Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Bal Gangadhar Tilak (ⓘ; born Keshav Gangadhar Tilak[3][4] (pronunciation: [keʃəʋ ɡəŋɡaːd̪ʱəɾ ʈiɭək]); 23 July 1856 – 1 August 1920), endeared as Lokmanya (IAST: Lokamānya), was an Indian nationalist, teacher, and an independence activist. He was one third of the Lal Bal Pal triumvirate.[5] The British colonial authorities called him "The father of the Indian unrest". He was also conferred with the title of "Lokmanya", which means "accepted by the people as their leader".[6] Mahatma Gandhi called him "The Maker of Modern India".[7]
For the poet, see Devarakonda Balagangadhara Tilak.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak
23 July 1856
1 August 1920 (aged 64)
Author, politician, freedom fighter
Satyabhamabai Tilak
3[2]
Tilak was one of the first and strongest advocates of Swaraj ('self-rule') and a strong radical in Indian consciousness. He is known for his quote in Marathi: "Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it!". He formed a close alliance with many Indian National Congress leaders including Bipin Chandra Pal, Lala Lajpat Rai, Aurobindo Ghose, V. O. Chidambaram Pillai and Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Thoughts and views
Religio-Political Views
Tilak sought to unite the Indian population for mass political action throughout his life. For this to happen, he believed there needed to be a comprehensive justification for anti-British pro-Hindu activism. For this end, he sought justification in the supposed original principles of the Ramayana and the Bhagavad Gita. He named this call to activism karma-yoga or the yoga of action.[40] In his interpretation, the Bhagavad Gita reveals this principle in the conversation between Krishna and Arjuna when Krishna exhorts Arjuna to fight his enemies (which in this case included many members of his family) because it is his duty. In Tilak's opinion, the Bhagavad Gita provided a strong justification of activism. However, this conflicted with the mainstream exegesis of the text at the time which was dominated by renunciate views and the idea of acts purely for God. This was represented by the two mainstream views at the time by Ramanuja and Adi Shankara. To find support for this philosophy, Tilak wrote his own interpretations of the relevant passages of the Gita and backed his views using Jnanadeva's commentary on the Gita, Ramanuja's critical commentary and his own translation of the Gita.[41]
Social views against women
Tilak was strongly opposed to liberal trends emerging in Pune such as women's rights and social reforms against untouchability.[42][43][44] Tilak vehemently opposed the establishment of the first Native girls High school (now called Huzurpaga) in Pune in 1885 and its curriculum using his newspapers, the Mahratta and Kesari.[43][45][46] Tilak was also opposed to intercaste marriage, particularly the match where an upper caste woman married a lower caste man.[46] In the case of Deshasthas, Chitpawans and Karhades, he encouraged these three Maharashtrian Brahmin groups to give up "caste exclusiveness" and intermarry.[a] Tilak officially opposed the age of consent bill which raised the age of marriage from ten to twelve for girls, however he was willing to sign a circular that increased age of marriage for girls to sixteen and twenty for boys.[48]
Child bride Rukhmabai was married at the age of eleven but refused to go and live with her husband. The husband sued for restitution of conjugal rights, initially lost but appealed the decision. On 4 March 1887, Justice Farran, using interpretations of Hindu laws, ordered Rukhmabai to "go live with her husband or face six months of imprisonment". Tilak approved of this decision of the court and said that the court was following Hindu Dharmaśāstras. Rukhmabai responded that she would rather face imprisonment than obey the verdict. Her marriage was later dissolved by Queen Victoria. Later, she went on to receive her Doctor of Medicine degree from the London School of Medicine for Women.[49][50][51][52]
