- Lived:
- 9 May 1866, Kotluk village, Ratnagiri district, on the Konkan coast → Poona (Pune), with working seasons in Bombay (Mumbai), Calcutta (Kolkata) and London; died Poona, 19 February 1915
- Field:
- statesmanship and education — leader of the Moderate wing of the Indian National Congress, master of the imperial budget, founder of the Servants of India Society
- The Big Idea:
- You can fight an empire with its own account books. Master the rulers' numbers better than the rulers, tell the truth so precisely it cannot be waved away, and train successors sworn to poverty to finish what you start.
- In their words:
- "I know that my Bill will be thrown out before the day closes. I make no complaint." (Imperial Legislative Council, March 1912)
- If you remember one thing:
- The education bill he lost in 1912 became Indian law in 2009 — he served his country by his failures, exactly as he predicted, and spent his last strength training the man whose successes came later.