristodas Pal was
appointed to the supreme Legislative Council, we see
clearly the liberal policy of Lord Kipon's Government.
115
Adapting the lines of Tennyson, Telang conclud¬
es the speech thus :
Lord Ripen has made the bonds of freedom wider
by shaping divers august degrees, which have not only
left Queen Victorians throne unshaken in this land but
have made it even more broad based upon the peoplons
will. It is that on which, in my humble judgment, rests
most firmly Lord Ripon's claim to our gratitude. It is
that which justifies the remark that summing up the
result of Lord Ripon^s rule, you may say, borrowing
• again the language of the laureate (Tennyson) that " he
wrought his people lasting good".
The Indian Community discovered its own
strength of combination, its capacity to co-operate
in spite of differences of creed and custom on two
occasions in the reign of Lord Eipon. First in sup¬
porting the Government in its introduction of the
Ilbert Bill and secondly in connection with the
hearty send off it accorded to Lord Ripon. For
the first time in its long history India forgot that
it was a congeries of different nationalities.
The Indian heart beat to one common impulse,
it resounded to one common sentiment. Her
Majesty's permanent opposition, the sobriquent
given to the microscopic minority of the educated
classes "walked" to use the phrase Telang used,
for once into the ranks of the ministerialists."
The lesson of common agitation thus learnt was
well laid to heart. Out of the impulse thus given
sprang a movement, which was to bind the sympa¬
thies of all, and bring about a coalition and union
for common ends. The birth of that movement
was the indirect fulfilment of the policy of Lord
Kipon. In reviewing Telang's work as a politician,
it is this movement, the growth of which from a
116
seedling into a strong and firmrooted plant, he
watched and fostered for well nigh a period of 8
years, that will occupy our attention now. He was the
moving spirit of the Congress from its very incep¬
tion. From 1885-1889 he worked as its general
secretary.
His interest in the two organizations in the
initiation of which he had a great share, viz., the
Bombay Presidency Association and the Congress,,
continued unabated to the end of his Ufe. Mr.
"Wacha tells us ; *
How sad it is to say that when he looked forward
with the keenest interest to the Lahore Congress of 1893,
^ at which Mr. Dadabhai was to preside, the cruel band of
death should have snatched him away from us. The
satisfaction he felt at the election of Mr. Dadabhoy as
M. P. and the great interest he evinced in his career in the
House of Commons are, perhaps, known only to a few.
Those therefore who say or hint that Telang's
elevation to the Bench took away much from his
enthusiasm for poUtical reform are basing their
inference on insufficient data. The controversies
of the day raged round the Consent Bill and
naturally enough, Telang, who was an advocate of
all round progi^ess, pressed forward that cause
with an insistence which led many to think that
at last he had come round to the official view that
political reform was an impossibility unless Social
reform had preceded it. In a letter that Telang
wrote to Y. N. Banade in 1890, Telang has
made his position in this matter very clear and it
is therefor?»'- worth while quoting a passage from
it.
117
After dealing with some question of politics
which we shall have occasion to notice later on,
Telang writes :—
Several years ago 1 delivered in Bombay a public
•address on the question whether social reform should
precede political reform in India. Í answered the ques¬
tion in the negative adding that both were necessary
and both must be zealously pursued; in view of the
available resources and opportunities my answer to that
•question is still the same. But in view of the extraordi¬
nary change which has come over some parts of our
community and of the aggressive attitude visible in some
quarters against social reform it is now become necessary
not to discourage interest in politics but to emphasize
more and more strongly, more and more frequently-our
heavy duties in the social sphere.
Different times require different tactics and it
is the mission of a wise agitator to thrust forward
questions that require immediate attention. It is
not enough nor is it truly statesman-like to float
with the times. The current must be mastered
and no pains ought to be spared to push it along
right, proper and fertilizing channels. The world
may dub it as inconsistency but such an incon¬
sistency is not the surrender of principles and is
only a bugbear of fools.
Before however we turn to Telang's work in
connection with the congress, we have to dwell
for a while on his work as a secretary of the
Bombay Association, the Bombay Branch of the
Dast India Association started by Dadabhoy
Nowrojiand of the Bombay Presidency Association
started by Telang, Mehta and Tyabji in 1885, It
was his work as a seci*etary of these Associations
that gave him the training which made him such
an effective force in politics. It was as early as
118
1873,a year after he had entered the profession^
that he became the secretary of the Bombay
Association* started by Bhau Dajiand others lit
1848 at the instance of Dr. Bnist the veteran
journalist of the time. Later in 1868 was started
the Bombay Branch of the East India Association
by Dadabhoy Nowroji. In, 1860, the Bombay
Association had collapsed and the Bombay
Branch of the East Indian Association was about to
share the same fate. Dadabhoy revived it once more
by introducing new blood. The Bombay Branch
of the East India Association was found after the
events of 1883 and 1884 inadequate for " the
extended sphere of political activity which was
recognized as essential in view of the greater
needs of the country." A new political organization
was therefore started in 1885 which has been
doing its useful work for the last 26 years. "With
all these three Associations Telang was vitally
connected as their working secretary. It was in
this capacity that he received his first lessons of
wise agitation. Believing as he did in the need
of training and discipline for producing fruitful
work it was there that he learnt the art of
weighing his words and making his assertion
square with facts and figures. The spade work
of political life is even more arduous than the
paraphernalia of platform oratory and publife
meetings. Such work Telang did from 1873
when he was elected as the Secretary of the
Bombay Association till the year 1889 when he
had to resign his office as the Secretary of
the Bombay Presidency Association after his
elevation to the Bench.
119
It was Telang's long experience of the practical
part of political work as a Secretary that kept
his utterances free from " the fopppry of high
flown sentiment", and endowed him with a
practical turn of mind, sobriety of judgment
and close powers of reasoning. The absence of
men trained as Telang was trained and cultivated
will be felt not only in debate but in legislation,
when politicians will have less and less leisure,
less and less breathing time, to pause and
reflect and the sçasms of popular emotion become
more frequent and more violent, both by the
Government and by the people. "We have not
the space to deal at great length with many
proposed measures that as a Secretary he had
to analyse and memorialize upon to the Govern¬
ment. Mr. "Wacha whose connection with
Mr. Telang as the f^retary of the Bombay
Branch of the East India Association began as
early as 1880 and lasted on till 1889
speaks highly of Telang's work. The guiding
spirits of the working committee of the Bombay
Branch of the East India Association from
1880 were Telang and Mehta. They were
both conspicuous in the internal direction of
the Association. On Telang fell the brunt of
the harder work. The draft of the proposed Dis¬
trict Municipality's Bill, the first product of
Lord E-ipon's resolution on Local self Govern¬
ment, had to be considered section by section.
Mr. Wacha says that Telang was the directing
talent and cautious guide of the working
Committee.
120
It wa« thig work that I saw him do there which
informed me at once that I was in contact with a
master mind, both of principle and details, of great
ability, of inexhaustible patience, of extreme modesty
and above all, free from dogmatism. I also discovered
his persuasive powers and his debating strength. They
were such as to do credit to the most practised debater
in a select committee of the House of Commons.
The next piece of legislation that underwent
careful scrutiny was the Ilbert Bill. The agitation
on that Bill was piloted safe by Telang, Mehta
and Tyabji. The dignity and moderation evinced
in Bombay in the agitation ovef* the Ilbert Bill
was due to the " consummate statesmanship and
marvellous coolness" displayed by the three leaders
: mentioned above. It was during that agitation
that Telang revealed to the country what a man
of careful speech he was, Ranade has described
Telang as " Not an oratpjwho could thunder, hut
as one who gave heat, light and motion and hope
to the masses about him in a way to make them
feel that they had profited by listening to him,
even for a short space of time." Telang's speech
was one sweet flow of reason. The speech on the
Ilbert Bill is a typical instance of Telang's manner
and method. It combines both lucidity and
restraint. It is " lavish in defence and frugal in
attack" and absolutely free from "over embellish¬
ment and exaggeration."
