THE ROLE OF MAHATMA GANDHI IN THE FREEDOM MOVEMENT OF INDIA

The father of the Nation. Mahatma Gandhi was one of these great men who dedicated their whole life to the
service of the mankind.Like Buddha and Christ before him he too was born to carry the message of peace, truth
and Non-violence to the strife turn world. He was born on October 2.1869 A.D. in a trading family of
porbander, a small town in Kathiawara. His full name was Mohan Das Karam Chand Gandhi and his father was
the Diwan of Rajkot.After passing his matriculation examination he was sent to England and he came back to
India in 1890 A.D. as a Barrister. There after he stayed in South Africa for over 22 years and thereafter served
the people of India for over thirty years. He deserves the credit of obtaining freedom for India as he was the
Supreme leader of the Congress from 1919 to 1947 A.D. and it was he who played the most prominent part in
the national struggle.Gandhiji entered the Indian politics in 1919 A.D. When the British Government passed
the Rowlatt Act. Before that he had served the Indian settlers in South Africa for 22 years (1893- 1915 A.D.)
There the Indians were treated like coolies and were not allowed even to board such a compartment in-which a
European might be travelling.The Government also denied them the right to vote and subjected them to other
humiliating laws. They had to register themselves and pay various unjust taxes. As such they were treated like a
tribe of criminals. Gandhiji fought against unjust laws bolly. He was several times mercilessly beaten and
physically is laboured and arrested but he remained firm on his determination.At last the South Africa
Government had to accept several of his demands. After his successful fight in South African, Gandhiji
returned to India in 1915 A.D. Where he soon plunged in to the political field. He led the Freedom Movement
up to 1947 A.D. When India became free. That is why most historians call this period (between 1919 and 1947)
as the Gandhian Era.
(b) Gandhiji's Role in the National Movement or Methods adopted by Mahatma Gandhi to make the Indian
National Movement a mass movement. Gandhiji's role in the National Movement of India was undoubtedly the
most remarkable. Front 1919 to 1947 A.D.
He left no stone unturned in the fight for India's freedom. During this period he personally led the Movement
and w hen in jail he gave the directions from inside.His chief contribution to the National Movement is this
that he made the Indian National Movement a mass Movement. His services rendered to the cause of India's
freedom are unforgettable, which can be enumerated below.
(I) Satyagrah against the Rowlatt Act:
After World War I. The British Government passed the Rowlatt Act in 1919 A.D. which aimed at suppressing
the Nationalist Movement with an iron land and to arrest and imprison without trial both the Hindus and
Muslims came out to oppose this Act in response to a call given by Gandhiji.People did not relent even in the
face of strict Government repression. Gandhiji held the reins of this Movement. The Government resorted to
firing and lathi-charge at several places but all this could not-intimidate either Gandhiji or his followers.
(2)Jallianawala Bagh Massacre and Arrest of Gandhiji:
Gandhiji called for a nation wide strike no April 6, 1919 A.D. to protest against the Government repression. The
people responded to it very enthusiastically.In Punjab a large public meeting was held at Jallianwala Bagh in
Amritsar to protest against the of Dr. Saifuddin kitchlu and Dr. Satya Pal, the two popular leaders.The
Jallianawala Bagh is enclosed on three sides by buildings and had only one narrow exit. The large crowd of
people was sitting there peacefully listening to their leaders when all of a sudden an army unit under orders
from their Commander General Dyer started firing till their ammunition was exhausted.

