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Preamble : |
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(The
first progress report on the activities of servants
of the people society was printed in 1927. It carried
a preamble by Lala Lajpat Rai, in which he describes
how he came to conceive the idea of founding this
Society.)
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The
Origin of the Idea : |
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The idea of training
young men for political work and social service was
first entertained by the late Mr. G.K. Gokhale. He
had learnt his politics and taken his lessons in patriotism
and public service at the feet of the great Mahadeva
Govinda Rande. To Maharattas belongs the credit for
the idea of creating a class of missionaries for the
dissemination of education on mere subsistence allowances.
The market price of a graduate has fallen very much
in these days, but it was high when the Deccan Education
Society first gave birth to the scheme of manning
private educational Institutions with people who undertook
to serve as professors and lecturers for a term of
20 years on a mere pittance as their remuneration.
The late Mr. Gokhale was one of the first to enlist
as such. After finishing his term of service in the
Fergusson College, he started his political career,
during the course of which he came to the conclusion
that politics required whole-time workers as much
as any other department of human activities did; that
amateur and holiday politicians could not do justice
to their work and to their country; and that the country's
greatest need was a number of whole-time national
workers pledged to a life of poverty and sacrifice.
Having arrived at this conclusion, he conceived the
idea of starting the Servants of India Society as
a nucleus for the training of selected young men for
social and political service. The idea, the training
of selected young men for social and political service.
The idea, noble and timely as it was approved of by
a number of his friends and coworkers who made it
financially possible for him to translate it into
action.
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In 1905, I went on my first visit
to Poona mainly with the object of coming in to contact
with Messrs Gokle and Tilak and leering my lessons
in politics at their feet.. During my stay at Poona
I had many talks with both on various topics, one
of which was the necessity and desirability of establishing
societies for the training of young men for the political
and social service of the motherland. I was then on
my way to England on a political mission as a delegate
of the Indian National Congress. When I returned,
I made my first, attempt to give a concrete shape
to this idea by a scheme of scholarships to be given
to selected young men to receive their training in
politics. The amount contributed by my friends of
the Indian Association, Lahore, towards the expenses
of my trip to England was the first donation given
for that purpose. But my deportation of 1907, 1910
and 1914, and my public engagements and disappointments
throughout this period of my life gave me no rest
and no time to expand my idea and give it a practical
shape. In 1914 went to USA Circumstances compelled
me to stay on in that count ray for no less than five
years. Read
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