Mr. Telang's work as the secretary of the Bombay
Presidency Association has come in for the follow¬
ing appreciation from Mr. Wacha and speaks for
itself, Mr- Wacha was joint Secretary of the Asso¬
ciation with Telang and Metha. He had therefore
ample opportunities for "appreciating not only his
121
political activity but his political sagacity." He
writes thus : " I saw at once how quickly Telang
grasped the broad lines underlying a gjven state-
measure, how he detected the fallacies thereof and
how he was a master of the art of practical logic to
demonstrate them to conclusion." Evening after
ovening the three would meet in the rooms of the
association and talk over public questions. Drafts
were proposed, analysed and revised. The last
mostimportantmemorial which Mr. Wachaprepared
with Mr. Telang was in reference to the Associa¬
tion's representations on the subject of the Bom¬
bay Municipality Bill, in 1888. Telang was then a
member of the Legislative Council and therefore
remained outside the working committee. Yet he
along with Mehta gave all the necessary hints and
put the workers on the right track. Mr. Wacha
says " Few of the public of Bombay are aware of
the amount of time, labour and thought bestowed
on the moulding of the Bill, more or less in har¬
mony with p )pular opinion, as vigorously echoed
in the corporation, by Telang and Mehta," Telang
could not join the select Committee at Mahablesh-
war but he maintained a continued correspon¬
dence with Mehta on all the knotty points that
cropped up during the course of the work of the
select Committee, Yerily the things that matter
most are the things that are done behind the
scenes. They reveal the energy, the enthusiasm
the patience, the sincerity and public spirit even
more conspiciously than trenchent crit'cism or a
hery attack on an opponent delivered from a
public platform. The laurels of political hfe fall
only to him who is prepared to bear the toil, and
122
turmoil no less than the heat and dust of public
work from day to day.. We would win the prize
and not face the patient toil and the tiring con¬
flict. Earnest and zealous work, readiness to
bear the burden unostentatiously, without murmur
and without any hope of reward, is the price that
has to be paid for the attainment of eminence.
Mr. Wacha on whom we have drawn largely in-
connection with this aspect of Telang's political
life says :—
He had no patience with those, who sitting astride on
the fence of politics were the foremost to hurl their ill-
disguised criticism behind the back of unselfish workers
and would yet decline to co-operate when repeatedly
asked to do so. Himself a man who never shirked any
drudgery, however taxing and fatiguing, Mr. Telang
worked at any cause on hand with cheerfulness and with
a ten mules' dogged industry.
He pursued his political work with patience,
perseverance and steadfastness of aim, "It is in
this respect that Mr. Telang's character as a
practical and successful politican comes out with
irresistible force." " It is this aspect of his public
life which needs to be well studied ?" says Mr.
Wacha "by the rising generation of educated
India." We keep on clamouring for rights, we are
either too sanguine or too pessimistic. We do not
persevere enough. We trust too much to systems
and too little to personal endeavours. We have
not that sturdy hopefulness which characterized
Telang. We have not that moral fibre which
enabled him to keep on working and working, un¬
daunted by failure. We want to grasp the prize
without facing the weariness of the struggle.
That is what Telang complained against.
As he wrote once,
123
** in politics you complain of GoTernment, in social
matters In the narrower sense you complain of our so
called leaders, in educational matters complain of the
University. And for the rest why, everything is, as it
should be, a great advance, is made and is being made,
and therefore the community need do nothing. Con-
sciouly whatever we may do, or fail to do, this is not an
elevating ideal to place before ourselves".
To cast off all work and responsibility on others
^nd yet be hoping for the good to come of itself
is not the way to achieve anything. To shirk
work and yet expect results betrays the weakening
of the moral fibre. Thus institutions collapse,
organized activity is at a discount and national
progress is slow. Our public life becomes a
trumpery and a farce because there are not men
willing to come forward to do the spade work.
The result is the lack of experience and adminis¬
trative inefficiency. There are towering person¬
alities but the average character is inferior, want¬
ing in tenacity, doggedness and resolute will.
Telang's life should teach us this., We should not
allow every little success to elevate us or every little
depression to deject us. We must be inspired by
his example to work long for great results by
great toil and not be disappointed if we are
" unable to accomplish the work of centuries in a&
many decades and the work of decades in as many
years and the work of years in as many days.""
Our difficulties are " in us, they are not outside
of us but inside us. They are in our inertia,
in our weakness, in our physical inability to»
sustain hard work," This is what Telang meant
when he said " if there is one thing more than
another now wanted to be developed among us, it
124
is a strengthening of our moral fibre," Of that
moral fibre, Telang had enough as is evidenced by
the arduous work that he underwent as
Secretary of the many Associations with which he
was connected.
From Telang's work as the secretary of the
Bombay Presidency Association we pass on to his
work as a member of the Bombay Legislative
Council of which he was a member for 5 years.
He was nominated in 1884 by the Government of
Sir James Fergusson and the appointment conti¬
nued on, by further nomination through the reign
of Lord Reay till 1889. In his capacity as a
member of the Council he proved himself an
eflFective and active critic" of government measu¬
res. Perhaps the most important bills introduced
during his term of appointment were the Bill for
the Amendment of the Land Revenue code of 1885
:and the City of Bombay Municipal Bill introduced
in 1887. His general attitude towards these
measures may be best summed up in the words of
Sir Raymond West.
On all occasions he resisted excessive government
action and interference with tbe fair play of individual
will under tbe traditional conditions, but always with
an elevation of view and a sense of responsibility which
made his very opposition an ultimate source of
etrengtb.
Generally he voted in favour of the Bill at the
1 st reading trusting to see it materially modified
in the committee stage. He would subject the
sections of a Bill to searching criticism and spoke
very strongly as to measures and proposals, but in
his very attitude of opposition he made it clear
125
that he appreciated to the full the Government's
sincere wish to do good by the people. Ho
started in his criticism with this prepossession in
favour of Government that if it only knew what
were the real bearings of the question it would
willingly come round to his view and do what the-
people wanted it to do.
Hence there was no " confused vehemence " in
his opposition. Nor were his remarks seasoned
trith denunciations of his opponents. His natural
kindliness of spirit and his intellectual detachment
saved him from tlfe defects to which the champion
of people's cause is prone to falla victim. On the
other hand if " he did not howl to order he also-
did not cow to command." " His grasp of funda¬
mental principles was great and he was therefore
most able to give expression to them with a
perspicacity which left little to be desired."
In his advocacy of people's grievances he was
neither fussy or meddlesome, but when he
thought that a principle was at stake he was the
foremost to assert it and he asserted it in no hesi¬
tating tone. Thus incidentally in his minute on
education he remarks.
1 am no fanatical advocate of the claims of my
countrymen to appointments in the public Service but I
must say we have not received quite fair measure in
this matter. To borrow a figure from John Bright, we-
bave had a feast with a very small quantity of meat and
a very large quantity of table-cloth.
Again in his speech on the 1st reading of the Bill
for the Amendment of Land Revenue Code he says
in answer to the contention of the member in
charge of the Bill that the pressure of the land
126
revenue under the British Rule was lighter than,
that under native rule.
I should say that the British Goverament ought in
this matter to rise superior to the practice of natire Go¬
vernments during the periods to which the Honourable
member has referred. In those periods according to my
-understanding of the subject, the native governments
were themselves deviating from their own traditions of
past times and the system of those degenerate days
should not be pointed for comparison. For the British
Government would not be worthy of its position unless
it rose superior to the system prevailing in those days.
In spite of the many flaws that he noticed in the
Bill at its 1 st reading he did not vote against it
because on the whole the policy of the Bill is one
on which the Government may be congratulated."
But " steps should be taken during the progress of
the Bill in order that the policy which we know to
be liberal, may also appear liberal to those affected
by it."
Thus Telang never stooped to catch a momentary
applause but always spoke in sober language
words of wisdom, words that sprang from his inner
conviction and that in their turn carried
conviction to those around him. As Sir Raymond
"West remarks, Telang " faced every question in
the spirit of a statesman and not of a mere
caviller." Telang had an abounding faith in the
power of argument and logic and he looked upon
his opponents as amenable to argument. That
faith of his is well expressed in one of his lectures.
