After receiving his BA/LLB degree he could have simply opted for a life full of comforts, he thought of educating the Indians instead and laid the foundations of ‘Deccan Educational Society’ (erstwhile ‘New English School’)
While Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak could have gladly kept educating Indians but he felt the need of awakening them as well and he started a weekly called ‘Kesari’
Tilak saw the absolute lack of concord in the society and hence transformed local celebrations like ‘Ganesh Chaturthi’ and ‘Shivaji Jayanti’ to large scale festivals to unite the populace.
Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak set up cheap grain shops, relief centers and hospitals in the great plague of 1896. He employed a large horde of volunteers to take care of the patients. He participated in the treatment drives himself.
Lokmanya condemned the Plague officer. ‘W.C. Rand’ in ‘Kesari’ and was detained. He utilized the time and wrote ‘The Arctic Home in the Vedas’
Tilak could have stayed quiet after being released but he disparaged the British for the ‘Bengal Partition’ in 1906. He was charged with sedition, jailed and sent to Mandalay for 6 years. He again made full use of his time and wrote ‘Gita Rahasya’
When Tilak came back, Congress was in complete shambles but he didn’t lose heart and went on to start the Home-Rule Movement.
Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak made people believe in the fact that Swaraj (self-rule) is their birthright.
Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak was a magician. He was a scholar, a writer, a patriot, a hypnotic orator, a leader who led by examples, a humanitarian and a true nationalist. Apart from some occasional mentions of the triumvirate ‘Lal-Bal-Pal’ and the ‘Garam Dal’ faction of theirs, the garbled history that we mug up in class rooms to vomit on examination papers completely fails at the job of unfolding the tales of the great leaders of India who were pivotal in imbibing a sense of patriotism in the minds of the Indians. What a loss!!
Team TFI salutes Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak on his 159th birth anniversary.