Gopal Krishna Gokhale

Gopal Krishna Gokhale argued that self-rule had to be earned inside the system and was taken seriously by the government precisely because of it, and Gandhi called him his political guru. He came from a poor Chitpavan Brahmin family, taught at Fergusson College in Pune for twenty years on a vow of low pay, and entered the Imperial Legislative Council in 1902, where he mastered the budget so thoroughly that his annual speech on it became an event. He founded the Servants of India Society in 1905, whose members took vows of poverty and pledged their lives to public work. His moderation put him against Tilak, and the Congress split at Surat in 1907 between the two positions. He introduced a bill for free compulsory primary education in 1911 and it was defeated. He went to South Africa in 1912 at Gandhi's request and toured with him; Gandhi wrote afterwards that Gokhale was the one man he had accepted as a teacher. He died at forty-nine of diabetes and overwork. The Servants of India Society outlived him and still exists. He appeared before the Welby Commission on Indian expenditure at thirty and was credited by British officials with the most competent Indian testimony they had heard. He was appointed to the Public Services Commission and used it to press for Indianisation of the civil service. Gandhi wrote an unfinished book about him and, on returning to India in 1915, followed his advice to spend a year travelling and saying nothing before entering politics. Jinnah described himself as aspiring to become the Muslim Gokhale.

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