In comparing the relative claims of political and
social reform he says :—
In politics, argument goes a great way, in social
reform, it goes for very little seeing that feeling and
127
traditions are involved in it to a very large extent. In
politics, even such a thinker as Sir Fitz James Stephen
is content to resort to reason. He says that if the
people of India want free institutiods, without
wirepulling from English radicals, let them by all means
have such institutions. Sir Fitz James Stephen's
objection is only to the concession of such institutions,
when they are not asked for in India, only to prove a
pet theory of English politicians. In the presence of such
champions of the existing order of things, logic is an
instrument of power.
How far such a faith is justified it is not our
purpose to enquire^ We have quoted the passage
to show the feeling by which he was inspired in
his criticism of government measures.
That faith imparted a dignity to all his utteran¬
ces, It made his criticism free from rancour,
abuse or overstatement. There was always tact
and courtesy about his demeanour towards offici¬
als. That was also the reason why his insistence
was looked upon as worthy of serious considera¬
tion. This dignified bearing and this tactful hand¬
ling of proposed measures never had a better
result that in the ultimate ahape they contributed
to give to the Bombay Municipal Bill of 1888
making it acceptable as a sufficient measure of
advance in local self government, bringing it thus
in a line with those principles which
I (Telang) should like to see developed more fully in
the Municipal Government of Bombay as years go on.
The Bill as it was introduced was of the most reactionary
character. It militated against the resolution of Lord
Ripon on local self government. It sought to rest all
power in the Municipal Commissioner Including
power over the finances of the civic treasury.
It was owing to the exertions of Mehta and
Telang and their strenuous fight over it section
128
by section at different readings and during the
committee stage, that it became the liberal piece
of legislation we find it to-day. Telang found it sa
retrograde that he expressed himself on the clauses
of the Bill at its first reading in the following
terms :—
My beau-ideal of municipal Government includes a
strong executive responsible to the Corporation and
an enlightened corporation watchful over its executive.
Under such a constitution you may give a full play to
the good sense of the Corporation, which has been, on
the whole, pretty well shown dusing the past ñfteen
years. But the principles of this Bill are as far from
my beau ideal as they could well be Local Self-govern¬
ment is a sham if no trust is reposed either in the Cor.
poration or the Town Council. I do not say that Mr.
Naylor or Mr. Ollivant are actuated by a distrust of the
popular government but their confidence in it is weaker
than it should be. If the pre-eminent position of Bombay
to which reference has been made in the speech of the
Hon. member, requires a special mode of Government,
let us by all means consider that point. If popular
(Tovernment cannot be trusted to cope with all the
necessities of that pre-eminent position, let us abolish
the Municipality altogether and let us have a strong ad¬
ministration and rule by means of theOovernor-in-Coun-
cil. But if we are to have popular Government let us
have it in genuine form, with power and responsibility
in the hands of those who represent the people. There
may have been blunders, but these blunders are a neces¬
sary part of our municipal education and not always
absent under autocratic rule. We must be prepared to
put up with such occasional blunders to secure eventual
good government.
Further on he says " I would sooner have our
lax phraseology, our conflicts of jurisdiction, and
our numerous anomalies, than scientific legisla¬
tion in which all the substance of self-government
will be abolished or starved out." These are
129
strong words but they are well-measured and free
fix)m rodomontade or mere beating in the air.
The passage we have quoted has even a wider
application than is meant. It strongly protests
against any make-believe form of government,
against the tendency too common with men in
power to give people a stone when they ask for
bread, a toy to play with than a real means of
education and steady advance in political power
and emancipation. By his powerful advocacy, his
sagacity, his steady appeal to right principles, he
materially contributed to the improvement of the
Bill and its success. Sir Baymond West remarks
that
the important enactment by which primary education
was made a statutory duty of the Municipality was the
fruit of a half-hour's conference in the interyal of the
debate between a member of the Government on the one
hand and of Telan g and Mehta on the other.
The Bill was so much improved in its progress
through the select committee and in the course of
the detailed consideration before the full council,
that Telang was able to say about it in his speech
on the final reading of the Bill that it was for
that time " a sufficient measure of advance in
local self-government," There was an opinion out¬
side the Council that the Municipal Commissioner
should be " improved " out of the Municipal cons¬
titution altogether. Telang was opposed to any
such scheme. He says :—
If we get rid of the Municipal Commissioner we shall
either have another officer under perhaps another name
with the same function or we shall have what will be
equivalent to Municipal anarchy. We shall not have
one governing spirit ruling the whole of the Municipal
9
130
Administration and I am not prepared to look upon this
with complacency, I am in favour of the Municipal
Commissioner though I can quite see that the time may
oome when we shall take a further step in the direction
of local self-government and the Municipal Corporation
will have to ask the Council to concede the power to the
Corporation to appoint its own Municipal Commissioner.
Telang was a believer in these matters " in the
general wisdom of the maxim that we ought to
hasten slowly." " I am not a believer in finality
in political matters. Like Oliver Twist we must
always be asking for more and I hope Govern¬
ment will always be ready to gi^e us more." The
same principle guided his conduct in all matters
of reform. It was a counterpart of the faith in
the earnestness of the rulers to give us more and
more of privileges as in course of time we
prove our fitness for them by turning to good
account the rights already conceded. As he says
in one of his lectures,
if we compare the Government and the Hindu
population to two forti facing the army of reform, can
there be any doubt that the wisest course for that
army is to turn its energies first towards the fort
represented by the Government where we have numerous
and powerful friends among the garrison and which is
held against us only to test first whether we shall
be able to properly use any large powers that may be
conceded to us there.
Any departure from the policy of political con¬
cessions as time and circumstance prove the ex¬
pediency of granting them was regarded by Telang
as a temporary eclipse of good sense. Other
measures which he had an occasion to criticize
were the Gujrat TaJukdar's Act and the
Hereditary Officer's Act and the Village Sanitation
131
Bill. He was opposed to introducing sanitar7
improvement by having recourse to special taxa¬
tion. He says :—
I think there would be more chance of sanitary
improvement becoming more popular, being more
generally acquiesced in and accepted if, at the first start,
it was not associated with the unpleasant presence of the
tax-gatherer in the villages.
Some other method should be adopted by which
•Local Board's and the Sanitary authorities may
between themselves settle about the finances, in¬
stead of investing «the latter with special taxing
powers.
One more passage from his speech on this Bill
is worth quoting as to his view on efficiency and
progress, in which there seems to be an apparent
conflict. Telang says :—
We want efficiency and we also want progress. If I
were to look merely at the exigencies of the moment, and
to the security of the Sanitary improvement just now, it
is possible I should class myself with those who consider
that all Sanitation throughout the Presidency should be
•entrusted to the officers of the Central Government.
But I think it is right, it is our duty, to take a some¬
what wider view and we must consider that if the busi¬
ness of Sanitation is entrusted entirely to over-worked
efficers of the Central Government, there is great danger
of its falling into hands which will not be able to do it
fiatisfactorily.
He therefore was in favour of entrusting the
work to village Committees as an experiment.
He says :—
1 take the same view vith regard to Sanitation as in
regard to all local matters, namely that it is desirable to
make a beginning of popular administration in whatever
w ork is to be done.
132
Efficiency alone should not be the governing-
principle in such matters. The question is of en¬
abling the people to look after their own affairs to
afford them gradually that " freedom from official
tutelage " which Lord Ripon considered as essential
to healthy and independent growth. Responsibility
alone discovers and develops capacity. Officers
zealous for improvement, and inspired with the
ambition of conferring great benefits upon a large
community are anxious to enforce useful reforms
at once disregarding the feelings of the local
bodies. But that is not the beal means to cure
the people of ignorance, apathy or indifference,.
That cure can only be brought about by political
education which means a gradual devolution of
political power even though for the time being
efficiency may suffer. The officers certainly ought
to " retain sufficient control over the local bodies
to see that they do not permanently, obstinately
or slothfully neglect their duties towards their
fellow citizens." It is only thus that efficiency
and progress can be combined and such a
combination alone will lead to the contentment,,
and happiness of the people and an enlightened
sympathy and co-operation between the rulers
and the ruled.
We now turn to the last phase of Telang's
political activity, namely, his work in the Congress..
This is not the place to trace the genesis of the
Congress. Suffice it to say that to Mr.A.O. Hume
goes all the credit for the starting of a movement
that was to grow in course of time into such a
mighty and potent instrument of national
awakening. The Congress held its 1st Session in
133
Bombay in 1885. For four years till 1889 Telang
took a most prominent part in its deliberations.
