Gopal Krishna Gokhale was one amongst the founding leaders of the Indian national movement who was born of May 9, 1866 in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra.
Being an immensely wise liberal nationalist, he made outstanding contributions towards social empowerment.
Let’s know about the few lesser known facts about him on his 155th birth anniversary
Gokhale represented the first generation of Indian leaders who got a college education.
At 18, he graduated in Arts from Elphinstone College and hence represented the category of highly-educated Indians.
Gokhale worked as a professor before joining politics, and taught history and political economy at the Fergusson College in Pune. He resigned from the job to enter politics.
Gokhale floated the Servants of India Society in Maharashtra’s Pune on June 12, 1905 which launched campaigns to promote education, health care and sanitation. It also made efforts to eradicate social evils such as untouchability and oppression of women.
He was a mentor to Mahatma Gandhi and Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Gandhi Ji described Gokhale as “pure as crystal, gentle as a lamb, brave as a lion and chivalrous to a fault and the most perfect man in the political field.” Similarly, Jinnah was inspired by Gokhle too and he wanted to become a “Muslim Gokhle”.