Thousands were killed and wounded. It was followed by the proclamation of martial law throughout the
Punjab. A terrible repression was let loose on the students, citizens and actuators throughout the Punjab.A
wave of horror ran throughout the country as the news of the Jallianawala massacre spread. Anger and
opposition of the Government was seen everywhere.Gandhiji was arrested and later on released in view of the
public agittion. Even the great poet Rabindra Nath Tagore renounced his knighthood in protest against this
barbarity.
(3)The Non-Cooperation Movement:
Whenever the British acted against the interests of the Indian people, Gandhi advised his countrymen to offer
Non-cooperation to the British.He firmly believed that the British rulers could not stay in India even for a day
without the Indians cooperating with them. Responding to his call several Indians, whether they were clerks,
teachers, lawyers or artisans, suspended their work. The students boycotted their classes and all sections of the
society jumped into the war of freedom.
(4)The Satyagrah Movement:
The Satyagrah was the other great weapon of Gandhiji. He would sit on a Non-violent picket or observe fast etc.
to force his views on the Government. Sometimes he observed fast unto death.These strategies on the one hand
attracted the world attention while on the other hand they made the Government panicky.
(5)Following the Policy of Non-violence:
Gandhiji did not net believe in violence as a means of winning others to his point of view nor did he believe in
the policy of paying the rogue in the same coin.He believed in peaceful means to achieve his ends. He knew that
unarmed Indians were no match to the mighty British armies.Therefore, he adopted a policy of peace and Nonviolence to fight against the British Government. At last the might British Empire had to bow down before this
policy of Gandhiji.
(6)The Swadeshi Movement:
Mahatma Gandhi devised another weapon to drive the British out of India. It was the Swadeshi Movement. He
knew well that the English were a merchant nation who had come here fore trade purposes. In case the Indian
trade was not profitable they would never stay here.Therefore, Gandhiji advised the people to boycott the
foreign goods. It was at his call that the people not only boycotted foreign goods but also burnt bonfires at the
cross roads. When the people began buying the goods produced in their own country the Indian industries got
a great impetus.As a result the Indian workers got employment and Indian money stopped flowing out of the
country which greatly improved Indian Economy.
(7) The Hindu- Muslim Unity:
The English had spread the poison of communalism mainly to divide the people so that they could easily rule
over India which would become weaker as a result of the Hindu-Muslims quarrels. If they remained united
they would become strong enough to challenge the British rule.Gandhiji fully understood this strategy of the
'Divide and Rule' being worked out by the British. He, therefore, stressed unity of all the communities,
especially the Hindu-Muslim Unity whenever the communal riots broke out in India, he staked his own life to
visit the riot-torn areas and thus restored peace there.It was by dint of the communal unity that Gandhiji had
forgotten that India reached the goal of freedom.

(8)The Harijan Uplift:

The Indians did not treat their low caste brethren well, particularly the Harijans. That is why most of these
were deserting their own religion and were embracing Christianity.Such people could, no doubt, prove a big
hurdle to the Freedom Movement. But Gandhiji wanted to keep them with him so he gave his attention to the
cause of the Harijan Uplift with their Co-operation the fight for freedom became much effective and ultimately
India became free.
(9)Going to Jail on several occasions:
But it was no child's play to challenge the might of the British Empire. Gandhi had to bear lathi blows, pass
through gun-fire and stake his life but he was too brave to care for these dangers.He went to jail several times
but it could not break his courage. He stood firm like a rock and added to the courage of his people by his own
sacrifice and sufferings.He was always ready to make any sacrifice for his country. Such conditions forced the
English to leave India in their own interest. At first they announced their resolve to leave India by June. 1948
but subsequently they left it on August 15.1947 A.D.In this way our country became free on 15 August. 1947
A.D. Mahatma Gandhi's role in the achievement of this freedom was unparalleled and supreme.

LIFE AND WORK OF NATIONAL LEADERS BETWEEN 1885 1914

Dadabhai Naoroj:
Dadabhai Naoroji was born at Bombay on 4 September 1825, in a priestly Parsi family. His father was Naoroji Palanji,
and his mother Manekbai, who shaped and moulded Dadabhais mind and character from his early childhood. Manekbai
became a widow when Dadabhai was barely four years old. Despite her misfortune and in the face of several hardships,
she gave of her best to bring up and educate her son. She gave him the best education and thus moulded him into the type
of man Dadabhai later grew to be.
Dadabhai has himself stated, She made me what I am. Dadabhai married early when he was only in his eleventh year.
His wife, Gulabi, who was barely seven at the time, was the daughter of Shorabji Shroff. He had three children, one son
and two daughters.
Dadabhai had his early schooling in a primary institution run by a Mehtaji at Bombay. On its completion, Manekbai, as
urged by Mehtaji, sent her son to the Elphinstone Institution, Bombay, for his secondary education. This was followed by
a course of studies at the Elphinstone College. Dadabhais performance here was outstanding, and in 1840 he obtained the
Clare Scholarship. He became a graduate in 1845. In 1916, he was awarded the Honorary degree of LL.B. by the Bombay
University.
On 27 June 1855 he left for London to join business as a partner in Camas firm in London. Four years later he started his
own firm, having returned to India in the meantime, He travelled back and forth on business between India and England
during 1865 to 1876. In 1886 he went to England to contest for election to Parliament and in 1907 to espouse the cause of
the freedom on India from British rule.
Foreign travel left its mark on his character and personality. Himself a product of liberal western education, he was an
admirer of the western system of education. He sent his daughter abroad for medical education. His son, Adi, was taken to
London at the age of 5 and was put to school there. Dadabhai believed that India had cause to be grateful to the British for
introducing the western system of education in India and he helped several Indian students who went to England for
higher studies.

