One word more about his teaching work. It is said that though as professor of English literature he took considerable pains in cultivating in his pupils a desire for correct and luminous style, and took an active interest in debates, recitations and the like, he was at his best when teaching history and more especially economics. From his master, Mahadeva Govinda Ranade, he had learnt how to grasp economic principles and apply them to conditions prevailing in India, thus making the study of economics a matter of lively human interest and national utility. We also learn that Gokhale was very eager in his study of European history, and particularly of English history, because the latter impressed him as neither more nor less than the gradual triumph of democratic struggles, and the slow but sure overthrow of dynastic and oligarchic conceptions. No one could take greater pride in Indian history than he, but somehow he felt depressed to think that there were epochs in Indian history which registered bare chronicles of autocratic beneficence or commercial prosperity or religious triumph, but did not tingle with the keen zest for the democratic idea whose gradual evolution was to Gokhale the very life-blood of the British constitution.
It is rather unfortunate that his versatility and many-sided activities should serve as a formidable barrier to specialisation in any one department of knowledge. For it must be confessed that Gokhale has left behind him almost nothing, by way of original reflections on Indian economics or fresh impressions of even the history of India, which might serve as a fitting monument to his scholarship and erudition, that were very extensive, though by no means profound. We shall have to modify our regrets, however, when we bear in mind, as well we may, that Gokhale's life was always crammed full of useful and altruistic activities, leaving very limited scope for research or feats of learning. During the time that he was fully engrossed with College work he continued as Secretary of the Sarvajanik Society from i888 to 1896.
We have referred to Gokhale's appearance on the political arena as taking place somewhere in 1906. By this we only mean his exclusive and whole-time preoccupation with politics. But his political activities carry us to a much earlier date, for we have only to remind ourselves that as early as 1895 Gokhale was nominated as Secretary of the Reception Committee for the Poona Session of the Indian National Congress, and that on the advice of such experts as Ranade and others, he was deputed to give evidence before the Welby Commission in 1896, in the interests of India and, therefore, to a large extent, as a representative of the Indian Congress.
In 1908 we find him win the greatly coveted dis tinction of being elected the President of the Congress that held its sitting in Poona ; an honour that lay, in his own mind, quite beyond his fondest dreams as he requested his elders for a seat on the coach-box, when Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji was being driven through Indian streets twelve years earlier. Gokhale has been intimately associated with the Congress al most since its inception in 1884.
He was always an advocate of popular causes, and movements aiming at a larger measure of political emancipation and the betterment of the masses, but not being a demagogue or willing to play to the gallery, he was seldom very popular either among the Intelligentsia that were disappointed because of his constant love of compromise, or among those that were not quite articulate and conscious politically, because of Gokhale's extreme re straint and caution both in his utterances and demands.
Nevertheless, beyond the least shadow of a doubt, Gokhale has fully vindicated his title to be a very influential and prominent tribune of the people. Having broken away from the parochial views and petty bickerings that gather round caste restrictions, narrow religious orthodoxy and petty provincial rivalries, he could not command the same amount of respect and homage that fall to the lot of those that summon the masses to rally round banners emblazoned with popular catchwords. His intellec tual pursuits and absorption in the larger, fuller vision of India's future, combined with unceasing endeavour slowly to realise the vision by means of concentrated effort, incapacitated him from untrammelled intercourse with admirers, or critics, which counts a great deal towards popularity in leaders.
We thus always find him studiously dissociating himself from membership of Gaurakshini Sabhas (i.e., societies for the protection of cows) or partner ship in anti-cow-killing agitations, that perfectly harmless in themselves and even laudable because of the sympathies shown therein to hoary religious traditions, might occasionally be used by political enthusiasts as a powerful leverage for arousing racial animosities. If he believed in eventual self-government for India as the goal of political endeavour, he would prefer that his countrymen work ed incessantly, honourably, and hopefully by consti tutional means, if possible, in co-operation with the Government, instead of arousing the baser passions of an excitable populace through violent appeals to a divinity of implacable hatred. Lord Morley tells us in his " Recollections " published quite recently '(Macmillian and Co. : 25s. net) that in his interviews apropos of the then contemplated Minto-Morley Reforms, Gokhale made no secret of his identification with the demand for full fiscal and political autonomy within the empire, and that he (i.e., Lord Morley), was equally frank in his repudia tion of the idea as then lying beyond the region of practical politics. The said " Reforms " being -then on the anvil, Lord Morley tells us that he invited Gokhale to co-operate with him by offering sugges tions and advice. And never was co-operation more prolific of better results or more honourable in its professed aims. But to quote Morley's exact words : " I had a farewell talk with Gokhale. . . . On the whole his tone both attracted and impressed me. He promises very confidently a good reception for our Reforms by the Congress. . . . But whether dealing with Parnell, Gokhale, or any other of the political breed, I have a habit of taking them to mean what they say until and unless I find out a trick. Parnell always so long as we were friends or allies, treated me perfectly honourably. . . . Mr. Gokhale is to stay in London until the end of the session, and I am in good hopes of finding him a help to me, and not a hindrance, in guiding the strong currents of democratic feeling that are running breast high in the House of Commons. (" Recol lections," pp. 171, 286, 321).