Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak — The Champion of Swaraj

Context (TH): The Lokmanya Tilak National Award was given to PM Modi in Pune on August 1^st in honour of his outstanding leadership and for inspiring a sense of patriotism among Indians.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak (Lokmanya Tilak)

Tilak was born on 23^rd July 1856 in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra.
He passed away on 1^st August 1920, just before the launch of the Non-Cooperation Movement.

Tilak was a revolutionary nationalist and extremist leader.
He preached the message of self-respect, Swadeshi, and Swarajya (self-rule).
He stressed that there could be no progress without self-rule (swarajya).
He was against social reforms through the British, he believed that social reforms should be done after getting self-rule. This view of him caused him to oppose the ‘age of consent act’ of 1891.
He publicly supported the efforts to assassinate Presidency Magistrate Douglas Kingsford in 1908.
Mahatma Gandhi called him The Maker of Modern India, while Jawaharlal Nehru described him as The Father of the Indian Revolution (Unrest).

Tilak was a devout Hindu who advocated for cultural and religious revival and used Hindu scriptures to inspire people to fight oppression.
He popularized Ganesh Chaturthi and propounded the celebration of Shiv Jayanti on the birth anniversary of Chhatrapati Shivaji to propagate nationalist ideas and a sense of national identity.
He also started akharas, lathi clubs, and anti-cow killing societies.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak had been tried for sedition charges thrice by British Indian Government— in 1897, 1908 & 1916.
Tilak’s activism, appealing to Hindu symbolism and Maratha history, excited the populace and brought him into conflict with the British government.
His articles criticising the British government’s handling of the plague epidemic in Pune inspired the Chapekar brothers to assassinate Commissioner Rand and Lt. Ayerst in 1897.
He was sentenced to 18 months of imprisonment in 1897.
His prosecution for sedition gained him more popularity, earning him the title Lokamanya (”Beloved Leader of the People”).
In 1909, he was charged with sedition for racial animosity between Indians and the British. Muhammad Ali Jinnah appeared in Tilak’s defence but was sentenced to six years in prison in Burma.
In 1916, he was again charged with sedition over his lectures on self-rule, but was acquitted.

Tilak joined the INC in 1890 and opposed its moderate attitude, supported Radical revolution.
Following the Partition of Bengal, by Lord Curzon to weaken the nationalist movement, Tilak encouraged the Swadeshi movement and the Boycott movement.
Lal-Bal-Pal: Tilak opposed the moderate views of Gopal Krishna Gokhale and was supported by nationalists Bipin Chandra Pal in Bengal and Lala Lajpat Rai in Punjab.
In 1907, INC session was held at Surat, Gujarat, Trouble broke on the selection of the president.
The party split into the radical faction and the moderate faction.

The Home Rule movement was started to get a Self-government (Dominion status).
It was established in 1916 as The All-India home rule league similar to the Irish home rule league as a political organisation.

The term dominion means “that which is mastered or ruled”.
It is referred to those countries which were earlier part of the British Empire but had their own governments i.e., self-governing nations of the British Empire.

There were two home rule leagues, one established by Tilak and the other by Annie Besant.

Feature	Tilak’s Home Rule League	Annie Besant’s Home Rule League
Founded	April 1916 at Poona	September 1916 at Madras
Area of operation	Maharashtra, Central Province, Berar and Karnataka	Rest of India, including Bombay
Membership	6 branches	200 branches
Ideology	Extremist	Moderate
Demands	Dominion status for India
Methods	Public meetings, pamphlets, newspapers, boycotts
Government response	Tilak was barred from entering Delhi and Bombay	Besant was arrested
Impact	Helped to awaken the political consciousness of the Indian people

Both the key leaders realised the importance of integration of the moderates and the extremists.
Annie Besant launched a campaign in 1915 by her newspapers the New India and Commonweal.
In the 1916 session, the Extremists were admitted to Congress but due to Congress’s non-agreement on the home rule and the revival of the local-level congress committee, Annie was forced to start her own movement.
A separate league was set up by Annie and Tilak to avoid any Ideological differences.
Muslims, Anglo Indians, and non-Brahmin didn’t join, because they felt Home rule meant Hindu majority rule and that too high caste.
In 1920 it was merged with Congress to form a united front against the British government
In 1921 the All-India Home Rule League changed its name to Swarajya Sabha.

Tilak and others started the New English School (1880) in Pune.
He and his associate Gopal Ganesh Agarkar founded the Deccan Education Society (1884).
He is among the founders of Fergusson College (1885), Pune.
The New English School and the Fergusson College functioned under Deccan Education Society.
Tilak and his associates considered English to be a powerful tool for the dissemination of liberal and democratic ideals.

The Orion, Or, Researches Into the Antiquity of the Vedas (English)
The Arctic Home in the Vedas (English; about the origins of the Indo-Aryan people)
Gita Rahasya (Marathi; authored in 1915 while he was in prison at Mandalay, Burma. According to him, the real message behind the Bhagavad Gita is Nishkam Karmayoga (selfless action), rather than Karma Sanyasa (renouncing of actions))

Tilak started two newspapers in 1881:
1. Kesari (Marathi)
2. The Mahratta (English)

The award was instituted in 1983 by the Tilak Smarak Mandir Trust.
The Trust gives this prestigious award each year on the anniversary of Lokmanya Tilak’s passing.
PM Narendra Modi, has been selected as the 41^st recipient of this award.
Scientist Tessy Thomas (known as India’s “missile woman”) received the award the year before for boosting defence capabilities as the project director for the Agni-4 and Agni-5 missile systems.
The other major recipients of the Lokmanya Tilak Award include:
- Indira Gandhi
- Atal Bihari Vajpayee
- Sharad Pawar
- Rahul Bajaj
- Cyrus Poonawalla
- Manmohan Singh