Gopal Krishna Gokhale (1866-1915) Best known as "the Political Guru of Gandhi", Gokhale was born in 1866 at Kolhapur

in Maharashtra. He graduated from Elphinstone College,

Mumbai in 1884. At the young age of 20, he became Professor of History and Economics at the Fergusson College, Poona. For four years he edited the 'Sudharak', a quarterly journal of the
Poona Sarvajanik Sabha. In 1904 he was awarded the title of CIE (Companion of the Indian Empire). During his visit to England in 1905, he tried to persuade the British statesmen not to give
effect to the Partition of Bengal. He, however, failed in his efforts. 1. Foremost among the Congress Leaders: Gokhale was one of India's most respected leaders. He presided over the
Varanasi Session of the Congress in 1905. He was a man with moderate views and had immense faith in British liberalism. Gokhale urged that "the goal of the Congress should be the
attainment of a form of government similar to that which existed in the self-governing colonies of the British empire.""The field of constitutional agitation was a very wide one... Three things
were excluded—rebellion, aiding or abetting a foreign invasion, and resort to crime. ; Roughly speaking, barring these three things, all else was constitutional." —Gokhale2. His Faith in
Constitutional Means to achieve the Goal: Gokhale believed in constitutional agitation, i.e., petitions, appeals to justice and passive resistance. At the same time, he supported the Swadeshi
Movement. In his Presidential Address at the Varanasi session, he said, the true Swadeshi Movement is both a patriotic and an economic movement." He made a strong plea for the reform of
the Legislative Councils and separation of fudiciary from the executive.3. Established the Servants of India Society: In 1905 Gokhale established the Servants of India Society. The Society
trained men to devote their lives to the cause of the country. Its members were required to create among the people a deep and passionate love of the motherland. The Society assisted
educational movements, especially those for the education of women. It worked for the elevation of the depressed classes.4 Arousal of National Awakening: In 1902 Gokhale had become
the Member of the Imperial Legislative Council. In his speeches in the Council, he pleaded for reduction in salt duty and the abolition of excise duty on cotton goods. In 1910 and 1912 he
moved resolutions in theImperial Legislative Council for relief to Indian bonded labour in Natal. In one of his Budget speeches he pleaded for free primary education for all children. Gokhale
would like Indians to be given a large share in Indian Civil Service.5. His Work Abroad: In a paper which he read at the New Reform Club, London, he said, "India's destiny is to obtain an
honoured place among the family of nations."6. His Economic Ideas: Gokhale was deeply pained to see the increasing misery of the peasantry. He pleaded for the reduction of land revenue.
Gokhale was in favour of State protection to infant Indian industries. He called for the employment of members of educated middle class. Gokhale had great reverence for Pherozeshah
Mehta. He said, "I would rather be wrong with Pherozeshah than right without him".

Bal Gangadhar Tilak was an outstanding leader of the Indian national movement scholar and thinker. In fact Tilak had been intimately associated with the Indian freedom struggle. From the period of 1870 to the
beginning of 1920, Tilak's association with the Indian national movement could be divided into three phases. The first stage commenced from about 1879-80 AD, the second stage from 1891-97and the third stage
from1905-08. Tilak's role in the Indian National Movement brought forward important developments. Though he began his fight on the Maratha soil yet his activities crossed the threshold Maharashtra.
The first stage in Tilak's role in the Indian National Movement extended over a period of 10 years. It was during these years that his radical political views and outlook was moulded. With the help of several colleagues,
Tilak launched number educational undertakings in a private Secondary School that was independent of British official institutions, the Deccan Education Society and a college. At the same time in collaboration with
some of the Maratha patriots, Tilak started two weekly newspapers the Mahratta and the Kesari. However during 1890s he had differences of opinion with his colleagues and as a result Tilak withdrew from the Deccan
Education Society.Thus,the first stage is identified by Tilak combining broad educational work with political propaganda. In the second stage of his career, the differences of opinion between Bal Gangadhar Tilak and the
Maharashtra Moderate Nationalists widened. In the Sarvajanik Sabha, the difference was out in the open too. In 1895,Tilak succeeded in ousting the Moderates from the society and becoming its actual leader. He then
moved forward to active political struggle against the colonial regime, to widely applying means and methods designed to enlist the masses into the struggle. In 1895 the Maharashtra Nationalists' radical wing came into
being as a result of the breaking of the native political society in the then Deccan. Subsequently in 1897 with the aggravation of the political situation in Western India, culminated in Tilak's arrest and his being sentenced
to 18months 'imprisonment. This ushered in the third stage of Tilak's career. In the period of the 1905-08 revolutionary upsurge Tilak became the chief leader of the democrat tic wing of the national movement not only
of Maharashtra but of the whole of India. Likewise covering ten years, 1898-1908, the third stage terminated in another trial of Tilak, his being sentenced to transportation, and a great revolutionary spurt of the masses
of Mumbaiwho elevated the struggle for India's liberation to a new and higher plane. From 1879 and 1897 Tilak's patriotic activity proceeded mainly in his native Maharashtra and was, therefore, of a local character to
some extent. This time period was marked by number of important developments. The British had turned India into a source to obtain raw materials for British industry. Then it was also made a field for the export of
British capital. The peasantry, which prised the overwhelming majority of the population, grew increasingly dependent on merchants and moneylenders and sank into poverty. At the same time a process of Indian native
capitalist development with the formation of a working class and indigenous bourgeoisie class emerged alongwith the growth of an intelligentsia. The young liberal bourgeoisie, considering India as a whole to be the
Sphere of its trading, money-lending and enterprising activity crossed the national barriers dividing the peoples of India, overcame religious and caste prejudices, and, in 1885, founded the Indian National Congress, the
first political organisation claiming all-India leadership. As far as Tilak was concerned, he readily helped the Indian bourgeois opposition to pursue its quite modest programme of struggle for the institution of the so-
called representative principle in the administration or India. He was well aware that this programme was only a half way measure. It was permeated with the idea of compromise with the colonial power and that a very
narrow circle or people could gain from it but a semblance of benefit. Nevertheless he conscientiously helped to promote its realisation. Being proud of his Maratha origin and culture, Tilak was even ready to forego his
Maratha nationalism in the interests of the whole Indian bourgeois class which he regarded as the interests of the people of India.