Gokhale: The Indian Moderates and the British Raj
B. R. Nanda
Abstract
This biography of Gopal Krishna Gokhale—one of the pre-eminent leaders of India during its struggle for independence—reassesses the Indian political scene during the last decades of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century. Gokhale’s political career practically coincided with the first thirty years of the Indian National Congress. He was much younger than its founding fathers, but it was his good fortune to be in close contact with them, to win their confidence, and to become their ablest spokesman. While he was still in his 30s, he became the authentic spokesman o ... More
This biography of Gopal Krishna Gokhale—one of the pre-eminent leaders of India during its struggle for independence—reassesses the Indian political scene during the last decades of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century. Gokhale’s political career practically coincided with the first thirty years of the Indian National Congress. He was much younger than its founding fathers, but it was his good fortune to be in close contact with them, to win their confidence, and to become their ablest spokesman. While he was still in his 30s, he became the authentic spokesman of his country’s aspirations, both in India and in England. As a leader of the Indian National Congress, as a member of the Imperial Legislative Council, as the confidant of the British Committee of the Congress in London, and as India’s unofficial envoy to England, Gokhale occupied a unique vantage point in Indian politics. The study of his life thus offers valuable insights into the history of Indian nationalism and Indo-British relations.
Keywords:
Gopal Krishna Gokhale,
biography,
independence,
Indian politics,
political career,
Indian National Congress,
Indian nationalism,
Indo-British relations
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 1999 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780195647518 |
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: October 2012 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195647518.001.0001 |