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        The period extending from the last decade of the 19th and the first decade of the 20th centuries was marked in India by growth of extremism and agitation in every sphere of life against the British rule and domination. Through the medium of the Indian-owned press, of the Indian National Congress, of the speeches and actions of Indian leaders like Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, Dadabhai Naoroji, Surendranath Bannerjee, Ananda Mohan Bose, Romesh Chunder Dutt, Lalmohan Ghosh and others who had visited or lived in England, of English people themselves like A.O. Hume, Charles Bradlaugh, Ms. Anne Besant, C.F. Andrews, Sir William Wdderburn and George Yule and above all on account of the activities of terrorists in Bengal and Bombay Presidency, the legitimate claims of Indians first to be associated on terms of equality in the Government of their country, later to be granted home rule and a status equal to the self-governing portions of the British Empire, were ceaselessly and forcefully demanded and advanced. The elemental force of this agitation in many parts of India took the Government of India completely by surprise. But the main man behind this national resurgence and national awakening was Bal Gangadhar Tilak. A man of fiery idealism and indomitable courage, he declared: 'Swaraj is my birthright'.

The crushing of the Indian Mutiny of 1857 led to a complete cessation of open agitation against or dissatisfaction with British rule. On the surface, the years after 1858 were ones of internal peace. From open rebellion, the British Government had nothing to fear. The Mutiny had, however, left a feeling of bitterness in many Indian minds which neither time nor the British Government did much to dispel. After the Mutiny, the British Government always tended to treat Indians not only as their inferiors but also as people who could not be trusted. It was not therefore surprising that great resentment persisted in the minds of educated Indians.         In the pre-Mutiny era marked by the heyday of the Brahmo-Samaj, the educated classes had been at one in embracing Western ideals. After 1858, they split into two camps. In the first camp were those who wanted to switch over to European culture in thought, word and deed viewing all things Indian as barbarous and superstitious. In the other camp were the people who maintained that though Western education must be utilised to the full, yet all that was best in thought and action was contained in the traditions and tenets of orthodox Hinduism. This point of view was typified by Swami Dayanand's Arya Samaj whose popular movement was for 'Back to the Vedas' and their followers execrated the foreigners as 'Melechhas', displaying a harsh intolerance towards anything that was not Hindu. Bal Gangadhar Tilak, to begin with, belonged to the second group in his early years and later became totally anti-British in every sense of the word. It is this fact that constitutes Bal Gangadhar Tilak's claims to his great pre-eminence and greatness among the great heroes of India.

Bai Gangadhar Tilak

        Bal Gangadhar Tilak was born at Ratnagiri on the Konkan Coast in 1856. He was by birth a Brahman, which was to be an important factor in his life. He belonged to the sect called 'Chitpavan', which was the predominant influence controlling his early activities in politics and public life. The Chitpavan Brahmans had been in the 18th and the early part of the 19th century's de facto rulers of the Maratha Kingdom, which had its capital in Poona. Poona was the Headquarters from which the resistance of the Maratha power to the English power in the latter half of the 18th and the first quarter of the 19th centuries. The Peshwas were Chitpavan Brahmans who skilfully conducted their opposition and resistance to the English power in India and it was more stubborn and more prolonged than that of any other Indian Kingdom, Hindu or Muslim. The Peshwas were defeated by the English in 1818. Towards their English rulers who had deprived them of their power and pre-eminence in society, many of them felt an animosity which was more bitter, sustained and purposeful than was noticed anywhere else in India.

        Tilak was brought up in the strictly orthodox Brahman tradition. As a Chitpavan Brahman, he had behind him a glorious tradition of politics and public service. As a Maratha, he was told the heroic stories of the glorious days of Shivaji and the Maratha Empire. After completing his school and college studies, he was appointed Professor of Mathematics in the New English School at Poona. There, after a while, he became the Founder and Proprietor of two journals, the 'Maratha' printed in English and the 'Kesari' printed in Marathi. Kesari was the first vernacular-Marathi-journal to gain any noticeable and respectable circulation among educated Indians who were later destined to gain fame throughout the Peninsula. Tilak was a staunch advocate of education, more particularly school education, through the medium of the mother tongue and in Poona the Marathi language. He helped in establishing National Schools independent of Government control which were later suppressed by the English Government. His Marathi journal Kesari reached a circulation of more than 20,000 copies by 1895.

