New Delhi, Oct. 17 -- By 1896, B.G. Tilak was an impatient man. The Indian National Congress, of which he was a leading figure, had for over 10 years been appealing to the better angels of the British. Its dominant faction was moderate to a fault, periodically singing praises of Queen Victoria to avoid the charge of sedition. Indeed, one elder statesman advised Indians to be "forbearing" and to approach the Raj with "diffidence", like good, unthreatening children.

But for Tilak-bolder, more direct, less afraid-this would not do, especially when the aforementioned better angels were nowhere in sight. All this polite beseeching, he held, was in British eyes akin to the "sound of a gnat", sneeringly waved away. What was needed was "to force...