Books and friends added their contribution to the flowering of his personality. Shahnama of Firdausi, Improvement of
Mind by Watt, the works of Carlyle, Mill and Herbert Spencer, to name a few, made a deep impression on him, His
constant companion was The Duties of the Zoroastrians, which stressed pure thoughts, pure speech and pure deed.
His friends among foreigners were innumerable. They started with Professor Orlebar of the Elphinstone College who
hailed Dadabhai as the promise of India, and Sir Erskine Perry, the Chief Justice of the Bombay Supreme Court, who
was so struck by Dadabahais academic distinction that he suggested that he should be sent to England. He was willing to
pay half the expenses provided the community was prepared to share the other half. Later, he helped Dadabhai on the
Civil Service issue.
Samuel Smith, a leading cotton merchant was impressed by Dadabhais character and became a close friend and partner in
Dadabhais fight for the freedom of India. Allan Hume, the founder of the Indian National Congress, was another friend.
So too were Sir W. Wedderburn Martin Wood, the Editor of the Times of India, who supported Dadabhais candidature to
Parliament, Henry Mayers Hyndmann a British Socialist, Major Evans Bell of the Madras Staff Corps, Sir George
Birdwood, Sheriff of Bombay, Charles Bradlaugh, M.P., W.S. Caine and W.A. Chambers. The bond that united them with
Dadabhai was love for India and a keen desire to understand her problems.
In India, his friends included Sorabjee Bengali the social reformer, Khursetji Cama, Kaisondas Mulji, K.R. Cama, the
Orientalist, Naoroji Furdonji, Jamesdji Tata, and some Indian Princes. Among his younger friends were R.G. Bhandarkar,
the Orientalist, N.G. Chandavarkar, the nationalist reformer, Pherozeshah Mehta, G.K. Gokhale, Dinshaw Wacha and
M.K. Gandhi.
Soon after graduation in 1845, he was appointed as the Native Head Assistant at the Elphinstone Institute, Bombay. In
1850 he became an Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at the Elphinstone College, Bombay. He
was the first Indian to be appointed Professor at this College. He taught in the special classes held for the spread of
womens education. In March 1856, he was nominated as Professor of Gujarati in the University College, London, a post
he continued to hold till 1865-66. During this period Dadabhai took a keen interest in and laboured hard for the spread of
education.
In 1855-56, he became a business partner and took charge of the London Branch of Cama and Co., and also became a
member of the Manchester Cotton supply Association, Further, he took an active part in the deliberation of the Council of
Liverpool, the Athenaeum and the National Indian Association.
In 1865 he founded, along with W.C. Bonnerjee, the London India Society and became its President. He continued as
President till 1907, when he returned to India. Thereafter, till his death he remained as its Honorary President.
In 1861 he established the London Zoroastrian Association. In 1862 he separated from Cama and Co., and started his own
business in the name of Dadabhai Naoroji & Co. On 1December 1866 he founded the East India Association, London,
whose scope for activity was wider, and became its Secretary.
In 1974 he was appointed the Dewan of Baroda and a year later, on account of differences with the Maharaja and the
Resident, he resigned the Dewanship. In July 1875 he was elected a Member of the Municipal Corporation, Bombay, and
in September of the same year, he was elected to the Town Council of the Corporation. In 1876 he resigned and left for
London. He was appointed as Justice of the Peace in 1883 and was elected to the Bombay Municipal Corporation for the
second time. In August 1885 he joined the Bombay Legislative Council at the invitation of the Governor, Lord Reay.
On 31 January 1885, when the Bombay Presidency Association came into being, he was elected as one of its VicePresidents. At the end of the same year, he took a leading part in the founding of the Indian National Congress and became
its President thrice, in 1886, 1893 and 1906.
During this period, he was engaged in other important activities. In 1873 he gave evidence before the Parliamentary
Committee on Indian Finance, the Fawcett Committee, which was appointed through his efforts. Here he sought to prove
that the incidence of taxation in India was very high, while the average income of an Indian was barely Rs. 20/-.
In 1883 he had started a newspaper called the Voice of India.
In 1887 he gave evidence before the Public Service Commission. In

