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V.R.Chakravati
Bipin Chandra Pal
Lala Lajpat Rai
Aswini Kumar
Datta Zakir
Husain Rammohan
Roy Swami
Shriddhanand
Swami Vivekanand
Ramakrishna Paramahansa
Thakar Bapa
Master Tara Singh
Guru Ram Singh
Mangal Pandey
Rani Laxmibai
Kunwar Singh
Tantia Tope Nana
Saheb Birsa Munda
Maharana Pratap
Shivaji Maharaj
Madam Bhikaji
Cama Sukhdev
Rashbehari Bose
Bir Singh
Tikendrajit Singh
Lala Hardayal
Jatindra Nath Das
Champak Raman
Pilai Sohan Singh
Bhakna Udham
Sing Ramprasad
Bismil Alluri
Sitaram Raju
Surya Kumar Sen
Khudiram Bose
Vasudeo Balwant
Phadke Madan Lal
Dhingra Chandra
Sekhar Azaad
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Bal
Gangadhar Tilak
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Some
people say, that the contribution of Bal Gangadhar Tilak is the same
as that of Mahatma Gandhi. However it will not be correct to compare
the two. Apart from his political, known figure, Tilak had some different
facets as well. He was a great Sanskrit scholar and astronomer. He fixed
the origin and date of Rigvedic Aryans, which was highly acclaimed and
universally accepted by orientalists of his time.
His role in Congress and advocating Home Rule for India were
enormous. His newspaper (Kesari) founded in 1881 is going strong even
today. He was Guru to V.D.
Savarkar and hundreds of nationalists and thousands of Indians.
He led the Indian Freedom Movement, till 1920, his death. After him Gandhiji took over. Although Gandhi accepted Gokhale
as his mentor, in practice, he adopted all of Tilak's ideas of Swadeshi
and of social reform.
His
words, "Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it!" roused
a sleeping nation to action, making Indian people aware of their political
plight under a foreign rule. Tilak did not question the British Sovereignty nor his demands
were rebellious or revolutionary. All he was asking was favorable conditions
in India, to enable people to learn
to govern themselves. May be all over the world, the separatist
forces should follow his vision and define freedom as ability to govern
one's land. But the handful
rulers who ruled India's millions thought otherwise. They thought that
Tilak was whipping a rebellion and he was imprisoned twice; two years
for the first and six during the second. They said, he had committed
treason.
Born
in Ratnagiri, a small coastal town in 1856 in a middle class family,
Tilak had to feed himself for college education. At an early age he
was convinced that the educational system the British provided for the
Indians was not at all adequate. After graduation and a law degree,
he helped found a school which laid emphasis on nationalism.
He started a news
paper 'Kesari' which tried to teach Indians of their glorious past and
reminded them to be self reliant (Swadeshi).
Tilak
rightly calculated the attitude of the British towards the economic
exploitation of the Indians. The British used the raw material from
the Indian soil and produced finished products in their country, which
in turn were sold in India. This made the Indians totally dependent
on the British. In the process, all the self-employing industries of
India like spinning, weaving, glass making, sugar ,dyeing, paper making
were destroyed. People became destitute for no fault of theirs to help
an empire become richer and stronger.To fight this situation, he gave
four mantras called Chatuhsutri: (1). Boycott of foreign goods (2) National
Education (3) Self Government (4) Swadeshi or self reliance. He realized
that mere protest against British rule was not going to help and insisted
on native production and reliance.
He
founded Deccan Education Society to give better education as per the
country's needs. He wrote articles over inhuman punishment meted out
to the nationalist youth who protested the division of Bengal (VangaBhanga).
Indian newspapers were not to criticize the British policy in those
days and two articles titled "Has the Government lost its head
?" .and "To Rule is not to wreak vengeance" appearing
in Kesari landed him in jail, after a namesake trial. For the first
time in British history, intellectuals in England (including the great
orientalist, Max Muller) were able to convince the Government that the
trial was unfair. But the second time (1908) was no different. Tilak
advocated his own case and when the judgment of six years of black-waters
(kala pani) imprisonment was pronounced, he gave the
famous statement :
"
All I wish to say is that in spite of the verdict of the jury, I maintain
my innocence. There are higher powers that rule the destiny of men and
nations. It may be the will of Providence
that the cause I represent may prosper by suffering than by remaining
free".
His
trial and punishment led to national upheaval. But the British were
careful enough to arrange everything in secret and
the judgment was delivered at midnight and Tilak was taken under
military vigil to be deported
to Burma (present Myanmar, which was also under British control).
At
52, Tilak wrote his famous commentary on Bhagavad-Gita, the sacred book
of Hindus; Geeta-Rahasya in the jail. By the time Tilak completed his
six year prison term, he was the unquestioned leader of the Indians
- the uncrowned king. He was known as the Tilak Maharaj.
There
was unprecedented jubilation after Tilak was free and back in India.
Civil resistance, the concept of Swaraj, and nationalism had taken deep roots. Tilak's suffering
did not go in vain. A band of leaders, full of zeal for nationalism
and self-sacrifice was coming up. National schools were coming up in
all corners of India. He paved the way for Khadi (hand woven cloth),
picketing against foreign goods and alcoholism. His death in 1920 brought
Mahatma Gandhi on the scene and Gandhiji gave a concrete shape to Tilak's
ideas of Swadeshi.
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