Encyclopaedia of Eminent Thinkers: The Political Thought of Gopal Krishna Gokhale

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This book presents a critical analysis of the political thought of Gopal Krishna Gokhale. Providing deep insights into his life and achievements, it discusses at length his ideology and perception, reforms and political agritation, his concept of nationalism, and his economic and fiscal ideas. A comparative study of Gokhale and Tilak has also been made.

Dr. Jai Narain Sharma (b. 1951) is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Gandhian Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh. He is also Hon. Director of Gandhi Bhawan; member of Board of Studies, Nagpur University, Nagpur and Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith, Varanasi; member of Research Degree Committee of the Department of Political Science, H.P. University, Shimla: General Secretary of Indian Society of Gandhian Studies; and member of the Presidium of the Alliance for Sarvodaya. He regularly writes for leading newspapers, and has published more than hundred research papers in professional journals of repute. Dr. Sharma has many books to his credit including "Gandhi's View of Political Power", "Economics of Defence: A Study of SAARC Countries", "Economic Thought of Mahatma Gandhi", "Human Resource Management", "Alternative Economics: Economics of Mahatma Gandhi and Globalisation", "Power, Politics and Corruption: A Gandhian Solution" and "Research Methodology: The Discipline and its Dimensions"

Gopal Krishna Gokhale was born on May 9, 1866 and died on February 19, 1915. Lokmanya Tilak, writing an obituary article on Gokhale in the Kesari of 23rd February 1915, gave as its heading a verse from the Mahabharata: 'मुहूर्तं ज्वलितं श्रेयो न तु घूमायितं चिरम', which means, "Better burn out in a short-lived blaze than be smouldering for ever so long." The quotation was singularly appropriate to Gokhale's life and career. It was indeed a brilliant but shortlived blaze. A graduate at eighteen, Professor at twenty, Secretary of the Provincial Conference at twenty-two, Editor of a serious and influential journal like the Quarterly of the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha at twenty-four, Secretary of the National Congress at twenty-nine, an important witness before a Royal Commission- the Welby Commission-at thirty, Provincial Legislator at thirty-four, Imperial Legislator at thirty-six, President of the National Congress and founder of an Institution like the Servants of India Society at thirty-nine, member of a Royal Commission-the Islington Public Service Commission-at forty-six; what a brilliant career it was and how tragic that it should have been out at the early age of forty-eight!

Mahatma Gandhi, in his brochure, Gokhale My Political Guru, observed:

"It was a case of love at first sight, and it stood the severest strain in 1913. He seemed to me all I wanted as a political worker-pure as crystal, gentle as a lamb, brave as a lion, and chivalrous to a fault. It does not matter to me that he may not have been any of those things. It was enough for me that I could discover no fault in him to cavil at.

**Contents and Sample Pages**