D. V. Athalye

“ A movement which was perfectly legal to-day could by a fiat of the Bureaucracy be made illegal to-morrow. We would certainly refrain from rebellion, murder, arson, and the like. But barring this well-understood limit, there was none other which we could put to our endeavours. Our agitation could not be constitutional because we have had no constitution worth the name. It could not be exactly legal as the power of making laws rested with those whose interests clashed with ours. Therefore, said Mr. Tilak, justice, morality and history must be our only guides. ”

“ But the greatest contribution made by the movement to the political life of the country was the fixing of the goal of all our endeavours. Ours is perhaps the first instance in the history of the world, where for a couple of generations, the children of the soil did believe their conquerors to be their deliverers. Mr. Tilak was the first to give a rub to this easy-going faith. His Shivaji festival, with its inevitable suggestion of the ideal of Swaraj was an eye-sore not only to the Anglo-Indians but to the Moderates as well. ”

“ Ladies must learn, widows must remarry, castes must go,—all because we must be equal to our rulers in efficiency and strength. These early English-educated leaders advocated Social Reform with the same object with which Japan, nearly seventy years back threw away her crude military weapons in favour of the modern instruments of destruction. In short, love of imitation, loss of individuality, the glamour of the English civilisation and a fierce desire to get rid of India's inferiority, joined with the liberalising tendencies of the Western thought, ushered the era of Social Reform in India. ”

“ It is not surprising that in the psychological situation detailed above, Indian leaders, cut off from the moorings of National traditions mistook the unreal for the real, the accidental accompaniment for the substance. Conscious of their own impotence and anxious to lift up the country to a high level they could think of only one way, the complete Westernisation of India. English dress, English habits, even English diet and English life must, they thought, be imported into this country before we could think of replacing the English Bureaucrats. ”

“ But those who can think for themselves are painfully aware of the disadvantages of imbibing foreign ideas through a foreign medium at an immature but impressionable time of life. The system of education transplanted from England to India by well-meaning administrators was itself faulty at the very foundation; and the immature graduates of English Universities who came out to India as custodians of the New learning were entirety innocent of India's storied past and the living present. ”

“ Tilak's room while both of us were students of Law at Bombay; and I don't remember a single occasion when he gave expression to any unworthy thought." Happy the youth which, like a lotus, can grow, unsullied and uncontaminated, in the muddy water of worldly life and which, the moment it is full blown is dedicated to the service of the Motherland. For such sacred worship, only the freshest, the most fragrant and unsmelt flowers are necessary. Mr. Tilak passed his LL. B. in December 1879. ”

“ For the last twelve years we have been shouting hoarse, desiring that the Government should hear us. But our shouting has no more affected the Government than the sound of a gnat. Our rulers disbelieve our statements or profess to do so. Let us now try to force our grievances into their ears by strong constitutional means. We must give the best political education possible to the ignorant villagers. We must meet them on terms of equality, teach them their rights and show how to fight constitutionally. ”

“ Howsoever much the British Imperialists might boast of India's conquest by the sword, it has been fully and freely admitted by Seely that in the willing acquiesence of Indians in the British Suzerainty alone lay the greatest permancy of that rule; and the Educational system introduced into this country by the new rulers sought to secure this acquiescence by capturing the will, the intellect and the imagination of the people. Education, thus is an instrument by means of which the Government has sought to consolidate its power and perpetuate its authority. ”

“ Lectures, processions, singing parties are the invariable accompaniments of the festival and they not only afford an outlet to the religious zeal of the people but help in fostering the national sentiment also and in creating an interest in the outstanding questions of the day. The Reformers and Moderates have stood aloof from the festival and have misunderstood its aims and objects and its place in the work of the national uplift. But their opposition has no more arrested the popularity of the festival than the howlings of the Anglo-Indian press ”

“ To cover the Presidency with a net-work of schools was only a part of their aspirations. They wanted to do something more; they wanted to educate the masses by imparting to them democratic ideas and enlightening them on the true state of the country. The birth of the New English School on the one hand and of the Kesari and the Mahratta on the other, heralded in Maharashtra a new era and galvanised its public life and the credit of this achievement must be given to Chiploonkar, Tilak and Agarkar. ”

“ Tilak's membership of the Legislative Council failed to add one inch to his worth or one grain to his usefulness. It was simply a trifling accident of his life.
In several respects, Mr. Tilak possessed many of the qualities that go to make a great legislator. He had in him that unique combination of the idealist and the realist which is the sine qua non of a successful law-giver. ”

“ MAN'S outlook of the world is necessarily dependent upon his environments. Howsoever indomitable be the individual will, it fails not to realise its limitations and has to shape its course accordingly. Gifted though he was with extraordinary ability, superabundent enthusiasm and magnificent courage, the only outlet Mr. Tilak found for his energies was the comparitively modest field of education. He and his colleagues clearly realised the complete hold which the alien rulers had obtained over the length and breadth of this vast country. ”

“ Tilak passionately asked, "when the Queen desires that none should die, when the Governor declares that all should 1 ve and the Secretary of State is prepared to go in for debt, if necessary—will you kill yourself by timidity and starvation? If you have money to pay Government dues, pay them by all means. But if you have not, will you sell your things away only to avoid the supposed wrath of subordinate Government officers? Can you not be bold, even when in the grip of death?" ”

“ Tilak's political opponents in the Presidency could behold the conspiracy that well-nigh threatened to engulf him, is no less reprehensible. They had undoubted influence with the Government; they had very frequent occasions of meeting very high officers of the Government. Did they ever utter a word of protest regarding the Government's attitude in respect of this case ? Did they do their duty by Mr. Tilak? Nobody ever thinks of holding the Moderate leaders responsible for Mr. Tilak's troubles in the Tai Maharaj case. But their indifference to Mr. Tilak's fate is certainly culpable. ”

