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By 1914, Jinnah’s reputation as an all-India leader had been fully established. Tilak, having completed his sentence of imprisonment, was back in India from Mandalay, and Gandhi was also then on his way back to India. At this juncture, what lay before Jinnah was the stupendous challenge of not only attaining unity between Moderates and Extremists but also between the Hindus and Muslims. For this cause, attempts at rapproachment between Gokhale and Tilak were made. Jinnah also engaged with Gokhale to evolve a common constitutional formula around which all political forces of India could unite. Gokhale did evolve just such a formula but it was still only at a draft stage in February 1915 when sadly he died. This draft formula, thereafter, could only be made public in August 1917, by Aga Khan while in London. Termed as the ‘Gokhale scheme’, it provided for a governor for each province with a Cabinet of six, three Indian and three European members. The Executive was to be responsible to the Legislature. The services were to be provincialised. The viceroy and his council was to have nominal control. Jinnah had endeavoured to unite all political forces behind this formula, but just then Gokhale’s death, at such a juncture, meant a great loss to him.

Excerpted from Page 89-90 of ‘Jinnah: India-Partition Independence’ by Jaswant Singh