        The first session of the Indian National Congress was held in December 1885 in Bombay. Bal Gangadhar Tilak was 29 years old at that time. Tilak was not present at this first meeting. Bal Gangadhar Tilak went as a delegate to the Fifth Session of the Indian National Congress at Bombay in 1889. In this session Tilak warned his countrymen not to act like beggars in dealing with English Authorities in India. In this session itself Tilak raised his famous cry: 'Freedom is my birthright and I will have it 'which awoke an emotional echo throughout India. His forthright and violent attitude aroused misgivings among many of the moderates like Mahadev Govind Ranade, Gopalakrishna Gokhale and Surendranath Bannerjee. At the same time it has to be noted that the public realised the force of his personality and the note of challenge and defiance in his writings and speeches. All this brought him an immense and unquestioning following. Outstanding and intellect, subtle as well as forceful in arguments, he could rouse in those with whom he came into contact the same violent emotion, whether of enthusiasm or hatred, which he himself felt. On any given public issue, he was passionately sincere and he had the gift that was to be later pre-eminently Mahatma Gandhi's, of inspiring unquestioning devotion. He was given by common consent, the name of 'LOKAMANYA', which meant 'respected by the people'.

        In 1893, he organised in Poona the first public festival in Lord Ganesh's honour. He founded Ganapathi Societies, banded the students in the towns and the youths in the villages into Melas, and Gymnastic Societies, giving to them a corporate feeling and a sense of their own importance. Simultaneously through his powerful column in the Kesari, he exhorted the youth and all the people of Maharashtra to deeds of self-denial and honour 'and by implication, violence' in defence of their ancient glory against the hated foreigner. In 1893 he also founded the Anti-Cow-Killing Society which was a direct challenge to Muslims. He followed this up by demanding at several meetings of the 'Sarvajanik Sabha', immediate action from the Government for the lifting of the ban on the playing of music by Hindu processions in front of Mosques.

        Further to consolidate Maratha sentiment and activity, in 1895 Bal Gangadhar Tilak organised and presided over the first great Shivaji Festival at Raigarh, Shivaji's first capital. During the worst famine years in 1896 and 1897, Tilak was in the forefront organizing all kinds of relief work to relieve the distress. When there was an outbreak of plague in 1897, Tilak displayed great energy and unselfishness. At the same time he carried on a series of bitter attacks on the British Government in his journal 'Kesari'. In June 1897, two British Officials Rand and Ayerst were assassinated in Poona by a young Chitpavan Brahman called Damodar Chapekar. Though Tilak was in no way involved in this murder, yet he was prosecuted for sedition and convicted on a majority vote of six European Jurors against three Indians and sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment. Bipin Chandra Paul and Aurobindo Gosh became his disciples. When the Swadesi Movement began in Bengal in 1905, Tilak became the unquestioned leader of India.

        In 1908, Tilak was charged with criminal conspiracy and sentenced to transportation for life which was later modified to 6 years imprisonment at Mandalay in Burma. During his stay in prison, he wrote his famous books on the origin of the Aryans and his commentary on the Baghavat Gita. On completion of his term of imprisonment in 1915, he joined hands with Mrs. Anne Besant and formed the Home Rule League. In 1919 Tilak visited England as the leading member of a deputation sent by Congress to put its point of view with regard to the new Government of India Act called 'Montague-Chelmsford Reforms'. Bal Gangadhar Tilak passed away in Bombay in August 1920 at the age of 64. A vast crowd, which included Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, followed the funeral procession.

        In the India of 1905, he was a powerful factor in the creation of an All India Opinion on most vital matters governing the destiny of India. He was accorded by millions of India a hero worship which is given only to those who are capable of utmost sacrifice for advancing the cause of national glory and public welfare. He has rightly been called 'The Father of Indian Unrest'.