ABSTRACT
The fourth chapter shows that Gokhale understood citizenship not only as a legal/formal status including rights and duties, but also as the long-term process of becoming a citizen. This process implied an ‘education into citizenship’ which was tied to issues of moral authority and legitimacy and which made the attainment of citizenship potentially exclusionary. In explicating this question, the chapter examines the issues of political participation, social service and civic activism, welfare and education, namely elements that in different and similar ways served the purpose to ‘put into practice’ the nation that Gokhale envisioned. This final chapter argues that the civic construction articulated by the Indian liberal was underpinned by conservative elements and, at the same time, had the potential to create spaces for change and emancipation for the marginalised sections of Indian society.