1902 he was elected as a Member of the Liberal Party in the House of Commons, representing Central Finsbury. He was a
firm believer in parliamentary democracy and he thought that he should espouse the cause of Indian freedom on the floor
of the Commons.
In 1897 he was appointed a Member of the Royal Commission on Indian Expenditure Kinden known as the Welby
Commission. He gave evidence as a witness before this Commission in 1897, and in 1898 he submitted his views in the
form of two statements to the Indian Currency Commission.
In 1905 he represented India at the International socialist Congress at Amsterdam. Dadabhai was frequent contributor of
articles and papers to various journals and magazines. He wrote regularly for the Students Literary Miscellany, a journal
started by the students Literary and Scientific Society at the Elphinstone College, Bombay, which was founded in 1850.
He himself edited his societys Gujarati journal the Dnyan Prakash. In 1889, along with a few collaborators, he started the
Rast Goftar (Truth Teller), a Gujarati weekly which was known for its advanced and progressive views, and edited it for
two years.
In 1883 he started the Voice of India in Bombay and later incorporated it into the Indian Spectator. He contributed articles
to newspapers and magazines in England like the Commerce, the India, the Contemporary Reviews,the Daily News, the
Manchester Guardian, the Weekly News and Chronicle and the Pearsons Magazine. The Gujarati paper Samachar Darpan
published a series of articles by him entitled Dialogues of Socrates and Diogenese.
In 1878 he published a pamphlet, Poverty of India, later revised and enlarged in the form of a book published in 1901
from London, under the title Poverty and un-British Rule in India. He is known in the history of Indian economic thought
for his pioneering work in assessing Indias national income, Under the title Dadabhai Naorojis Speeches and Writings,
G.A. Natesan & Co., Madras, Published various learned papers which he wrote and read before different societies.
Under the title The Right of Labour Dadabhai had formulated and published a scheme for the establishment of Industrial
Commissioners course and for the recognition of labours right to protection. If passed into law, it would have ensured
justice to all wage earners and industrial peace.
He founded the Framji Institute after he left India for London to join business, the Irani Fund, the Parsi Gymnasium, the
Widow Remarriage Asociation and the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1851. He founded several important organizations
and belonged to many leading societies and institutions, both in India and the U.K. Some of the important organisations
which he helped to found are the Indian National Congress, the East Indian Association London, the Royal Asiatic Society
of Bombay and so on.
In personal life Dadabhai was simple, dignified and of a helpful disposition. His letters, which he wrote in his own hand,
are revealing and bring out the truth-loving and warm-hearted character that he was. He was a lover of books and he
presented his vast library to the Bombay Presidency Association.
He was a leading social reformer of the second half of the nineteenth century. He did not believe in caste restrictions and
was a pioneer of womens education and an upholder of equal laws for men and women. Having been a teacher himself of
girls, he realized the importance of girls education. He stressed the importance of primary education.
A keen Zoroastrian, but catholic in outlook, with friends among non-Parsis, like Hume, Wedderburn, Badrudin-Tyabji, Dr.
Bhau Daji, K.T.Telang, G.K.Gokhale, he exuded the need for purity in thought, speech and action in his book The Duties
of the Zoroastrians.
He was a prominent nationalist of progressive views. He prefaced his Calcutta Congress (1906) speech by quoting Sir
Henry Campbell Bannerman: Good government could never be a substitute for government by the people themselves.
In the same speech he declared: We do not ask any labour, we want only justice. The whole matter can be compressed in
one word, 'Self-Government' or Swaraj like that of the United Kingdom or the Colonies. He belonged to the school of
moderates, and was a great believer in constitutional methods.
He as well-informed about international politics. He contrasted in detail the condition of Ireland with that of India in their
financial relations with Britain. He was concerned about the South African issue.

He was a strong critic of British financial administration of India. He complained about the lack of proper distribution of
expenditure in the costliest administration of India. To Britains financial exploitation, he ascribed epidemics like
plague, famine, etc, because Government seldom spent an adequate sum to organise preventive measures.
In economics, he believed in self-sufficiency and the importance of cottage industries. He declared: Swadeshi is a forced
necessity for India in its unnatural economic muddle. As long as the economic condition remains unnatural and
impoverishing. The talk of applying economic laws to the condition remains unnatural and impoverishing.the talk of
applying economic laws to the condition on India is adding insult to injury. Although he was a champion of Swadeshi, he
was not against the use of machines for organising key industries in the country. He urged Tata to raise Indian capital for
his iron and steel plants.
Dadabhai was a great public speaker, both in English and in Gujarati. His speeches were remarkable for their simplicity
and forcefulness.
Known as The grand old man of India, Dadabhai Naoroji was a great public figure during 1845-1917. He was in the
forefront of the Social Reform Movement. He was indefatigable in his efforts to lift Indian women from their
backwardness and channelise the energies of young men who had received the benefits of western education in
wholesome directions.
Dadabhai was universally acknowledged to be honest, impartial and fair. When a dispute arose between the Parsi priests
of Udwada and Navsari, he was selected to be the sole arbitrator of the dispute.
His forte, however, was Finance. The appointment of the parliamentary committee in 1873 to inquire into Indian Finance
was due to his untiring efforts.
He was a patriot and a nationalist of a high order. India was constantly in his thoughts. As Dinshaw Wacha said: By
universal consent, he has been acclaimed as the Father of Indian Politics and Economics. Through the innumerable
societies and organisations with which he was associated and his contributions to organs of public opinion, he voiced the
grievances of the Indian people and proclaimed their aims, ideals and aspirations to the world at large. He won with
effortless ease high distinction on many fronts and will always be remembered in the history of the national movement.