In 1890, when an eleven-year-old Phulamani Bai died while having sexual intercourse with her much older husband, the Parsi social reformer Behramji Malabari supported the Age of Consent Act, 1891 to raise the age of a girl's eligibility for marriage. Tilak opposed the Bill and said that the Parsis as well as the English had no jurisdiction over the (Hindu) religious matters. He blamed the girl for having "defective female organs" and questioned how the husband could be "persecuted diabolically for doing a harmless act". He called the girl one of those "dangerous freaks of nature".[44] Tilak did not have a progressive view when it came to gender relations. He did not believe that Hindu women should get a modern education. Rather, he had a more conservative view, believing that women were meant to be homemakers who had to subordinate themselves to the needs of their husbands and children.[11] Tilak refused to sign a petition for the abolition of untouchability in 1918, two years before his death, although he had spoken against it earlier in a meeting.[42]
Esteem for Swami Vivekananda
Tilak and Swami Vivekananda had great mutual respect and esteem for each other. They met accidentally while travelling by train in 1892 and Tilak had Vivekananda as a guest in his house. A person who was present there(Basukaka), heard that it was agreed between Vivekananda and Tilak that Tilak would work towards nationalism in the "political" arena, while Vivekananda would work for nationalism in the "religious" arena. When Vivekananda died at a young age, Tilak expressed great sorrow and paid tributes to him in the Kesari.[b][c][d][e] Tilak said about Vivekananda:
Books
In 1903, Tilak wrote the book The Arctic Home in the Vedas. In it, he argued that the Vedas could only have been composed in the Arctics, and the Aryan bards brought them south after the onset of the last ice age. He proposed a new way to determine the exact time of the Vedas. In The Orion, he tried to calculate the time of the Vedas by using the position of different Nakshatras.[69] The positions of the Nakshtras were described in different Vedas. Tilak wrote Shrimadh Bhagvad Gita Rahasya in prison at Mandalay – the analysis of Karma Yoga in the Bhagavad Gita, which is known to be a gift of the Vedas and the Upanishads.
Descendants
Tilak's son, Shridhar Tilak campaigned for removal of untouchability in late 1920s with dalit leader, Dr. Ambedkar.[70] Both were leaders of the multi-caste Samata sangh.[71][72] He was inspired by his philosophy and social reforms and communicated and discuss with him in methods to get rid of upper-cast hegemony.[73][74] Given his liberal and rational thoughts, Shridhar Tilak was subjected to a lot of harassment by conservatives in Maharashtra region of that period.[75] Unable to tolerate it, he committed suicide on 25 May 1928.[76] Before that he sent three suicide notes: one to the collector of Pune, another to newspapers and a third one to Dr. Ambedkar. Later Dr. Ambedkar wrote – “If anyone who is worthy of the title Lokamanya, it is Shridharpant Tilak.”[77][78][79]
Shridhar's son, Jayantrao Tilak (1921–2001) was editor of the Kesari newspaper for many years. Jayantrao was also a politician from the Congress party. He was a member of the Parliament of India representing Maharashtra in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament. He was also a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council.[80]
Rohit Tilak, a descendant of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, is a Pune-based Congress party politician.[81] In 2017, a woman with whom he had an extra-marital affair accused him of rape and other crimes. He was released on bail in connection with these charges.[82][83]
Legacy
On 28 July 1956, a portrait of B. G. Tilak was put in the Central Hall of Parliament House, New Delhi. The portrait of Tilak, painted by Gopal Deuskar, was unveiled by the then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru.[84][85]
Tilak Smarak Ranga Mandir, a theatre auditorium in Pune is dedicated to him. In 2007, the Government of India released a coin to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Tilak.[86][87] The formal approval of the government of Burma was received for the construction of clafs-cum-lecture hall in the Mandalay prison as a memorial to Lokmanya Tilak. ₹35,000 (US$440) were given by the Indian Government and ₹7,500 (US$94) by the local Indian community in Burma.[88] In 1920, the Lokmanya Tilak Smarak Trust was founded. Between 1995 and 2004, the trust installed several commemorative plaques across Pune under their Pune Aitihasik Vastu Smriti society.[89][90]
Several Indian films have been made on his life, including: the documentary films Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1951) and Lokmanya Tilak (1957) both by Vishram Bedekar, Lokmanya: Ek Yugpurush (2015) by Om Raut, and The Great Freedom Fighter Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak – Swaraj My Birthright (2018) by Vinay Dhumale.[91][92][93] Lokmanya, a Marathi-language television series about him, aired in India in 2022.