1-Gokhale was a senior leader of the Indian National Congress and founder of the Servants of India Society.
2- He was one of the social and political leaders during the Indian Independence Movement against the British Empire in India.
3-He was the leader of the moderate faction of the Congress party.
4-Gopal Krishna Gokhale was born on 9 May 1866 in Kothluk village of Guhagar taluka in Ratnagiri district, in present-day Maharashtra.
5-Gokhale graduated from Elphinstone College in 1884.
6- He became a member of the Indian National Congress in 1889, as a protege of social reformer Mahadev Govind Ranade.
7- He worked with contemporary leaders like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Dadabhai Naoroji, Bipin Chandra Pal, Lala Lajpat Rai and Annie Besant.
8- Gokhale had visited Ireland and had arranged for an Irish nationalist, Alfred Webb, to serve as President of the Indian National Congress in 1894.
9-He supported the Consent Bill to curb child marriage abuses.
10-In 1899, Gokhale was elected to the Bombay Legislative Council. He was elected to the Imperial Council of the Governor-General of India on 20 December 1901.
11-Gokhale was appointed a CIE (Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire) in the 1904 New Year’s Honours List, a formal recognition by the Empire of his service.
12-Gokhale was famously a mentor to Mahatma Gandhi in his formative years.
13- Gokhale visited South Africa at Gandhi’s invitation in the year 1912.
14- In his autobiography, Gandhi calls Gokhale his mentor and guide.
15- Gandhi also recognised Gokhale as an admirable leader and master politician, describing him 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.
16- Gokhale was also the role model and mentor of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the future founder of Pakistan, who in 1912, aspired to become the ‘Muslim Gokhale’.
17-Gokhale died on 19 February 1915 at an early age of forty-nine.
18-Bal Gangadhar Tilak, his lifelong political opponent, said at his funeral: ‘This diamond of India, this jewel of Maharashtra, this prince of workers is taking eternal rest on funeral ground. Look at him and try to emulate him’.
19-Gokhale married twice. His first marriage took place in 1880 when he was in his teens to Savitribai, who suffered from an incurable ailment.
20-Gopal Krishna Gokhale married a second time in 1887 while Savitribai was still alive. His second wife died after giving birth to two daughters in 1899
21-The Gokhale Education Society which runs more than 50 Educational Institutions (in Nashik, Mumbai and Konkan) was established by T. A. Kulkarni in 1918.