LALA LAJPAT RAI (1865-1928)

Lala Lajpat Rai, popularly known as 'Punjab Kesari', was born on 28 January 1865 at village Dhundhike in Jagraon tehsil
of the Ludhiana district, Punjab, in a Hindu Aggarwal (Bania) family. His mother, Gulab Devi, came from a Sikh family.
Lajpat Rai's family was far from affluent; his grandfather, Lala Rala Ram, was a shopkeeper, and his father, Lala Radha
Kishan, an Urdu teacher in a Government school.
Lajpat Rai had three brothers, Dhanpat Rai, Ranpat Rai and Dalpat Rai. He was married to Radha Devi (1877) who came
from an Aggarwal family of Hissar. He had two sons, Amrit Rai, Pyare Lal, and one daughter, Parvati.
Lajpat Rai studied first at the village school and then at the Mission High Schools at Ludhiana and Ambala. He passed the
Matriculation examination at fifteen and joined the College at Lahore (1880) for his Intermediate and Law. He completed
his final Law examination in 1886. He taught for some time at the D.AV. College, Lahore, but soon took up law as his
profession, and practised it first at Hissar and later at Lahore.
Lajpat Rai's interest in Politics was aroused by his father who in his early life was a great admirer of Sir Syed Ahmed
Khan but whom he condemned later for his anti-Congress tirade in an open letter which appeared in the Koh-i-Noor, an
Urdu journal (1888). Lajpat Rai too had shared his father's admiration for Sir Syed Ahmed Khan but from 1888 began to
criticise in his writings the anti-Congress activities of Sir Syed. Lajpat Rai's father was well-versed in Urdu and Persian
languages, had great respect for Islam, fasted and prayed like a Muslim, but did not embrace Islam largely dut to his wife's
attachment to the Hindu and Sikh faiths.

The Arya Samaj movement, a vital force in the Punjab in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, had a tremendous
appeal for Lajpat Rai (he had met Swami Dayanand at fourteen), who came under its influence from his student days. It
was Lajpat Rai's attachment to the Arya Samaj which led his father also to veer round to Hinduism. The Arya Samaj work
brought Lajpat Rai into close touch with Lala Chura Mani and Pandit Lakhpat Rai at Hissar, and Lala Sain Dass,
Mahatma Hans Raj and Pandit Guru Datt at Lahore.
Lajpat Rai's political activity began from 1888 when he joined the Congress session at Allahabad. In the early part of his
political career, his interest was confined to social and educational reforms, but his views on politics changed radically as
a result of the hasty and ill-conceived measures trust on the country by the habit of driving his reforming plough onward a
little too roughly. He criticised Curzon's system of government as despotic, and also disliked the moderate policy of the
Congress in the face of Government highhandedness.
He regarded the practice of passing long-winded pious resolutions
and making petitions as 'mendicancy' and
totally obsolete, and shared B.G. Tilak's views about fighting the British through mass agitation, use of Swadeshi and
Boycott of foreign cloth. He declared, 'I am a Swadeshi.' He organised big meetings in the Punjab, travelled widely, raised
funds for the national cause and exposed the poverty of the people and its causes.
He brought out in his writings and speeches lurid comparisons between the economic conditions in India and those in the
Western Countries, and attacked the economic exploitation by the British as unjust and oppressive. His speeches, always
forceful and based on authentic data, sparkled with appealing phrases and epigrams and pertinent references to the
heroism of Mazzini and Garibaldi, Shri Krishna, Shivaji and Swami Dayanand Saraswati whose short biographies he
produced.
In August-September 1905 Lajpat Rai and Gopal Krishna went to England as delegates of the Congress to educate British
public opinion on the Indian situation and won the support of Labour, Democratic and socialist parties. At the Benares
Congress in December 1905, Lajpat Rai seconded a resolution on the boycott of English cloth in a forceful speech. In
1907 he organised and led a massive agrarian movement in Punjab, for which he was deported, along with Ajit Singh, to
Burma under Regulation III of 1818.
His confinement in Burma gave him time for solitary taught and he absorbed himself in the study of the freedom
movements in India and other countries (he studied some of the primary works on the 1857 Rebellion in India at this
time), and prepared copious notes which he used later for quotations in his speeches and writings. He gave in his writings
elaborate figures illustrating life-expectancy, death-rate, average income, taxes, wages, illiteracy, and the frequency of
famines.
If there was one ingredient of which he had a grain too much, it was the ardour for fame. When after his release from
deportation in November 1907, Tilak pressed his claims for the Presidentship of the Congress, Lajpat Rai withdrew
voluntarily and bent his energies to save the split in the Congress.
Lajpat Rai went to England in 1908 for the second time, delivered lectures to Indian students and returned to India in
1909. In 1913 he visited Japan, England and the United States on a lecture tour, and returned to India in 1920. He had left
India in disgust.
He describes his state of mind in the following words: "Then I began to suspect that I was being spied on by my own
servant who lived with me in the same compound. Life became intolerable and I lost my sleep and appetite, so I decided
to leave India." During his stay abroad he is believed to have supported the Ghadar Party's programme. He was very close
to Lala Hardyal. He also established the Indian Home Rule League in the United States on 15 October 1916.

