It was in this atmosphere of intense antagonism and hostility that Gokhale introduced his Elementary Education Bill in 1910. He called it 'a small humble attempt to suggest the first steps of a journey, which is bound to prove long and tedious, but which must be performed, if the mass of our people are to emerge from their present condition'.

Gokhale argued that free and compulsory education is the first remedy of all the remedies to be applied, and that without compulsion the growth of education in a country has been hopelessly slow. Compulsion, he warned, would operate harshly on the poorer classes of the community if it were not made free. He suggested that only those students whose family income was 25 rupees and above per month should pay fees; for the rest, education was to be free.

Out of the total expenditure required for it, two-thirds should be borne by the state and one-third by the local bodies. He suggested imposing an additional eight-anna tax on salt on the grounds that 'my countrymen should eat less salt than that their children should continue to grow up in ignorance and darkness'.