CHAPTER III
THE SCHOOL AND THE COLLEGE
We have undertaken this work of popular education with the firmest conviction and belief that, of all agents of human civilisation, education is the only one that brings about material, moral and religious regeneration of fallen countries and raises them up to the level of most advanced Nations by slow and peaceful revolutions: and in order that this should be so, it must be ultimately in the hands of the people themselves.
From the Statement of V. S. Apte before the Hunter Commission (1882)
MAN'S outlook of the world is necessarily dependent upon his environments. Howsoever indomitable be the individual will, it fails not to realise its limitations and has to shape its course accordingly. Gifted though he was with extraordinary ability, superabundent enthusiasm and magnificent courage, the only outlet Mr. Tilak found for his energies was the comparitively modest field of education. He and his colleagues clearly realised the complete hold which the alien rulers had obtained over the length and breadth of this vast country. Howsoever much the British Imperialists might boast of India's conquest by the sword, it has been fully and freely admitted by Seely that in the willing acquiesence of Indians in the British Suzerainty alone lay the great-