BAL GANGADHAR TILAK

widely acclaimed as the father of Indian Unrest, was born on 23 July 1856 at Ratnagiri, in an
orthodox Chitpavan Brahmin family. His forefathers were Khots or petty landlords. His great-grandfather, Keshavarao,
was an expert horseman and an accurate marksman. He held a high position under the Government of the Peshwas, but he
resigned his office in 1818 as soon as the British took over the administration of the country. Tilaks grandfather,
Ramchandrapanth, was a talented man and died in Benares as a Sannyasi.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak

Tilaks father, Gangadhar Shastri, was a good Sanskrit scholar and a friend of Ramakrishna Bhandarkar. Tilaks mothers
name was Paravti Bai Gangadhar. Tilaks father, Gangadharpanth, started his career as a school teacher at Ratnagiri. In
1886 he was transferred to Poona as an Assistant Deputy Education Inspector for Primary Schools. In spite of the ancient
aristocratic heritage, the family belonged to the lower-middle class when Bal Gangadhar Tilak was born. In 1871 Tilak
married Tapibai. After marriage her name was changed to Satyabhamabai. She belonged to the Ballal Val Chitpavan
family of Ladghar village near Dapoli in Ratnagiri district.
Tilak received most of his education at Poona. A brilliant student, Tilak was known even in his childhood for his fierce
self-respect, regard for truth and his intense reaction to injustice. He passed his B.A. in the first class with Mathematics
and Sanskrit (1876) and completed his education with a Law degree in 1879. While he was a student at the Deccan
College, Poona, he was much influenced by the teaching of Professor Wordsworth and Professor Shoot. The former taught
him English Literature and the latter taught him History and Political Economy which helped him to appreciate English
ideas.
Tilak, in spite of his Hindu conservatism, was much influenced by Western thought on Politics and Metaphysics. He was
particularly fond of Hegel, Kant, Spencer, Mill, Bentham, Voltaire and Rousseau. As he himself expressed it in the Gita
Rahasya : To a certain extent my line of argument runs parallel to the line of thinking followed by Green in his book on
Ethics.
After completing his education, Tilak spurned the lucrative offers of Government service and decided to devote himself to
the larger cause of national awakening. He firmly believed that modern education had to be taken to the masses by the
Indians themselves if they were to grow in stature to overcome the pathetic acceptance of the concept of the rulers and the
ruled which the Britishers wanted to preserve so assiduously.
He joined Agarkar, Chiplunkar and Namjoshi in starting the New English School and later in founding the Deccan
Education Society and the Fergusson College in 1885. He, however, parted company with them in 1890, following serious
differences about the fundamental commitments of the members of the Society.
In a way it could be said that Tilaks true public life started only after his dissociation from the Deccan Education Society
in 1890, by which time he had acquired complete control over the Kesari and the Mahratta, the two newspapers unfold
before the reader the many facets of Tilaks complex but captivating personality, many of them inexplicably contradictory.
A radical so far as his political views were concerned, Tilak was a conservative so far as the question of social reforms
was concerned.
Social reforms did not receive a high priority in his programme of opposition to the Age of Consent Bill. Once he took tea
in a Christian Missionary School and underwent a penance for it. On 24 March 1918 an All India Depressed Classes
Conference was held under the Presidentship of Sayajirao Gaikwad, the a Maharaja of Baroda. Although Tilak spoke for
the removal of untouchability, he refused to sign a manifesto declaring that the signatories would not observe
untouchability in their day-to-day life.
Through his writings and speeches, he led the radicals in rousing public indignation against the ways of the British
administration, their callous indifference to the sufferings and indignities which the Indian people were made to suffer at
the hands of the British officers. The famine of 1896 and the subsequent plague epidemic in the Bombay Province brought
Tilak into conflict with the Government.
Through the columns of the Kesari and the Mahratta he roused the people to demand from the Government what was due
to them and demand it not as a favour but as a right. Tilak built up a new spirit of popular resistance against foreign rule
and made the masses aware of their strength.

