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Lokmaya Tilak (1856 - 1920): He proclaimed self-rule as birth right
``In spite of the verdict I maintain that I am innocent. There are higher powers that rule the destiny of things and it may be the will of Providence that the cause which I represent may prosper more by my suffering than by my remaining free.''
That was the stentorian declaration of Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak in 1908 before the court that convicted him of sedition for his signed articles in his journal, `Kesari'. The Indian judge sentenced Tilak for six years imprisonment and a fine of Rs.1,000, based on the opinion of the nine-member jury, which was divided on racial lines: seven European members finding him guilty and two Indians holding him not-guilty.
Tilak was transported to the Mandalay prison in Burma (Myanmar), where he wrote `Gita Rahasya', a treatise on the Bhagavadgita. On his release, he received tumultuous receptions wherever he went in the country, and revered as `Lokmanya' (one who commands the people's respect).
Much later, the eminent jurist and former Union Minister, M.C. Chagla, remarked while he was the Chief Justsice of the Bombay High Court that Tilak was sentenced for the crime of patrotism. "If an Indian is now presiding as Chief Justice of this court, it is due in no small measure to the suffering and sacrifice of Tilak. He loved the country more than his life and liberty.''
Tilak's love for Indian freedom was such that he wrote vehemently against the oppression of the alien rulers in his journals and gave the country the celebrated and quotable quote slogan: "Swaraj is my birth right, I will have it."
He had had several such rubs against the powers-that-be and each time he had to undergo imprisonment. In 1882, Tilak was sentenced to four months imprisonment in a defamation case filed by the Dewan of Kolhapur principality. In 1897, he was sentenced to 18 months jail term on a charge of sedition, and here too six European jurors found him guilty while three Indians otherwise. He unsuccessfully appealed to the Privy Council. However, following a representation signed by eminent personages like Max Mueller, Richard Garth, William Hunter, William Cain, Dadabhai Naoroji and Romesh Chandra Dutt, the sentenced was cut short by six months.
Born in Poona (now Pune) on July 23, 1856, in a family of mamlatdars under the Peshwas, Tilak became a law graduate. But he took to teaching with a missionary zeal by joining the Deccan Education Society and the Fergusson College. Subsequently he launched the journals, `Kesari' and `Marathi', and espoused public causes and issues, besides social reforms.
He opposed the Age of Consent Bill for interfering with the social customs of the people. At the same time, he proposed that people should voluntarily bind themselves to agree that girls should not be married before they were 16 years old and boys before 20 and that if men above 40 years wanted to remarry they should marry only widows. He also advised people to put an end to the dowry system. Thus, in spite of his orthodox way of life, he was far ahead of his times.
Tilak favoured `sarvajanic' (by all people) celebration of Vinayaka and Shivaji festivals to promote camaraderie among masses and thereby nationalism. For the first time, the masses were thus involved in the India's freedom struggle. Another innovation of his was the launching of the annual Spring Lecture Series (`Vasant Vyakyaan Mala') to educate people on various topics by persons of eminence in different fields. The practice is being continued in Pune.
He was elected to the Poona Municipal Council and the Bombay Legislature in 1895, but later felt that parliamentary work without political freedom was futile. He was a towering leader of the Indian National Congress, along with Lala Lajpatrai and Bepin Chandra Pal, in its early years. The `Lal-Bal-Pal' trio took active part in shaping its policies, and vehemently opposed the partition of Bengal on communal lines as part of the Minto-Morley Reforms. In the 1907 Surat session of the Congress, he opposed the `moderate' wing of the organisation, and favoured the `extremist' group in respect of dealing with the British Government. After his release from Mandalay prison, he resumed his interest in the Congress at the instance of Annie Besant, who favoured home rule for India, and was elected president for its Lahore session in 1918, but he could not preside over the session as he had to go to London to fight a suit against Valentine Chirol for describing Tilak as `the father of Indian unrest'. The case was dismissed by the King's Bench.
With his verve for freedom, Tilak utilised his stay in England for cultivating the Labour Party leaders to promote India's national aspirations. He also met the Secretary of State for India, Edwin Montague, to press the case for political reforms. At a gathering of British intellectuals, he was asked what position he would occupy if India became free. Pat came his reply: "I would retire from politics and go back to my first love: mathematics.''
Despite his best efforts in London, the subsequent Montague-Chelmsford Reforms proved inadequate and the imposition of the Rowlatt Act became an irritant. Still, Tilak gave a call for responsive cooperation. Around this time Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi returned to India after successfully conducting his unique `satyagraha' (civil disobedience) campaign in South Africa against the British. Tilak blessed Gandhiji's Non-Cooperation Movement, thereby handing over the mantle of leadership to the latter.
Tilak died on August 1, 1920, the day on which the Non-Cooperation Movement was to be launched. In deference to the great leader, Gandhiji put off the launch by a day. Paying homage to him, Gandhiji said: "It is a blasphemy to talk of him as dead. The permanent essence of him abides with us forever.''
R. SAMPATH
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