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How did Bal Gangadhar Tilak differ from Gopal Krishna Gokhale in political strategy?

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Mahatma Gandhi, holding a walking stick, walks beside Sarojini Naidu during the Salt March protest in 1930, with several men following behind them. — Indian National Congress Indian National Congress leaders Mahatma Gandhi (left) and Sarojini Naidu (right) on the Salt March in western India, March 1930.

Within the Indian National Congress, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Gopal Krishna Gokhale represented two fundamentally different approaches to achieving political change.

Gopal Krishna Gokhale led the "moderate" faction, which prioritized constitutional methods. His strategy relied on:12
* Negotiation and Advocacy: He believed in working within the existing political framework, using petitions, legislative advocacy, and dialogue with British authorities to secure incremental reforms.2
* Constitutionalism: Gokhale sought to expand Indian participation in governance through legal channels, such as his work on the Morley-Minto Reforms of 1909.2

Bal Gangadhar Tilak led the "extremist" faction, which advocated for more militant and direct action. His strategy included:23
* Direct Action: Tilak championed swarajya (independence) rather than piecemeal reforms. He promoted the Swadeshi Movement, which involved the boycott of British goods and passive resistance.31
* Mass Mobilization: Unlike the elite-focused moderates, Tilak sought to broaden the nationalist movement by invoking Hindu religious symbolism and popular traditions, such as the Ganesh and Shivaji festivals.3

These ideological clashes over the pace and method of reform led to a formal split in the Congress Party during the 1907 session at Surat.24