On the national plane also, Tilaks impact was equally forceful and revolutionary. He came on the national scene as a
symbol of radical youth. During the 1896-97 plague in Maharashtra, Tilak bitterly criticised the Government for the
plague measures taken and for the harassment to the public. The dissatisfaction among the Maharastrians led to the
murder of Mr. Rand on 22 June 1897 at Poona. Tilak was accused of sedition and tried. On 14 September 1897 he was
sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment.
But for a long time he was nowhere near the inner circle which evolved the policies of the Congress. His concept of a
political party was radically different from that of the other leaders. He wanted the Indian National Congress to be a
rallying point for all classes and communities in India. He primarily strove to create a social sanction for the political
ideals of the generation which was oppressed by an alien rule.
Tilak essentially aimed at building up a militant mass movement is support of the political objectives which he had in
mind. These extreme political views of Tilak alarmed the moderates in the Congress Party. Tilak expressed his views on
Swaraj strongly at the Calcutta session of the Congress in 1906.
But it was not long before Tilaks ideology appealed to a people who were completely disillusioned by the indifference of
the Government to their sufferings. His thesis of national education, Swadeshi and Boycott leading to Swarajya was
revolutionary in concept and it fired the imagination of the people.
While addressing an audience at Calcutta in January 1907, Tilak said : Your future rests entirely in your hands. If you
mean to be free you can be free. If you have not the power of active resistance, have you not the power of self-denial and
self-abstinence in such a way as not to assist this boycott. We shall not give the Government assistance to collect revenue
and keep peace. We shall not assist them in fighting beyond our frontiers ; we shall not assist them in carrying on the
administration of justice and when time comes we shall not pay taxes. If you can do that by your united efforts, you are
free tomorrow. The point is to have the entire control in out hands. I want to have the key of my house and not merely one
stranger turned out. Self-government is our goal (Bal Gangadhar Tilak-Writings and Speeches).
This was unusual language which exuded self-confidence which was contagious. It infused a new spirit of defiance into
the people. Tilaks uniqueness lies in the fact that at a time when British imperialism was at its zenith, he aroused a
desperate people to demand Swarajya as a matter of right.
The partition of Bengal gave a sharper edge to the struggle for freedom. Tilak, as a gifted general with a clear political
vision, used this tension to created unrest all over India through his speeches and writings. He was also in close touch with
the revolutionaries of his time and was not unreceptive to their plan to open another front for the freedom struggle. In
1907, when the Indian National Congress was held at Surat, there was an open split between the Moderates and the
Extremists.
The Extremists were supposed to be followers of Tilak and were mostly members of the Revolutionary Partyin Bengal led
by Aurobindo
Ghose.Tilak wrote two articles in the Kesari. The Countrys Misfortune and These Remedies Are Not Lasting. He
pleaded with the Government to try to appreciate the changed psychology of the people. On 22 July 1908 Tilak was
charged for bringing into people hatred and contempt and exciting disloyalty and feelings of enmity towards His Majesty
and the Government established by Law in British India and was sentenced to transportation. Tilak spent six years in the
Mandalay Jail, Burma, and was released on 17 June 1914.
After his released from Jail, Tilak soon returned to the arena of battle. Along with Annie Besant, he launched the Home
Rule agitation for obtaining autonomy within the Empire in 1916. In the whirlwind campaign (1917), Tilak carried the
message of Home Rule to the farthest corners of the country. It was because of the untiring efforts of Tilak and his band of
dedicated colleagues that the Home Rule Movement spread like wildfire and forced the Government to come out with the
declaration that the goal of British Policy was the realisation of responsible government in India.
This was not enough to meet the aspirations of Tilak. But while he declared the Indian Reforms Act of 1919 as inadequate,
unsatisfactory and disappointing, he was too much of a pragmatist to let go whatever little gains it represented. He wanted