The resolution that he moved in the Congress of
1885 was on the reform and expansion of the
Legislative Councils, which latter, early in 1876
he had declared as little better than a solemn
farce. The speech is devoted to a detailed
consideration of the scheme proposed by the
^Congress. He examines the resolution part by
part and shows its practical utility. He concludes
thus :— •
These reforms, I venture to think, are in themselves
quite reasonable, they are thoroughly praclicable, and
not in the least revolutionary : and they are calculated,
on the one hand to facilitate the work of the Govern¬
ment and on the other to afford a fair scope for the
aspirations of the people in the direction of publie
usefulness.
The passage quoted shows generally the*grounds
on which he based his advocacy of popular demands.
Telang wanted the House of Commons to assert
in pi-actice the authority which rested with it in
theory as " the great and supreme Council of the
British Empire." He maintained that
on important points, where the Government on the
spot must decide, the responsibility for the administration
being vested in tbem, it must not be allowed to decide
finally. The Protests recorded by a majority in the
Council must go for final decision to the House of
Commons.
He was therefore for the abolition of the India
Council, whose policy he declared as abominably
obstructive.
The centre of the practical work of Indian adminstra-
tion should be shifted from England to India. It ought
134
not to be necessary in matters of practical administration
to appeal against well-informed local officers on the spot
to what has been not inappropriately designated a con¬
clave of effete of&cers hundreds of miles away.
He was also against working for representation
in Parliament.
I do not think that that ought to be the goal towards
which we should work. What 1 prefer is that we should
have a properly and liberally framed constitution afford¬
ing due scope for local knowledge and capacity, under
a general supervision, in the great authority which
governs the whole empire namely, ^the Imperial Parlia^
ment.
Representative Councils in the country supple¬
mented by the standing committee of the House
of Commons was the ideal to strive for. Pro¬
vincial autonomy subject to popular control,
through a real and effective representation, with
the power of veto in the supreme government,
the finaT power of decision in matters of general
policy vested in the House of Commons, that was
the goal to which he asked political workers to
push forward,—of course this was not to be attain¬
ed all at once. The success depended upon so
many considerations. That depended upon the
development in the people of the public spiiit, the
intellectual life, the moral fervour and capacity to
persevere for the attainment of impersonal aims,
from which national life derives its sustenance,
growth and staljle character. In the growth of
that life, associations, clubs, meetings, agitation
and discussion formed so many organic filaments.
In a letter written toan enquirer in 1890 Telang
laid especial emphasis on this point. After quoting
from Herbert Spencer to the effect that
135
the forms which freedom requires will not of themsel-
Tea produce the reality of freedom in the absence of an
appropriate national character any more than the most
perfect mechanism will do its work in tha absence of a
motive power,
Telang points out that
an elective system is only machinery and to derive
good results from it,«it must be worked by good men. Án
elective system does not create good electors or good
representatives. On the contrary good representatives,
good electors, and a good system ef election are three
factors to considerable extent indépendant of each other
which only in combination yield the best results. There¬
fore if a good systém of election were conceded by the
rulers the duty which wo shall have to discharge will
be all the greater and more exacting.
Hence he enjoined upon the people in an address
to the Elphinstonians,
to cultivate the spirit of sobriety and imitate the
virtues of the British nation. Some people think that
Indians are at present competent to enjoy the highest
rights of citizenship but nothing is farther from the
truth. There is nothing positively to take exception
to talking of systems of election to the Legislative
Councils but we must know that to work a system of
election jthere must be life. There should be intellec¬
tual life to support and nourish the elected Councils.
Th<^ Electors and the elected should have their respective
duties to perform. There ought to be political feeling
behind to aminate those who take part in the Congress.
That political feeling would be the result of
patient toil carried on from day to day for years
and years together, by those who were deeply
conscious of the duties they dwed to the nation.
Meanwhile, as responsible leaders, we ought to be
content "to accept whatever concessions were
granted to us bit by bit, make an honest use of
them and, looking to the lessons of history, to
136
look hopefully forward to the future." When
Telang gave this advice he was careful to state
side by side as his firm opinion that though they
were "advancing in politics with an eagerness
greater than what it needed or should be", there
was nothing however in the result to be dissatis¬
fied with. He said that
whereas he would remind his countrymen that they
bad duties to obey as well as rights to exercise, he was
also confident that as natives would be appointed more
and more, their competency in the discharge of their
duties would continue to grow. ^
His demand at that time was not for " repre¬
sentative institutions in the accurate sense of the
^ expression."
All that we should ask for is that while the B ritieh
Government, having the responsibility of administration,
must retain all direct power in its own control, it should
in the interests of good and progressive administration,
receive advice in an organized and responsibly consti¬
tuted mode, not only from such of our countrymen as
the Government thinks fitted to give such advice, but
also from some who are designated for the purpose by
their own fellow subjects. I do not call this representa¬
tive Government and I confess too, that 1 have formed
no such great expectation regarding the results of it.
Still 1 consider the proposal to be one of some immediate
use and importance and which may, in the future, and
with the changes which, let us hope, we shall have
undergone in the interval, lead us on to the ideally best
form of government.
The last part of the sentence is particularly
worth noting in *the light of what he said else¬
where that in politics there was no finality but
that in the practical realization of our goal we
must be content to hasten slowly. The passages
quoted are from opinions expressed in the press
137
and on the platform subsequent to 1889. We must
therefore come back to the speech he delivered in
1885 from the Congress platform on. the resolu¬
tion for the reform of the councils. The reforms
proposed were 1. the admission of a considerable
proportion of elected members, 2. the discussion
of the Budget, and 3. the right of interpellation
in regard to all branches of the Administration.
^All these demands were more or less conceded by
the reforms introduced by the Government of
Lord Lansdowne, In the light of recent changes
in the Council in the direction of reform and
expansion, and also as regards some share in the
direct administration of the country, the demands
made in 1885 seem to us trivial. It only shows
how much we have advanced in political concep¬
tion and also in political fitness during the last
26 years. Of course the India Council, for the
abolition of which the CoiigresS made a strong
demand in those days, still exists. Two Indians
have been admitted on its boíird. Its functions
are yet purely advisory and the Secretary of
State is still an omnipotent personality, work¬
ing for good or ill according to his political
lights and sympathy. One of the demands which
the Congress made in those days still remains un¬
fulfilled. The British House of Commons still
prefers only to register the decrees of the Secre¬
tary of State and does not care ^ to exercise an
effective control. But the British people are
taking certainly a keener interest in Indian affairs
owing partly to the work of the British Congress
Committee and partly to the stirring times
through which India is passing. It may bg
138
noted in passing that the idea of sending dele¬
gates to England to represent Indian grievances
before the British electorate and to enlist its
sympathy on the side of India, found a strong
champion in Mr. Telang. He had a great Jiand
in drafting the leaflets on Indian questions that
were circulated in England through the Indian
delegates, in 1885, A question here aiises
incidentally as to what he thought about the
parties in England. From his remarks in reply
to the debate on the resolution he moved in the
Congress of 1885, it seems that he leaned to the
same view that Sir P. M. Mehta has more than
once asserted with all the emphasis he can com¬
mand viz.^ that if we want to see our cause
triumph we must be prepared to throw in our lot
with the Liberals, for they alone in virtue of their
traditions are able, if at all, to help us forward
Telang says :—
It is said that to trust to a Parliamentary Committee
in the last resort is to throw Indian affairs in the party
politics of England. 1 beg to eay in reference to this
objection that in the first place I am not very much
afraid of the result because the points which will be
sent up for discussion must be points relating to general
principles of GoTemraent. But I go further and say
that the interrention of Parliament in our affairs asked
for by the present Resolution will not throw us more
into English party strife than we are already under
present circumstances.
Evidently Tejang was not afraid of making the
administration of India a party question. Knowing
as we do his leanings and relying iis he did upon
past experience it is not difiácult for us to see
with what party he would have been willing to
throw in his lot. It was to the countrymen of
139
of Gladstone, Bríffht, Clarkson and Wilberforce,.
that he appealed in one of his speeches. It was
the Government of Lord R-ipon that had stood up
in his eyes for principles of the Proclamation.
Naturally enough therefore the party that gave
such a Government was the party towards which
his sympathies would incline and to which he
would look up for a progressive measure of Consti¬
tutional Government.
Telang's great objection to the existence^
of the India Copncil " was that most of its acts
and deliberations were done in secret conclave,
so that for good or for evil, its work was
not easy to survey and judge." Further more-
" even if some Indians were appointed to the
India Council," in Telang's opinion,
an individual member of a Council sitting in London
would be quite unable to mako his influence felt in all
departments of the administration, for there was in the
India Council specialization of functions and work in
the same way as there is in the Executive Council in the
Country.
If the hands of the Secretary of State had to
be strengthened against the unfair demands of
the English department of war etc., such strength
Telang thought, would be better and more efifect-
ively supplied by reconstituted Councils. The
system Telang considered as vicious in itself and
had in actual working failed to influence the
administration for good. From these facts Telang
concluded that " the India Council should go-
leaving not a wrack behind."
For two years Telang could not attend the
sittings of the Congress held at Calcutta and
Madras. In 1888 he attended the Congress at
140
Allahabad presided over by George Yule and spoke
-on the resolution of the Reform of the Councils,
upholding the same scheme that he had developed
in 1885 and dealing with the comments made
against the Congress propaganda by highly placed
Anglo-Indian officials and more especially by the
Viceroy himself in his post-prandial utterance at
the annual St. Andrew's Dinner held in Calcutta.
Lord Dufferin's attitude towards the Congress was
in the main of cordial sympathy. It was owing to
his suggestion that the Congres^ developed into a
political gathering. When Mr. Hume in an
interview at Simla laid before the Viceroy his
project of arranging for an annual meeting place
where leaders of Indian thought could come to¬
gether and discuss social matters, Lord Dufferin
^Id Mr. Hume that it would be far better if the
leaders met and pointed out to the Government
*'in what respects the administration was defective
and how it could be improved." Lord Dufferin
said that there was no body of persons in India
who performed the functions which Her Majesty's
Opposition did in England.
The newspapers, even if they really represented the
TÍews of the people, were not reliable and the English
were necessarily ignorant of what was thought of them
and their policy in the native circles.
He therefore proposed that
the Indian politicians should meet yearly and point
-out to the Government in what respects the administra¬
tion of the country needed reform to bring it in a line
with the wishes of the people.
When Mr. Hume laid this scheme before the
leaders of different provinces it met with the ap¬
proval and suppoi-t of all. When the Congress
141
»
met in Calcutta in 1886 Lord Duflferin invited
the leading politicians to a garden party.
Thus Lord Dufferin's attitude tpwards the
Congress was in the main sympathetic. Conse¬
quently when Telang answered the comments of
Lord Dufferin, it was to show that Lord Dufferin
had clearly misapprehended the attitude of the^
Congress. The speech which he delivered on this
occasion bound fresh laurels to the brow of Mr.
Telang. Mr. Wacha says " To my ears it rings as
if it had been delivered yesterday, full as it was
of that close reasoning, persuasive eloquence and
convincing logic of which he was master. Mr.,
John Adam who attended the Congress at Alla¬
habad characterizes it thus ;—
No one who was present at Allahabad when all India
was reeking with the exuberant verbosity of the 8t.
Andrew^s Dinner Speech can forget how the passage in
which Telang compared the remarks of Lord Dufferin
on the Congress proposals to somebody's definition of a
crab brought down the house, and the (pawky?) way in
which the speaker's eye suggested that the fable of the
crab might be given a slightly different application.
If in his speeches on the cotton duties and the
License Tax, Telang had set himself "to denounce
the Jingoism of Lord Lytton " and in his speech on
the Ilbert Bill and on the retirement of Lord
Ripon he had " applauded the liberalism of that
generous hearted Viceroy," in the speech delivered
before the Congress at Allahabad, Telang in the
opinion of John Adams, made it equally clear
that he would have none of the diplomacy, the
tortuous haute politique which Lord Dufferin for
its sins imposed on India. The passage contain-
142
îng the reference to the fable of the crab is worth,
quoting and runs as follows :—
His Lordship says, the idea authoritatively suggest^
as I understand, is the creation of a representative héty
or bodies in which the official element shall be in a mino¬
rity, who shall have what is called the power of the
purse and who through this instrumentality, shall be
able to bring the British executive into subjection to
their will. The basis for that statement is our demand
that the financial statement shall be brought before the
Council for discussion. Not only do I not find in any of
the reports any grounds for such a statement but I find
what is actually the reverse of it. It hes been said over
and over again that the executive shall have the power
of deciding what shall be done and of absolutely vetoing
any proposal emanating from the rest of the Council and
yet in face of such a resolution as this, i^hich we have
passed mot once, not twice but three times, such a state¬
ment has been made by his Lordship. I can only express
my amazement at it and I cannot believe his Lordship
capable of making it except on the assumption that he
has lacked the time to study our reports himself.
Following on this comes the passage which
Mr. Adams praises so much.
The various charges which his Lordship makes against
the Congress, are charges which remind me of a certain
definition which was once given of a crab viz. that a
crab is a red fish which walks backwards, and the criti-
cism made upon that was that the definition was per¬
fectly correct except that the crab was not a fish, that it
was not red and that it did not walk backwards. Now
1 may say that Lord Dufferin's criticism is perfectly
correct, except that we have not asked for democratic
methods of government, we have not asked for Parlia¬
mentary institutions which England has got after many
centuries of discipline: we have not asked for the power
of the purse : and we have not asked that the British
Executive should be brought under subjection to us.
This speech is throughout characterized by
sustained simplicity and cogency of rhetoric "
I
143
which was the conspicuous feature of Telang's
public speaking. There is a flavour of refinement
and high intellectuality about his utterances rare
among the champions of people's rights. This
speech as well as those on the Ilbert Bill and the
Cotton Duties deserve careful perusal both on the
score of their manner and matter. In all these
he comes out as ** practical, fertile, sagacious, and
moderate."
• They are considered by Sir Raymond West as
models of criticism " which those who would fain
take his place and continue his work would .do
well to study and imitate." These gained for him
the reputation of a leader " who led his country¬
men by rising superior to them in toleration,
largeness of view and in the charity which shrinks
from imputing evil." Sir Raymond West remarks:
Telang showed remarkable sa^^acity and judgment in
taking up his positions. He maintained them with great
dialetic skill and in language of a limpid purity that
would hare done credit to an English born orator. He
was an assiduous student of Brigbt's speeches and with¬
out rising to majesty, he could infuse into his own
addresses, on great occasions, an earnestness and patrio¬
tic fervour clothed in unaffected language not unworthy
of the great tribune. He could rise with the popular
feeling but he could not sink with it below the level of
his own magnanimity.
The following is the verdict of another great
Anglo-Indian, who heard Mr. Telang and who
was also his personal friend, on Telang's style of
omtory.
As a speaker Mr. Telang possessed a perfect debating,
1 should say a perfect House of Commons* style. There
was no impassioned eloquence, still less any trace of the
demagogue about his oratory. But neither was there
144
an atom of halting or hesitation either in the mental argu*
ment or in the verbal utterance. He reasoned with marvel¬
lous clearness and lucidity, straight and unflinchingly to
his conclusion and played upon the moods of an intel¬
lectual audience with the skill of a musician upon a familiar
instrument. His wit was qüite gallic in its delicacy,
and lost nothing in effect by being absolutely free from
vulgarity. His English style possessed a full measure
of the curiosa felicitas which he himself attributed to
Lord Tiytton. This last trait was all tliô more remark¬
able when we remember not only that Mr. Telang spoke
in an adopted language, but that he made no attempt to
elaborate his speeches beforehand. With his matter
thoroughly digested and his line of^argument carefully
arranged, he left the appropriate words to come at the
time. Taken all round, in manner, matter and effect^
his speeches may, perhaps, be better compared with
those of Lord Rosebery than with the public utterances
of any other English speakers of the present day.
We thought it fit to introduce these extracts
from the appreciations of two Anglo-Indians on
Telang's style of oratory because they reveal to
us what those who had the best opportunity for
observation and judgment thought of his work.
