Bal Gangadhar Tilak

Bal Gangadhar Tilak, is known as the Father of “Swarajya” and one of the important personalities of Indian freedom movement. He was born, on 23 July 1856, in ‘Chikhali’ near Ratnagiri. His father’s name was Gangadhar Tilak and mother was Parvati Bai Tilak. His father was a famous Sanskrit Scholar and teacher in a Ratnagiri school. After few years his father was transferred and they all settled down in Pune. Lokmanya Tilak was married in 1871. He was very intelligent from childhood. Straight forwardness and Truthfulness were his important characteristics. 

He completed his graduation from Deccan College, Pune and acquired Degree in Law from Mumbai Government Law College in 1879. After that he started teaching Maths and English in Pune. During this period, he realised that the Britisher ‘s method of teaching Indian students was not satisfactory. Along with the help of some friends, he established “Deccan Education Society” to teach Indian students in Indian method. Later on through the same institute, he became founder of school and college, etc. and expanded his work along with his associates. 

During this period his dissatisfaction against the British government grew and he felt that Indians will not develop unless India gains independence. Tilak was inspired by this thought and later on suffered many hardships.  His contribution for India Independence movement was significant.

He joined Indian National Congress in 1890. He became very popular in short time, for his straight forwardness and bravery. Even while travelling people would come to meet him at every station. He visited many places in context of Indian National Congress. He traveled to Mumbai many times as the headquarters of Congress was in Mumbai. 

Once around September 1892, when he was returning to Pune from Mumbai, some Gujarati people seated a ‘Sanyasi’ on VT station (CST station) and introduced him to Tilak. They requested him to accommodate that ‘Sanyasi’ at his own house in Pune for 8 to 10 days and Tilak agreed and took the Sanyasi with him to his house at ‘Vinchurkar Wada’ in Pune. 

Tilak has written down that he and the Swami used to discuss “Bhagavad Gita” frequently. Their thoughts were mostly similar. The Swami would not mix with people. He had no money with him, just had 2 pair of clothes and ‘Kamandalu’. Wherever the Swami went people used to provide his train fare and arrange his accommodation. As per the notes written by Tilak, Swamiji felt that “Bhagavad Gita” should reach the common people. This was revealed when, Tilak later wrote a book called “Gita Rahasya” based on the Bhagavad Gita. Perhaps Tilak and that Swami, may have closer opinion on this subject. 

Tilak has written down one more incident of that Swami during this period. He used to meet some friends at hirabaug in Pune. They had formed a club which was called as Deccan Club. One day Tilak went with Swamiji to this Deccan Club. They were discussing a topic on which no one could find any new point that day. Someone asked Swamiji to express his views.

The Swami stated so many new and different points, which no one had ever thought about. This showed how intelligent he was. Next day onwards many people started coming to Tilak ‘s house to meet the Swami. After 7 to 8 days, the Swami informed Tilak that he would leave the next day. And he really went away early morning, before other people woke up.

People including Tilak felt puzzled about, who this Swami was, as they did not even knew that Swami’s name. After some days, in reference to the Chicago Conference, ‘Swami Vivekananda’s name became familiar to the whole world,. During that period, a newspaper published the entire article about the Chicago Conference along with Swami Vivekananda’s photo. Lokmanya Tilak saw the photo & realised that he was the same Swamiji who had stayed at his house a few days back. He wrote a letter to Swami Vivekananda to confirm this & Swami Vivekananda reconfirmed it by replying to his letter. 

Later, Swami Vivekananda and Tilak wrote few more letters to each other. According to Tilak’s diary notes, when he was arrested by British police, his house was searched & many of his important documents and letters were lost or misplaced. Many letters between Tilak & Swamiji were also lost in it. 

In 1901, there was a meeting of Indian National Congress at Calcutta (Todays Kolkata). According to some notes, Tilak and Swamiji met again during this time. The letters and exact dates of conversation between the two are not available today, but through many notes, mentioning about them, we can surely imagine the trilling and intellectual talks.

In later days, Tilak was involved in the freedom fight of India, he also tried to tie the bonds of Indian masses through his works on ‘Gita-Rahasya’, or starting Public Ganesh Festival, etc. Later, People started calling him as ‘Lokmanya’ (accepted by the people). Tilak died on 1st Aug 1920, but he still lives in the hearts of Indian people and will remain so forever.