“ The English administration as well as the Indian society have solid foundations; we are, therefore, bound to proceed with caution. Now, if people are willing to accept Political Reforms in a spirit of conciliation and compromise we fail to understand why we should like to proceed with Social Reform in an arrogant and defiant manner. If we are prepared to make compromise when the Parliament passes the Council's Act, 1892, why should we not do so with respect to questions likes widow-remarriage? ”

“ Tilak has come and gone. But the bent he has given to a religious festival, converting it into a social and national force, abides and will forever testify to his organizing genius. Our District and Provincial Conferences have not yet won a place in the life of the people and have been held only at odd places and have been attended only by the so called "educated" people. But the Ganapati festival is celebrated in every city, town and village and has more powerfully moulded the life of the people than any Congress organisation. ”

“ Tilak joined the Congress in 1889,—only after his separation from the Deccan Education Society had become inevitable and imminent. "One thing at a time" was always his motto. If he sacrificed Social Reform to Politics, let us not forget that in the first ten years of his career he sacrificed Politics to Education. The principle of division of labour, introduced mainly by Mr. Tilak into our public life has at last been accepted and no man is now blamed for confining his attention to a particular branch of national activities. ”

“ Tilak's chief companion in the Deccan College. The early life of this remarkable man was one long fight with "chill penury." Neglected by relatives, occasionally insulted by those whose help he had to seek, this man had faith enough to grapple, undaunted, with every difficulty. When taunted with poverty he had the spirit to tell his teacher—a distinguished M. A.—that he, too, would some day take the degree of Master of Arts. Poverty has "repressed" many a "noble rage." It sours a man and makes him cynical. But even stark povery failed to repress the noble instincts of Agarkar. ”

“ But from the foregoing account it must be abundantly clear that, not jealousy or intolerance but the great principle of self-sacrifice on which Mr. Tilak would brook no compromise was responsible for Mr. Tilak's separation from his colleagues. The incident, however deplorable or painful brought happy results; for the loss of the D. E. Society was the gain of India. One need never lament the day—howsoever unpleasant the circumstances attending the event—when Mr. Tilak decided to give that to this country which he had so unselfishly and ungrudgingly given to the school and the college. ”

“ In ordinary times and under normal circumstances popular aid and co-operation on occassions of famine or epidemics are welcome to Government. But in the peculiar circumstances of India, such cooperation is sometimes discouraged by the Bureaucrats who consider the masses as their own property and would keep them from the 'evil' influence of the educated classes. When terrible famine broke out in 1896, Mr. Tilak was the centre of all popular activities directed towards the mitigation of every kind of suffering. ”

“ When there is a childish dispute over a trifle, all the parties concerned are responsible, if it assumes "disproportionate dimensions." The question of holding or not holding the Social Conference in the Congress Pavilion was only a move in the bigger game, the deep-laid plot, of discrediting Mr. Tilak and humiliating him in the eyes of the Poona public and of the Congress at large. Nobody will say that the petty motives of jealousy which moved lesser men inspired leaders like Ranade. ”

“ Knowing that they were a mere handful in the midst of crores of Indians, the English believed that unless they maintained very high prestige among Indians the Political domination of India was an impossibility and hence they appeared to us at their best,—strong, masterful, gifted with all the qualities of greatness. ”

“ Then only will the Government realise that to despise the Congress is to despise the Indian Nation. Then only will the efforts of the Congress leaders be crowned with success. Such a work will require a large body of able and single-minded workers, to whom Politics would not mean some holiday recreation but an every-day duty to be performed with strictest regularity and utmost capacity."
Closely in the heels of the Famine followed the Plague which has till now exacted the heavy toll of one crore of Indian lives. ”

“ More formidable than the scarcity of money, was the difficulty of getting suitable men, willing to accept the work in true Jesuitical spirit. The Kolhapur Defamation case, the sudden death of Chiploonkar, the incarceration of Tilak and Agarkar added to the difficulties. The patriotic fervour of Tilak, Agarkar and Chiploonkar greatly impressed even the green-eyed Times of India, which while recognising that the ambition of the founders of the New English School was legitimate, was somewhat afraid that this ambition was " destined to have momentous effects on the future of India." ”

“ The leader of the Social Reform movement must essentially be a man of peace. He must be a lover of Indian civilisation and culture and must proceed to reform society with due respect for the traditions of the society itself. ”

“ He had trained up a number of people in the work of organization and agitation. Hundreds of his students, scattered over the Presidency had received incentive to public activities from his personal contact and his weekly writings in the Kesari. His frequent tours in Maharashtra had enabled him to organize his province for National work and so successful was his organization that no sooner did he sound the slogan of Swadeshi and Boycott than the note was echoed and re-echoed throughout the length and breadth of Western India. ”

“ WHILE the Social Reformers were remarrying widows and breaking castes with the ultimate object of making the people fit for political rights, Mr. Tilak was labouriouly striving to infuse vigour into the public mind by his passionate appeals to the great traditions of our History, Religion and Society. He inaugurated the Ganapati and the Shivaji festivals, which in spite of the bitter attacks of Moderates and the hostile attitude of the Government have now come to form a permanent feature of the social life of Maharashtra. ”

“ The silent suffering country wanted a man who could speak out without mincing matters, one who could boldly stand up for cur birth-right held in pawn by the rulers of the land. Where could such an one be found except in the great Mahratta race?
Bal Gangadar Tilak was born at Ratnagiri on July 23rd, 1856. Born in a race to which the Peshwas belonged and in a town not far away from the birth-place of Balaji Vishwanath, he was, indeed, destined to play the role of a representative of those who had ruled the greater part of India for nearly a hundred years. ”