In such matters it is best to draw upon the opinion
of those who themselves have heai^d the best
speakers in England. Besides their opinion on
Telang's style is as much an opinion on
his attitude towards public question. The style
is the man, so runs the common saying, and
simplicity, restraint and polish in diction are the
outward signs of a temperament serene, well
poised and indicative of what Emerson has chosen
to call "the repose of energy". " Calmness comes
with knowledge to most men and the turbid
stream grows clear as it runs deep, but to some
men, moderation and balance of thought are a
145
gift of natiue ; they perceive that there may be
two sides even to a question on which they feel
most warmly". This was pre-eminently true of
Telang. We have introduced the phrase "animat¬
ed moderation" in the earlier portion of this
section. That phrase correctly describes Telang's
writings and speeches and his attitude towards
the questions of the day. Walter Bagehot ex¬
plains the phrase thus :—
* It is a subtle quality or combination of qualities
singularly useful iii practical life. The writings
characterized by tinimated moderation are never slow«
are never excessive, are never exaggerated, they are
always instinct with judgment and yet that judgment
is never a dull judgment ; they have as much spirit in,
them as would make a wild writer and yet that every line
of them is the product of a sane and sound writer.
There is in them a union of life with measure, of spirit
with reasonableness.
The speeches and writings from which we have
quoted abundantly in this section will easily carry
conviction that these are exactly the elements
that mark out Telang's supreme gift of exposition
of any topic that he treated. That was what
prevented him from being " a bodyless thinker or
an ineffectual scholar " so soon liable to be
weeded out of political life as many are, who be¬
come leaders of a day, simply because they are borne
on the tide of popular frenzy. His was not
" an idiosyncratic mind violently disposed to
extremes of opinion." " He bad ' the poise of
mind ^ the faculty of waiting which in the
opinion of Seeley is " the masterpiece of a
statesman's art," That is what made him such an
effective and wise mediator between the ruler
10
146
and the ruled. He was trusted both of the
people and the Government. He was as fearless
in giving advice to the people as he was in
preaching to "the Government on its duties towards
the governed. In the Age of Consent Controversy
he was bold enough to . tell the educated classes
who opposed the measure, at the risk of incurring
unpopularity, as follows :—
1 do not object for an instant to their telling the
Government, if they so believe, that the people will be
discontented with the Government measure. But in so
doing they must remember that they %re doing only one
half of their duty. Their whole duty requires that they
should tell their brethren how they misappreciate the
principles and the actions of Government in the matter.
Sir Raymond West remarks ;—
As against any manifestation of turbulence he was
always on the side of strong Government. No
incitement to a menacing display of physical force ever
escaped him and as a Judge be crossed a strong native
sentiment by desiring a restriction of trial by Jury,
where juries were found unequal to the duties cast upon
(hem.
Another instance of the spirit of speaking out
the truth and a tendency to be always guided in
matters of policy by practical consideration may
be here cited. In the Congress of 1888, he
supported the amendment to the resolution on the
establishment of Military Colleges and the modi¬
fication of the Arms Act. The grievances on the
Arms Act he considered a sentimental grievance.
As a practical body of men, he said, dealing with
practical affairs of the administration, we should not be
governed by merely sentimental considerations. You
cannot deny that there are some classes of people in the
country who are turbulent and under the terms of the
147
resolution, as it is framed, everybody would be
entitled to wear arms. Unless specially debarred it is
quite possible that weapons might go into the hands of the
turbulent classes in which case peaceful pèople might not
find themselves in such a position of security as at present.
Secondly the resolution affirms that when the Govern¬
ment does issue an order «that certain individuals or
olasses of individuals, are not to have arras, they shall
state in writing and publish to the world the reasons for
withholding them. 1 cannot agree to throw this burden
of stating their reasons upon the responsible executive.
I
In opposing the modification of the Arms Act
he was crossing afitrong native sentiment. He was
in favour of establishing Military Colleges for
Indian youths. He strongly supported the appeal
of the Congress to Government for authorizing a*
\system of volunteering for the Indian inhabitants
of the country. But he could not be convinced
that the Arms Act was a slur on Indian loyalty.
He supported Mr, Pringle Keneddy in his conten¬
tion that if there was any desire for equality, he
would rather see Europeans put upon the same
level as the natives and be compelled to take out
the licenses in the same way.
The support that he gave in the same Congress
to Mr. Mundliar's amendment to the resolution
moved by Mr. Norton on the Public Service ques¬
tion was dictated by the same practical considera¬
tion. He agreed with Mr. Mundliar that the
consideration of the subject . of simultaneous
•examination should be postponed to the next year
pending the decision of the Government on the
report of the Public Service Commission. Telang
said that if he asked the Congress not to pass
the resolution moved by Mr. Norton, it was not
148
l)ecause he did not accept the principle of it, but
it was because prudential considerations required
that
they should wait and be quiet a little, rather than by
re-opening the question ,8hould sacrifice all that we might
otherwise get under the report. We have made our
claim, and Government, who has to decide on that claim-
have appointed a commission for the purpose of advising;
as to how that claim should be considered. The Govern*
ment has received that advice and it has now to pas»
judgment on it. When that tribunal has given it»
decision, it would be for us to go, if necessary to a
higher tribunal and you will remember that, after all,
the Secretary of State for India, is not the final tribunal
in this matter.
e This attitude shows a mind inspired by a sense
of fairness to an opponent and willingness te
believe that " a statesman or a Government has not
cast off all principle or the common feelings of
humanity in taking some course of policy." There
is in it a tact and a sagacity which distinguishes
a responsible leader from a mere agitator. We
are not here to think whether the course of action
he recommended was right or wrong but rather ta
see the spirit behind the act.
Telang's fine judgment, saved him from recom¬
mending an ill-advised or an imperfectly thought
out scheme simply because there was popular
sentiment behind it. Of this also we can give
an instance from the report of the Congress of
1888. The matter was about the Permanent
Settlement. No due notice of the resolution had
been given before the Congress met. " It wa&
not one of the subjects circulated over the country
before we left our constituents," said Mr. Telang..
[t was precisely because he admitted the import-
149
«ince of the question, that he did not want to see
it rushed through the Congress, " without full
previous preparation and detailed discussion of it
all over the country."
I desire that any resolution we may come to on this
great question should be one which, if I may borrow a
phrase of Lord Brougham's, should proceed from the
Congress with authority and be received outside with
respect. It should not go without authority and be
^returned to the Congress without respect.
He therefore asked that " the question be
referred to several standing Congress Com¬
mittees, with instructions to report on the same
in so ísiT as it affects their respective circles,
to the Congress of 1889." Any decision which
the Congress would then come to, would be,
he thought, loyally accepted by the minority.
His opposition to rushing any resolution
through the Congress was based on the principle
which he enuncia^d in defending the Congress
propaganda against one of its critics. The critic
. sought to throw discredit on the recommendations
of the Congress by saying that the Congress had
nothing of a very novel or original character to
suggest but that what the Congress had been
suggesting, was in the air long before the Con¬
gress was born. To this Telang replied in the follow¬
ing terms :—
When a scheme does not issue fortiv in full panoply,
as it were, from the brain of a single author but is the
synthesis of the best thoughts of many brains during a
long period, it is considered in practical politics as
rather a merit than a defect and therefore when our
oriiic tells us that our suggestion is one which has been
put forward long before the Congress came into existence.
150
1 welcome the remark as one of the certificates to the-
work of the Congress and 1 consider it rather satisfac¬
tory than ortherwise*
«
It was to keep up this tradition of calm deli¬
beration living and actively operative, so that
everything that the ' Congress recommended
went forth with authority and was received out¬
side with respect, that he introduced the
amendment for putting off the adoption of the
resolution on the permanent Settlement Ques¬
tion to the next year. His ^amendment was
adopted by the Congress, The aim of the
Congress is to focus and shape public opinion
^ upon questions that admitted of reform. Its
work therefore is as much of education as
of exhortation. Hence wisdom, right direc¬
tion and cautious advance ought to form its
guiding principle. As a body of responsible
leaders, it will never be wise for her to commit
herself to extreme views or wild and unpractical
proposals. The effort of men like Telang was
to save the institution from such a fate. If the
Congress has grown in importance and prestige/
if its opinions have met with the approval of some
of the best and most experienced administrators^
it is because upto this time, its leading spirits
have adopted the motto of one of its originators
the motto "Hasten slowly " which constituted
the animating principle of Telang*s public life.