to use the Act to gather more strength to demand more. He wanted to use the Act so as to organise the people to fight
elections and to demonstrate effectively the intensity of the popular support for the freedom movement. He was confident
of reaching in his lifetime. In April 1920 he started the Congress Democratic Party to carry on an agitation for Swarajya.
Death, unfortunately, overtook him and he died in Bombay on 1 August 1920.
Tilak filed a law suit against Sit Valentine Chirol in 1918 for defaming him in his book Indian Unrest. Tilak left Bombay
on 19 September 1918 and reached London on 30 October 1918. He lost the Chirol Libel Case. But he started the
activities of the Home Rule League in England. He returned to Bombay on 27 November 1919. During his stay in
England Tilak established good relations with George Lansbury, the Socialist leader, Edgar Wallace, the well known
journalist and author, and Ramsay Macdonald of the Labour Party. Tilak established such a friendly relationship with the
Labour Party that from then on India became one of the major planks in the Labour Partys Programme.
Tilak had a remarkable personality . He was dark of complexion, of medium height and medium build. The forehead was
broad, the eyes large and piercing, and the face was stern and had a grave look. The dress-toga-like upper garment,
uttariya or loose cloth round the shoulder, dhoti, red shoes and red pugree- which was common when his public life began
in 1880, he wore throughout his life, except when he visited England. His diet was simple ; the only luxuries he allowed
himself were tea and betelnut.
He bought the Gaikwad Wada in 1904, lived in a part of it and accommodated the printing press for his journals and his
office in the rest. His office boasted of only a few pieces of furniture, a Victorian type of table, full of drawers and
pigeonholes, a low chair from which he dictated his articles and cupboards and shelves stacked with books and journals.
All his time was taken up in reading, writing, and discussions with his colleagues and public speeches. Not a week passed
when he did not address a public meeting in one or another part of the country. His speeches and writings are marked by a
vigorous and aggressive style which reflected his rugged personality.
Tilaks entire life was a Karma Yajna. He worked, ceaselessly and selflessly, to rouse a nation out of its slumber. With a
dominant will power and tenacity, unique organising ability, and above all else an implicit faith in himself and his ideal of
Sampoorna Swarajya, he refused to accepted defeat. With a remarkable degree of resilience Tilak always took setbacks
to his activities philosophically and began to build up the edifice anew. Undaunted by the public hostility that he roused in
England, he carried his message of freedom right up to Whitehall.
The composition of a treatise like Gita Rahasya, while undergoing a prison sentence at Mandalay, is another index of
Tilaks ceaselessly working mind. As was only to be expected, his interpretation of the Gita is based on an activist
philosophy. He was in the true sense of the word a Karma Yogi.
When we come to assess the contribution of Tilak, we are faced with a difficult problem. His was a complex personality.
Radical in political outlook and demands, Tilak was a conservative so far as social and religious reforms were concerned.
He had his own views about social change. He has said :"a true nationalist desires to build on old foundationsbut
without detriment to progress and reform needed for our national conflict." For him, there was no question that was not
dependent on Swaraj.
As Gandhiji had said, Tilak knew no other religion but love of the country. With his fearlessness and burning love for the
country, he challenged both the westernised social reformer as well as the spirit of orthodoxy. Tilak, being a political
realist, was aware that spirtualisation of politics could as well bring his dream of Swaraj nearer. Although an ardent
Hindu, he believed in the fundamentals of secularism and tried to divorce the public life of the society from religious
precepts.
He believed in Hindu-Muslim unity and was keenly aware that the yoke of foreign domination could not be thrown off
unless the country stood united as one man. These contradictions make Tilak possibly the most controversial personality
in recent Indian history. From his friends and followers he received the highest adulation ; they called him Lokmanya.
To his opponents he was a social reactionary, a rabble-rouser.
But nothing can detract from the monumental contribution that he made towards the Indian freedom struggle by rousing
the political consciousness of the common people and by drawing them into the freedom struggle. He was perhaps the
first leader who realised the strength of the masses-even unarmed, uneducated masses-in the fight against foreign
domination. He had a rare insight into the working of society.

He evolved programmes, such as Shivaji Jayanti and Ganesh Pooja with the sole motive of bringing people together to
ensure their awakening and involvement in the freedom struggle. He has been aptly described as the Father of Indian
Unrest, because it was he who made people the moral courage to exert themselves to secure them.
His demand for Sampoorna Swarajya as his birthright was radically and refreshingly different from what the moderate
leaders of the Congress had been seeking. His speeches and writings had a new, vigorous and aggressive quality which
electrified the country. It would not be wrong to say that Tilak laid the foundations on which, after him, Ganhiji built the
edifice of the independence movement.
The emergence of Tilak on the political horizon of the country was thus truly watershed in the life of the country. In a
period of Indian history when the intellectual aristocracy was perhaps at its best, he brought to the political arena a new
kind of leadership which was highly intellectual, had a clear vision and an intense patriotism but at the same time had its
roots and strength in the vast illiterate and poor masses.
The Tilak era, is therefore, of special significance . The transformation of the Congress Party from a political platform of
the sophisticated, westernised and educated few to a mass movement drawing strength from the millions of the poor and
downtrodden was possible because of the new orientation given to the freedom struggle by Tilak. The Tilak Era
constitutes a significant landmark in our struggle for independence. It was essentially in this period that a moral strength
was imparted to this movement and a new political strategy for the struggle came to be accepted.