The history of freedom movement in India, often is
summarized in one pithy sentence: "Mahatma Gandhi gave us freedom
through non-violence." For sure freedom was not that easy and there were
so many sacrifices of persons with varied thought processes.
The year 2016 marks
the centenary of a great slogan ‘Swaraj is my birthright’ and today marks the
birth of a great leader - Thilagar. Bal Gangadhar
Tilak ( Lokmanya Tilak ) [1856-1920] a great
nationalist, teacher, social reformer,
lawyer and an independence activist, was the first leader of the Indian
Independence Movement. The British colonial authorities called him "Father
of the Indian unrest." ‘Lokmanya’, means
"accepted by the people as their leader.
Tilak was the strongest advocate of
the"Swaraj",which means (self-rule in english) and a strong radical
in Indian consciousness. He is known for his quote *Swarajya 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 Jinnah. As a strong advocate of Swaraj, he was
against Gandhi's policy of non-violence, advocating use of force where necessary.
Tilak joined the Indian National Congress in 1890. He
opposed its moderate attitude, especially towards the fight for
self-government. A radical, he was, he published strong articles in his paper
Kesari (Kesari was written in Marathi, and Mahratta was written in English). Thilakji was charged with incitement to
murder of Commissioner Rand and another
British officer, Lt. Ayerst in 1897 by Chapekar
brothers and their other associates. He was
sentenced to 18 months imprisonment. Following
partition of Bengal, which was a strategy set out by Lord Curzon to weaken the
nationalist movement, Tilak encouraged the Swadeshi movement and the Boycott
movement. The movement consisted of the boycott of foreign goods and also the
social boycott of any Indian who used foreign goods. Tilak’s strong opinions were supported by Bipin Chandra Pal in Bengal and Lala Lajpat
Rai in Punjab. They were referred to as the "Lal-Bal-Pal
triumvirate".
In the annual session of Congress in 1907 at Surat, there was trouble over the selection of
President. Gujarat. The party split into
the radicals faction, led by Tilak, Pal and Lajpat Rai, and the moderate
faction. Nationalists like Aurobindo Ghose, V. O. Chidambaram Pillai were Tilak
supporters. During his lifetime among
other political cases, Bala Gangadhar Tilak was tried for Sedition Charges, three times by British India Government.
Firstly in 1897, in 1909 and in 1916. The
middle one for his support to the two Bengali youths, Prafulla Chaki and
Khudiram Bose, who threw a bomb on a
carriage at Muzzafarpur, to kill the Chief Presidency Magistrate Douglas
Kingsford of Calcutta fame. While Chaki committed suicide when caught, Bose was
hanged. Tilak was handed a six year imprisonment and was sent to Mandalay, Burma from 1908 to 1914.
While imprisoned, he continued to read
and write, further developing his ideas on the Indian nationalist movement.
While in the prison he wrote the Gita Rahasya.
Wikipedia states that Tilak developed diabetes during his
sentence in Mandalay prison. This and the general ordeal of prison life had
mellowed him at his release on 16 June 1914.
The year 2016 marks the centenary of Tilak's famous slogan
'Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it'.
Lokmanya: Ek Yug Purush, is a Marathi biopic released in 2015. Subodh Bhave played
the title role.
** The silver bed of Marina Beach at
Chennai
Read more about the plaque and the struggle : http://www.sampspeak.in/2010/01/famed-marina-beach-ala-thilagar-kattam.html
With regards – S. Sampathkumar
23rd July 2016.
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