The Congress of 1888 was the last Congress
Telang attended. Before its next meeting in
Bombay in 1889 he had been elevated to the^
Bench and could no longer be an active worker
in the political field. In the Age of Consent
151
Controversy Telang again came to the fore front to
define what he thought the limits of state action.
There again he shone out as the bold champion
of what he considered to be the right and true
coimse of action. Then it was that he proclaimed
that a man may renounce his right but can
never renounce his duty. What is true of a single
individual, is more true of the state.
His interpretation of the proclamation has
been alluded to elsewhere. That interpretation
marks him out one who would never mislead
public opinion or lead astray uninstructed
popular feeling. We have quoted abundantly
in this section from his speeches and writings
to let the reader form for himself what idea he
can, of his political aims, his political method,
his attitude towards the rulers and his own
countrymen. We only permit ourselves to
remark that whatever view he took of any
question or whatever course of conduct he re¬
commended, there was at the back of it a
catholicity of spirit, a fair-mindedness and a
sense of duty which made even those who
differed from him, welcome his standpoint
as well worth serious thought and consideration.
It was all the result of true culture. The
passion for culture formed the keynote of his
life. Culture invested his soul with light
and large-hearted charity • which shrinks
from imputing evil. That was what made one
of his best friends and the most conspicuous of
political leaders of the day characterize him
as " large in heart" ; one " whose handsome and
intellectual face beamed with intelligence, kindli-
152
ness and spirit, whose thoughtful and cultured
eloquence imparted both delight and instruction
and whose 'sound and judicious wisdom and
firm and temperate advocacy of public interests",
acquired for him the title of " a great leader of
thought Justice Ranade called him " India's
representative, the type of New India " The
moral interest of his career lay in ihe fact, that
he represented in his own person the best ideal of
character, that the imperative necessities of our
present situation require and pre^deteimine," And
the message of that career to us, who are his
survivors, in whatever walk of life our lot may
c be cast, is to be always striving after " light, life
and love " in order that that light, that life-typi¬
fied in moral energy and strength, and that love
may spur us on to serve any cause that may come
near to our heart wisely and well.
THE END.
Telang's period of active work covered only
twenty years. Considering that the last years of
his life passed away in the trammels of office and
in a very precarious and poor state of health, it
betrays marvellous precocity of talent to find so
much sterling woik, so much earnest endeavour
compressed within such a small span. The
honours that come to a man at the very end
of his career were showered upon him in the very
prime of life and the position he won in the hearts
of the people would have constituted for any other
man a sufficient reward for the last days of a long
life spent in the service of his country. Mr.
Telang's career was meteoric but it left peimanent
153
traces on the generation that followed him. To
this day his words carry conviction and are preg¬
nant with sage counsel. He died in the prime of
life at the age of 43 when others begin their pub¬
lic career and yet his scholai-ship, insight, and
foresight, invest his utterances with the breadth
and penetration that come only from the riper
•experience of life and its stern discipline,
^ Telang embodies for modern India a type of
culture and enlightenment in which cuirents of
opposite kind had commingled to constitute the
light, wisdom and the sobriety of his opinions.
He was a great Sanskrit scholar, a deep student
of Marathi literatui-e and history, at the same
time that he had thoroughly imbibed the spirit of
Western thought as reflected in its literature,
history and philosophy.
He combined the severe simplicity of an orient¬
al scholar with all the geniality, warmth, refine¬
ment and the passion for progress which are the
glory and the privilege of the West. His amia¬
bility and courtesy were according to the testi¬
mony of his friends incompai-able. His tact was
inimitable. Even in his eloquence there was
light rather than heat or motion. Sweet reason¬
ableness is its highest praise. In his attacks on
measures and in his criticism of men he never
forgot what he owed to others as a gentleman.
The cocksureness of statement which is a mark,
as much of ignorance as of haughtiness, is cons¬
picuous in him by its absence. Yet he never
vacillates in the assertion of what he considered
as true and essential. Telang was logical in the
extreme but his logic was not dry and cold. It
154
borrowed not a little from the mellow light of
imagination and poetry. His passionate advocacy
of political or social reform was never marred by
fanatical exclusiveness. He was willing to con¬
cede as much to circumstance as was proper and
inevitable.
But whenever circumstance was interposed as a
fetish in the pathway of progress, none put his
foot down more strongly for what he considered
to be the essentials of progress. This was what
made him declare on one occasicyi in the face of
the prejudices and censures of many of his asso¬
ciates :—
Our system is to a great extent become petrified ; the
moral conceptions which once informed it have long
since vanished, and we nre now bugging the mere, outer
shell as if that were all in »11. It is the bounden duty of
the legislature in the interests of humanity and of the
worldly interests of the communities committed to its
charge and for such a purpose as the present, to disre¬
gard, if need be, the Hindu Shastras.
Sobriety of judgment on the one hand and the
passionate earnestness of a true scholar on the
other formed the strain of his temperament. No
one knew better than he the rich inheritance of
the Hindus, because no one was better acquainted
with the lore of Sanskrit literature and philoso¬
phy. Yet that did not turn him into an apostle
pf revivalism. He was deep read in Western
history and philosophy and had caught its true
spirit. Therefore Western culture did not trans¬
form him into a slavish imitator of everything
Western. He was never a doctrinaire, be it in
politics, social reform or other activities forming
the public life of a people. He knew the value
155
and importance of compromise but he also knew
its limitations and futility. In whatever he spoke
or did he had an eye to practical work. Yet he
was never content to live from hand to mouth in
the theory of a question. His knowledge of all
questions was broad, deep,' and exhaustive. He
was a statesman with his vision broadened by
study and meditation on human life in ail its rich
variety. Though his principles were formed in
the secluded atmosphere of study, yet being
himself an active worker in the day-to-day hfe of
his country, in alî its manifold forms, they never
lacked the solid background which comes only
through active commerce with men of different
shades of opinion, conviction and pursuits.
Balance, equipoise, tact and sagacity, a calm and
broad outlook, a true perspective of things, an
attitude of mind induced by a life of culture, a
soul with its " windows opened in all directions,""
—this is what distinguished him. What delighted
Telang most, as we gather from what his friends^
have said about him, was an atmosphere of con¬
templation and thought in which the springs of
life could be nourished to the full on what the^
great men of the past had seen, felt, thought and
recorded, to draw from such a meditation on their
experiences, rich lessons for the daily life of his
own generation. Telang had high character,
loftiness of aim, sound judgment based on the
knowledge of facts both deep and extensive, elasti¬
city of mind which was capable of entering into
the standpoint of other men, versatility, tact,
courtesy which pointed out defects without
harshness or acerbity, and above all a conciliatory
156
tone which never degenerated into weakness,—in
fact all those qualities which made him a true
friend and .a wise counsellor. Criticism never
ruffled him. He welcomed both praise and cen¬
sure as incentives to further improvement.
Justice Ranade says about him " Never out of
temper himself, he always put other people into
their best temper, always thinking that there
was something in everybody which deserved his
admiration." That was the secret of his influence
over others. That constituted the personal
magnetism which held men enthralled not in awe
l3ut in ties of affection towards him as towards
Iheir second selves.
We are not permitted to lift up the veil of
reserve which he deliberately threw over some of
the deepest questions of life. Yet from his tastes
and pursuits, from the side light thrown by his
conversations with friends, from his favourite
authors, we can get a glimpse into his innermost
■convictions on life and its future. His tempera¬
ment was rational and critical, yet deep and rev¬
erential His studies in the theology of the East
had broken off the shackles of custom, dogma,
ritual and superstition which current Hinduism
impose upon its followers. The study of Spencer,
Mill, Huxley and Tyndall had brought on an
agnostic frame of mind. Yet he was side by side
a close student, of Shankaracharya's Yedanta
philosophy, of the Upanishads and the Bhagwat-
gita. He found solace in the poetry of Words¬
worth, and an increasing delight, as life advanced,
in the pages of Thomas A Kempis, Ruskin,
•Caiiyle, Matthew Arnold and the Bible. How
157
all these elements worked out in the result we
are not guai*anteed to lay down with perfect cer¬
tainty. That life did not strike bim-as a huge
joke, a pageantry or farce is evident from what
he said on one occasion to one of his friends.
