The prosecution of a man of Tilak’s popularity and influence at a time when neither the Imperial Government nor the Government of India had realized the full danger of the situation was undoubtedly a grave measure of which a weaker Government than that of Bombay under Sir George Clarke might well have shirked the responsibility.  There were serious riots after the trial.  From the moment of his arrest Tilak’s followers had put it about amongst the mill-hands that he was in prison because he was their friend and had sought to obtain better pay for them.  Some of his supporters are said to have declared during the trial that there would be a day’s bloodshed for every year to which he might be sentenced by the Court, and, as a matter of fact, he was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment and the riots lasted six days.  The rioting assumed at times a very threatening character.  The European police frequently had to use their revolvers, and the troops had several times to fire in self-defence.  But rigorous orders had been issued by the authorities to avoid as far as possible the shedding of blood, and both the police and the military forces exercised such steady self-restraint that casualties were relatively few, and the violence of the mob never vented itself upon the European population of the city.  The gravity of the disturbances, however, showed the extent and the lawless character of the influence which Tilak had already acquired over the lower classes in Bombay, and not merely over the turbulent mill-hands.  In the heart of the city many Hindu shops were closed “out of sympathy with Tilak,” and the most violent rioting on one day occurred amongst the Bhattias and Banias employed in the cloth market, who had hitherto been regarded as very orderly and rather timid folk.  The trouble in Bombay was certainly not a sudden and spontaneous outburst of popular feeling.  It bore throughout the impress of careful and deliberate organization.  By a happy combination of sympathy and firmness Sir George Clarke had, however, won the respect of the vast majority of the community, and though he failed to secure the active support which he might have expected from the “moderates,” there were few of them who did not secretly approve and even welcome his action.  Its effects were great and enduring, for Tilak’s conviction was a heavy blow—­perhaps the heaviest which has been dealt—­to the forces of unrest, at least in the Deccan; and some months later one of the organs of his party, the Rashtramat, reviewing the occurrences of the year, was fain to admit that “the sudden removal of Mr. Tilak’s towering personality threw the whole province into dismay and unnerved the other leaders.”