Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Date of Birth: 23 July 1856
Place of Birth: Ratnagiri, Maharashtra
Parents: GangadharTilak (father) and Parvatibai (mother)
Spouse: Tapibai renamed Satyabhamabai
Children: Ramabai Vaidya, Parvatibai Kelkar, Vishwanath Balwant Tilak, Rambhau Balwant Tilak, Shridhar Balwant Tilak, and Ramabai Sane.
Education: Deccan College, Government Law College.
Association: Indian National Congress, Indian Home Rule League, Deccan Educational Society
Movement: Indian Independence Movement
Political Ideology: Nationalism, Extremism.
Religious Beliefs: Hinduism
Publications: The Arctic Home in the Vedas (1903); Srimad Bhagvat Gita Rahasya (1915)
deth: 1 August 1920
Memorial: Tilak Wada, Ratnagiri, Maharashtra
Bal Gangadhar Tilak was an Indian social reformer and freedom activist. He was one of the prime architects of modern India and probably the strongest advocates of Swaraj or Self Rule for India. His famous declaration “Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have it” served as an inspiration for future revolutionaries during India’s struggle for freedom. The British Government termed him as the "Father of Indian Unrest" and his followers bequeathed upon him the title of ‘Lokmanya’ meaning he who is revered by the people. Tilak was a brilliant politician as well as a profound scholar who believed that independence is the foremost necessity for the well being of a nation.
Keshav Gangadhar Tilak was born on July 22, 1856 in a middle class Chitpavan Brahmin family in Ratnagiri, a small coastal town in south-western Maharashtra. His father, Gangadhar Shastri was a noted Sanskrit scholar and school teacher at Ratnagiri. His mother's name was Paravti Bai Gangadhar. Following his father's transfer, the family shifted to Poona (now Pune). In 1871 Tilak was married to Tapibai who was later rechristened as Satyabhamabai.
Tilak was a brilliant student. As a child, he was truthful and straightforward in nature. He had an intolerant attitude towards injustice and had independent opinions from an early age. After graduating from Deccan College, Pune, in 1877 in Sanskrit and Mathematics, Tilak studied L.L.B. at the Government Law College, Bombay (now Mumbai). He received his law degree in 1879. After finishing his education, he started teaching English and Mathematics at a private school in Poona. Following a disagreement with the school authorities he quit and helped found a school in 1880 that laid emphasis on nationalism. Though, he was among India's first generation of youths to receive a modern, college education, Tilak strongly criticised the educational system followed by the British in India. He protested against the unequal treatment of the Indian students compared to their British peers and its total disregard for India’s cultural heritage. According to him, the education was not at all adequate for Indians who remained woefully ignorant about their own origins. He started the Deccan Educational Society with college batchmates, Vishnu Shastry Chiplunkar and Gopal Ganesh Agarkar for the purpose of inspiring nationalist education among Indian students. Parallel to his teaching activities, Tilak founded two newspapers ‘Kesari’ in Marathi and ‘Mahratta’ in English.
Bal's father Gangadhar Ramachandra Tilak was a Sanskrit scholar and a famous teacher. Because of his scholarship, he had become 'Gangadharpant' to every one. Bal learnt all the lessons at home and there was nothing left to learn at school. Though Bal was very intelligent, he was not his teachers' favorite because of his mischievousness. From his childhood, he used to form independent views. He took an independent stand always. He was very much different from boys of his age. Those were the days of his schooling in the primary school at Ratnagiri. One afternoon the teacher entered the class after the interval and found groundnut shells scattered in the classroom. Naturally he grew angry. He took his cane and asked, "Who scattered the groundnut shells like this?There was silence. The teacher's anger rose. "Speak, who ate the groundnuts?" No one confessed. The teacher lost his temper. He decided to punish the entire class. He began to give each boy two cuts with his cane. When Bal's turn came, he did not hold out his hand. "I did not eat the groundnuts. So I will not receive the cuts." "Then who ate the groundnuts?". "It is said that carrying tales is bad. So I won't tell." Bal's straightforwardness and truthfulness made the teacher himself uncomfortable. He became angry, too. He sent him out of the school. And Bal's father Gangadharpant received a complaint against his son. Next day, the father brought Bal to the school. He said that what his son had said was true. Bal was not in the habit of eating anything outside his home and he, the father, never gave his son money to buy anything. Even at that young age it was Tilak's nature to protest against injustice.