After all is said and done, though there is much
that is mysterious about life and human destiny, you
cannot get rid of one fact to which Wordsworth has-
given the best expression when he says, ^ there is not a
man that lives who hath not known bis god-hke hours
ind feels not what an empire we inherit as natural
beings in the strength of Nature.* You feel in spite of
all your doubts and dncertainties that there is something
in you which is not human and that something calls for-
faith.
To him the highest pleasure of life was to live
a life of culture and rectitude. Life inspired with
a feeling solemnity, reverence and awe. As we
read what is said in this connection by three of the
best men of his time, one, a European and the
other two Indians we cannot help being struck
with a similarity in this respect between
Mr. Telang and Arthur Hugh Clough,
In his essay on Arthur Hugh Clough, Bag-
ehot describes Clough^s frame of mind thus :—
There are some minds which feel and rightly feel
that every image, every translation, every mode of con¬
ception by which the human mind tries to place before
itself the Divine mind is imperfect, halting and changing.
They feel from their own experience, that there is no-
such mode of representation which will suit their-
own minds at all times and they smile with bitterness at
the notion that they could contrive an image which will
suit all other minds. They could not become fanatics
or missionaries or even common preachers without for¬
feiting their natural dignity and foregoing their very
essence. To cry in the streets to uplift their voice, to
be pained with * hot thoughts,* to be preachers of a
158
^ream, would reverse their whole cast ot mind. It
would metamorphose them into something which omits
every striking trait for which, they were remarked and
contain evei^y trait for which they were not remarked.
On the other hand it would be quite opposite to their
whole nature to be the followers of Voltaire. No one
knows more certainly and feels more surely that there
is an invisible world than these very persons who de¬
cline to make an image, or representation of it. If you
offer them any known religion they won't have that, if
you offer them no religion, they will not have that
cither : if you ask them to accept a new and as yet un*
recognised religion, they altogether refuse to do so.
They seem not only to believe in ^n 'unknown God,'
'butin a God whom no one can ever know.
This is what Bagehot has to say about Clough
^nd this, we venture to say, also summarizes
exactly the attitude of Telang, which was that of
"truthful scepticism" so conectly reflected in
the following lines of Clough :—
' Oh, thou, in that mysterious shrine
Enthroned, as I must say, divine;
I will not frame one thought of what
Thou mayst either be or not.
I will not prate of "thus" and " so "
And be profane with " yes " and " no,"
Enough that in our soul and heart
Thou, whatso'er Thou mayst be, art.
Telang was raised to the Bench in 1889,
public honours which he regarded as so many
-opportunities for the better performance of civic
duties, came to him in rapid succession. His
learning and scholai'ship found recognition in his
beipg elected in 1892 to succeed Sir Eaymond
West, as the President of the Bombay Branch of
the Royal Asiatic Society. His educational work
was rewarded by the decoration of C. I. E., and
by his nomination to the office of the Vice-
159
Chancellor of the University, an honour which
he did not live long to enjoy. He died in
September 1893.
During the last year of his life his rapidly declining
health and the exhaustion consequent on a painful opera¬
tion for piles, must have made-his work at times almost
a torture. He could not ascend the long flight of stairs
leading to his court without assistance. Still he strug¬
gled on bravely until wearied nature could hold out no
longer. He died with calm resignation as he had lived
simplicity, benevolence and usefulness." So says
Bir Raymond West.
India lost in T^ng
One of her wisest counsellors, one of her most
brilliant scholars, one of her choicest speakers and one
of the best of men. No bigotted firebrand, no dis¬
appointed place hunter with a grievance, on the con¬
trary, the friend and the trusted advisor of governors
and Councillors, with wealth and honour and troops of
friends, he was even the incorruptible patriot, the ster¬
nest critic of the Government when he thought it to be
in the wrong, the sturdy champion of the lawful
demands of his fellow citizens.
That is the testimony to his work, by John
Adams. The life work of Mr. Telang came to a
sudden end through the dispensation of Provid¬
ence. He was cut off too soon and yet he has
left behind enough to serve us for guidance, help
and instruction. His had been a vitalizing in¬
fluence in his time. " It is by the work and the
example of him and his like that India will be
regenerated and the moral endowments of her
children made nobly serviceable for the général
welfare of mankind."
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INOUN NATIONAL EVOLUTION.
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THE INDIAN DEMANDS
A SYMPOSIUM ON THE MEMORANDUM OF THE NINETEEN
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This book is another instance of Mr. Katesan's patrio¬
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m
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The "Friends of India "Series
This is a new Series of short biographical sketches of eminent
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vehture to think will be a welcome addition to the political and
historical litei*ature of the country. These biographies are so
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the student as well as to the politician. Copious extracts from the
speeches and writings of tlie * Friends of India" on Indian Affairs
are given in the sketches. Kach volume has a fine frontispiece.
i^orä Morley * Heary Pñwcett
Lord Ripoa Mr, a, O, flame
Sir \Mtliam \^edderbura ^ir Henry Cottoa
Mrs, Anale Bf:seat Lord Macautay
Lord Minio Sister A/ivedita
Bdmuad Burke Rev, Dr, Miller
Charles Bradtaugh Sir tdwin ^raotd
^Jobn Bright Lord Hardloge
Thr Lkadkr Win be a welcome addition to the political and
historical literature of^he country.
The Mopkrn Krvikw ;--ün the cover of each volume is printed
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lively and interesting niannt-r wiib .;hort extracts from notable
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Saints of India Series,
This is a new Series of short sketches dealing with
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peculiar religious doctrines which each suint taught. A
-unique feature of these sketches consists in the numerous
and choice quotations from the poems and utterances of
these saints—some of them already translated and some
for the first time in these sketches. Some of the saints
that lived in very recent times have also been included in
this series and quotations from their speeches and writ¬
ings are also given. Each volume has a fine frontispiece
RAMAKRISHNA PARAMAHAMSA, . * TUKARAM.
SWAMI VIVBKANANDA, CHAITANYA.
SWAMI RAM TIRATH. KABIK/
SWAMI DAYANAND SARASWATI. RAMDAS.
SAINT DNAYESVAR, NANAK,
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Biographies of Eminent Indians
A Series of Uniform Booklets each with a Portrait giving a
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Sir P. M, MehiM Madaa Mobaa Mataviya
Diasbaw cduiji Wacba Baba Kristo Das Pai
Mahadev Qoviad Raaade it, /v, Madbolkar
O. K, Ookhale ' Krhhaaswatni Aiy&r
Dr, Rash Bebari Obosa Dewaa C, Paogacbariu
Lata La¡pat*RaÍ RabimtaHa *1obatned Sayaoi
Ravi Varma Mrs, Sarojiai Naidu
TorumDait Rabiadranaib lagore
K, T, leiaag Isvara Chandra Vidyasagar
Sureadraaatb Bsaerjea BebramJ^M. Malabari
Rotnesb Cbuader Dutt Sir Syed ^ mir a//
Ananda Mobaa Base ^awan Mohsia-ui-Muik
W, Cp Boaaerjee Sir C, Saakaran b'air
Budruddia Tyabji t1, H, The Agba Kbaa
Sir Syed Ahmed il. H, The Oaekwar of Baroda
Lai Mobaa Gbose S ir Saiar Jung
Raía Ram Mobaa Roy R, Ragaaatha Raa» C.S.f»
V, P, Madbava Rao. C,I,E, Michael Madbusudaa Datt
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DADABHAI NAOROJI'S
SPEECHES AND WRITINGS.
Second Edition : 8§0 pages. Crown Octavo. Price Rs. 3.
To Subscribers of the " I.R." Rs, 2-8.
MRS. ANNIE BESANT'S
SPEECHES AHD VRITINGS ON INDIAN OUESTIONS
This is the first attempt to publish in one volume a
comprehensive and exhaustive collection of Mrs. Besant's
Bpeechf>6 and writings on Indian Questions.
Second Edition: Re. 1-8. To Subscribers of the "I.R." Re. 1-4-
G. A. Natesan & Co., Sunkurama Chetty Street. Madras.
954 T267Yn
5556 010 113 652
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