द इण्डियन स्ट्रगल / भारतीय स्वाधीनता संग्राम (नेताजी सुभाष चन्द्र बोस - ऐतिहासिक विश्लेषण)

56 THE INDIAN STRUGGLE
by an alliance with the Moslem leaders and the All-India
Khilafat Committee. In fact, he was so sure of his position
in the country that if the Congress had rejected his plan of
non-violent non-co-operation, he could have launched his
campaign with the support of the Khilafat organisations.
Matters did not, however, come to such a pass. Besides the
Moslem leaders, Mr. Gandhi had a powerful ally in Pandit
Motilal Nehru, the leading advocate of Allahabad and the
leader of the United Provinces. The opposition to Mr.
Gandhi's plan was sponsored by Mr. C. R. Das, the leading
advocate of Calcutta and the leader of Bengal and Pandit
Malaviya and Mrs. Besant, both ex-Presidents of the Con-
gress, who had influential support from many provinces.
Shortly before the Calcutta Congress, Lokamanya Tilak died.
He was the only possible rival of Mr. Gandhi and at the
time of his death, one could not say definitely what attitude
he would take up if he were to attend the Calcutta Congress.
At the Amritsar Congress he had taken up a middle position
between Mr. Gandhi's proposal of co-operation and Mr. B.
C. Pal, Mr. B. Chakravarti, and Mr. C. R. Das's proposal of
opposition. Lokamanya Tilak held that the proper attitude
should be one of responsive co-operation. In other words,
the Congress should accept and work what was useful and
beneficial in the New Constitution and reject what was use-
less or harmful. The closest followers of Lokamanya Tilak
have declared since his death that he adhered to this view
till the time of his death. Throughout his public career
Lokamanya Tilak had been the leader of the Left Wing of
the Indian National Congress called the Extremists or
Nationalists—as opposed to the Right Wing, called the
Moderates or Liberals. He was a man of profound erudition
and unbounded courage and sacrifice. His six years' incar-
ceration in a far-off Burma prison had brought him additional
lustre and popularity and if he had pitted himself against
Mr. Gandhi at the Calcutta Congress, the position of the
latter would have been a difficult one. With L. Tilak's
death, however, it was smooth sailing for Mr. Gandhi.
He moved the adoption of a policy of progressive non-