Immediately after completing his education, he became a mathematics teacher in a private school in Pune. However, following ideological differences with his colleagues, he took up journalism as profession.
Appalled by the western education system and its demeaning nature of treating Indian students, he decided to put an end to the turmoil by setting up a society that would assist in educating people about Indian culture and national ideals.
Along with Gopal Ganesh Agarkar, Mahadev Ballal Namjoshi and Vishnushastri Chiplunkar, he founded the Deccan Education Society. The society aimed at teaching young Indians about nationalist ideas by emphasizing on Indian culture. It intended to impart quality education to Indian youth.
In 1885, Deccan Education Society founded the New English School for secondary education and Fergusson College for post-secondary studies. He served as a professor of mathematics in the latter.
Through his weekly newspaper, he openly criticized the British rule. Furthermore, he even spoke against Indians who worked on the western line of beliefs. He strongly condemned any kind of political, social and economic reform that was of advantage for the West.
In 1890, he joined the Indian National Congress but did not stand by it all through. He was blatantly critical of the moderate attitude that the INC took towards the fight for self-governance.
He aimed at widening the popularity of the national movement by introducing mass celebration of Hindu festivals. In 1894, he initiated the Ganesh Utsav making it a public event. A year later, he founded the Shivaji Fund Committee to celebrate the birth anniversary of Shivaji Maharaj.
In 1896 when a Bubonic plague hit Bombay and spread to other parts of the state taking an epidemic status, harsh measures were adopted by the British to control the same. Through his newspaper, he condemned the British efforts tagging them as acts of dictatorship and subjugation.
In 1897, he was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment. Returning from the prison, he gained a cult status as a martyr and a national hero.
In 1905, he started Boycott and Swadeshi movement. While the former aimed at boycotting anything connected to the West from foreign good to foreign clothes, the latter professed use of Indian-produced goods and services.
Two years later at the annual session of the Congress, differences broke out between the moderates and the radicals and led to the emergence of two new groups.
In 1908 he defended Prafulla Chaki and Khudiram Bose – revolutionaries who threw a bomb on a carriage at Muzzafarnagar, in order to kill the Chief Presidency Magistrate. He was prosecuted on charges of sedition and inciting terrorism and was sentenced to jail for a period of six years. It was while being imprisoned that he penned his magnum opus, Srimad Bhagavadgit Rahasya - his take on the most sacred book of the Hindus
In 1914, after being released from prison, he did not give up on his political activities and immediately launched the All India Home Rule League.
Two years later, he rejoined the Indian National Congress. Despite numerous efforts, he met with almost no success in uniting the moderate and radical units of the Congress and later turned to self-rule, advocating to the same to villagers and farmers.
'Swaraj -- Our Birth-Right' "We want equality. We cannot remain slaves under foreign rule. We will not carry for an instant longer, the yoke of slavery that we have carded all these years. Swaraj is our birth right. We must have it at any cost. When the Japanese, who are Asians like us, are free, why should we be slaves? Why should our Mother's hands be hand- cuffed?" This was Tilak at his vociferous best.
As days passed, Tilak began to stamp the slogan 'Swaraj is our birthright'on the minds of every Indian. Lokaman ya Tilak's popularity grew rapidly.Tilak was in fact, one of the leading lights of the Indian freedom movement. Best remembered for his slogan"Swaraj is my birth-right ", he was one of the first to call for complete freedom from British rule, and fought a long and sometimes lonely political struggle against the forces of "moderation" that held sway over the Indian National Congress in the early part of the last century. He gradually developed a more advanced nationalist perspective based on the pillars of nationalist education, Swaraj and Swadeshi (self-reliance). The Congress who under the leadership of Dadabhai Naoroji had accepted the demands put forth by the Tilak group for Swaraj, Swadeshi and National Education In 1916, Tilak decided to build a separate organization called the 'Home Rule League'. Its goal was swaraj. Tilak went from village to village, and explained the aim of his league to the farmers and won their hearts. He traveled constantly in order to organize the people.
Tilak was so disappointed by the brutal incident of Jalianwala Bagh massacre that his health started declining. Despite his illness, Tilak issued a call to the Indians not to stop the movement no matter what happened. He was raring to lead the movement but his health did not permit. Tilak suffered from diabetes and had become very weak by this time. In mid-July 1920, his condition worsened and on August 1, he passed away.
Even as this sad news was spreading, a veritable ocean of people surged to his house. Over 2 lakh people gathered at his residence in Bombay to have the last glimpse of their beloved leader.
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