Tilak, Gandhi and Gita (An Old and Rare Book)

About the Author Shri D. K. Gosavi was born on 13th October, 1894 in Brahmnol, a remote village in Sangli District of Maharashtra.

He was a law graduate and started practice in Satara. He took part in the freedom movements of 1930, 1932 and 1942 and was jailed. In 1940 when individual Satyagraha was launched, he took a list of the satyagrahis from Maharashtra to Mahatma Gandhi for approval, in his capacity as the President of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee.

He was a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from 1946-1952 representing Satara District.

In 1954, he shifted the arena of his activities to Poona and worked as Secretary of the Committee appointed by the Government for writing the history of the freedom movement. He was a member of the Bharatiya Dharma Tatvajnana Samskriti Mandal and helped in raising funds for the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi. He was associated with the Maharashtra Rajya Prohibition Mandal for ten years and was its President for 2-3 years.

He was an erudite Sanskrit scholar and a keen student of Bhagavad Gita and its several commentaries.

Shri Gosavi passed away on 27th May, 1980.

Foreword Shri D. K. Gosavi was a great Gandhian. He was throughout his life a prominent freedom fighter in the Indian National Congress.

The present treatise was in the manuscript stage when he passed away. The Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan was good enough to accept this publication and the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi also helped in its own way.

This is a small book and centres on the philosophies of Lokamanya Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi. Both of them were very much impressed by the Bhagavad Gita and their philosophies of life were derived from their interpretation of the Gita.

The writer is at his best when he analyses the subject of his book. There are only three chapters: (i) Tilak's Philosophy of Life, (ii) Gandhi's Philosophy of Life and (iii) A comparative study. I have no hesitation in saying that this compendium is a source-book for future research in the subject.

Shri Gosavi has been very assiduous in listing the quotations from the writings of both the great national leaders, putting them in proper form, analysing them and drawing conclusions from them. Much of the book is in the form of quotations from the writings of the two leaders. Shri Gosavi's own conclusions are given in a few, short paragraphs. But the conclusions are drawn with great care and precision. The work is done with care and a full understanding of the subject.

Really speaking, the philosophies of life of the two leaders are not 'personal' philosophies. They have to be looked at from the national context.

Introduction Lokamanya Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi have been the two most outstanding and illustrious personalities that mother India produced during the last century (1850-1950 A.D.). The one spent his life in laying the foundations of Swarajya, and the other fulfilled their common objective by winning Indian Independence towards the close of his life. Not only were they merely the top political leaders of the Indian freedom movement, but they were also both philosophers of a very high order. Each one of them had a distinct philosophy of life of his own, which they not merely preached but also practised. They have both contributed, in a more or less degree, to Indian culture and have left a permanent stamp on the same. In addition, Gandhi may be said to have left his permanent impress on the world culture as well. It will be a rewarding experience to study the philosophy of life of these two great sons of India and to note the points of agreement and of difference between them. The following represents an attempt in that direction.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages