Indian Political Science Association

TILAK AND THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS

Author(s): N. R. Inamdar
Source: The Indian Journal of Political Science, Vol. 46, No. 4, Special Issue on The Indian
National Congress: A Century in Perspective (October-December 1985), pp. 387-400
Published by: Indian Political Science Association
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 TILAK AND THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS

N. R. Inamdar*

T okmanya Tilak had been throughout his active political career a

staunch and steadfast constituent and worker of the Indian National
Congress. But, it is surprising and disconcerting to note that he was not
recognised and wholeheartedly accepted among the official policy makers
of the Congress until the Lucknow Congress in 1916. Until 1916, his role
in the Congress was of a dedicated backbencher, rousing the conscience of
the rank and file, appealing to the people in the country behind the back
of the official moderate leadership, pricking and occasionally striking
verbal blows at its mendicant and stopping posture, and outlook. His
constituency was rather the Indian people, small people from the
middle class, the widespread and populous peasantry and the rising
industrial working class. He incessantly exerted to bring in these lower
classes of the population into the fold of the activities and movements of
the Congress and thus to widen its base and fashion it into a virile and
alert instrument for waging the national freedom struggle and integrating
the diverse popular elements scattered throughout the length and breadth
of the country in a common Indian nationality. In spite of challenges and
insinuations to oust him and his followers from the Congress, Tilak did
not break away from its fold, choosing instead to appeal to people's
conscience and goodwill during the intervals of adversity as during 1907-08
and 1914-16.
The most significant and lasting role Tilak performed in the Congress
and through his papers, national speech-making tours and addresses to the
provincial, district and local conferences, was in propounding and firmly
founding a philosophy and ideology of Indian Nationalism. His role in
pioneering the peasants' movement to Maharashtra during 1897-98, in
propagating the tenets of the Passive Resistance movement in the the
country with the object of annulment of the partition of Bengal and
canvassing during the years of the Great War and a few years after in India
and Britain for an immediate Home Rule for India, was also remarkble,
and in fact strengthened his primary role as a philosopher of Indian
Nationalism. As an organisation man, Tilak helped build up the edifice
of the Indian National Congress by diffusing its message in the country,

* Lokmanya TiJak Professor and Head, Department of Politics and Public

Administration, University of Poona, Pune.

The Indian Journal of Political Science , Vol. 46 , No. 4 , October-December 1985

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388 HE INDIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENC

and exposing its organisational lacunae and shortcomings even at the co

of personal unpopularity with the ruling group in the Congress.
II

In the pre-Gandhi era of the growth of Indian nationalism before 192

Tilak could be bracketed with Shri Aurobindo Gosh1 as the prime
exponent of the philosophy of Indian Nationalism. Sri Aurobindo
stressed the spiritual aspect of the Indian national ethos. Tilak's
concept of Indian nationalism, on the other hand, represented an
amalgam of various components. Tilak brought out the importanc
of these components in particular. He brought out the significanc
of the role of the pride of the Indian people in its cultural legacy
in the emergence of Indian Nationalism. If the British rule had
not brought about the political and administrative unification of the
country and infused Western learning and scientific culture with liberal
life values in the country,2 the preliminary ground for the germination of
the plant of nationalism would not have existed. Even then Indian
nationality would have remained an object of a dream or fantasy. To
strengthen its roots and fertilise it into a fully grown plant, Tilak exhorted
the people to join the freedom movement symbolised by the Indian
National Congress3 and wage economic and political struggle to redress
their grievances which were an outcome of the imperialistic economic and
political exploitation.4 The national political movement, in the view of
Tilak, would be a catalytic component in the process of the formation of
Indian nationality. Tilak's activist political career developed to actualise
this ideological belief.
During his earlier political career, Tilak pioneered popular movements
on two types of issues and causes. One type was cultural, based on histori-
co-religious situational factors. The other type was economic or constitu-
tional-cum-administrative. The Ganesh2 and Shivaji festivals6 piloted
by Tilak during the nineties of the last century represented the first type of
causes. The people's movements Tilak roused in Poona and the country-
wide round about on their oppression during the plague epidemic7 and the
sufferings due to successive famine8 respectively, illustrated the second type
1. S.V. Bapat (compiled), Lokmanya Tilak Yanchya Athwani va Akhyayika (in
Marathi), vol. II, (Punc, S V. Bapat, 1925), pp. 561-3.
2. Kesari , (Leader), (in Marathi), 9 August, 1982, (Leader), 29 January, 1901 .
3. Samagra Lokmanya Tilak , hereafter cited as S LT, (in Marathi), Vol. IV, (Pune,
Kesari Prakashan, 1976), pp. 171-237.
4. M, Vol. Ill (1976), pp. 283-365.
5. N.C. Kelkar, Lokmanya Tilakanche Charitra, Vol. I, (in Marathi) (Pune, N.C.
Kelkar, 1923), pp. 430-25.
6. Ibid., pp. 425-439.
7. Ibid., pp. 518-535, SLT, IV, pp. 715-722.
8. SLT, III 439-483 ; N.R. Inamdar, "Bureaucracy and Political Ideology of
Lokmanya Tilak", N.R. Inamdar (ed.), Political Thought and Leadership of
Lokmanya Tilak (New Delhi, Concept, 1933).

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 TILAK AND THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS 389

of causes.
Tilak's concept of Indian nationalism was thus operationalised at two
levels, regional and national. During the nineties of the last century Tilak
concentrated on the regional issues to root the political movement firmly
in the soil. After his release from prison in 1899, Tilak devoted his
attention to the national causes like the propagation of the need for a
Passive Resistance movement to compel the annulment of the partition of
Bengal9 and Curzon's repressive policies in regard to the press, educational
institutions and political organisations.10 This phase of national agitation
brought in his long captivity for six years during 1908-1914. The Home
Rule League11 which he established throughout the country during the
War years and thereafter marked the extension of the same phase of
Tilak's political career as a national leader.
Tilak's philosophy and ideology of Indian nationalism was unique in
two respects : his emphasis on the role of the Indian National Congress
and other political organisations in generating as well as galvanising
the sentiment of nationalism among the people, and his accent on
the economic and other (particularly educational) causes to contest
and weaken the sources of authority of the British regime. His
fervent appeal to the people to take to Swadeshi12 and National
Education13 illustrated the second unique element in his ideology
of Indian nationalism. The then leadership of the Congress fondly
believed that the British government and bureaucracy would respond
favourably to their representations on different economic, constitutional
and administrative issues. They were not inclined to ingratiate the alien
power by adopting the extra constitutional mode of political organisation
to redress people's grievances.
Tilak's concept of Indian nationalism fused together diverse elements
which characterised the emergence of nationalism in different countries
in the West, particularly Europe, over the last four centuries. Tilak did
not believe that the classic cluster of elements such as historical contin-
uity, cultural anti linguistic identity, economic viability and unity of
political aspiration was ever present in their coincidental combination14 in
any of the established or emergent nation-states of Europe and North
America. The doctrine of people as the source and location of national
sovereignty declared by the French Revolution was absorbed by Tilak in
his nationalist ideology in bringing home to the Indian people their role in
realising the Indian nationality.15 Tilak also stressed the spiritual element

9. SLT, IV, pp. 509-538.

10. SLT ; III, pp. 844-890.
11. N.R. Inamdar, "Tilak and Home Rule League", KesarL 31 July 1983.
12. SLT, IV, pp. 539-580.
13. N.C. Kelkar, op. cit., Vol. II (1928), Part 5, pp. 8-22.
14. N.R. Inamdar, "Political Thought of Tilak", T. Pantham fed.), Modern Indian
Political Thought (forthcoming)
15. Ibid .

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 39 THB INDIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

emphasised by the German thinkers Herder and Fichte and French writer
Renan, by dwelling on the cultural legacy of the Indian people.16 The
role of government played in the formation of the nation-state in the frame
of the Wilsonian doctrine17 was also taken into account by Tilak in
conceding to the British rule its historical achievement of the political and
administrative unity of the country.
Tilak broadly concurred with the economic philosophy of his contem-
poraries like Ranade, Dadabhai Naoroji, Romesh Chandra Dutt and
Gokhale. But Tilak also used the economic issues for stepping up
the people's political consciousness and gearing up the tempo of the
freedom struggle. Tilak brought out in his papers the inequities of the
imperial economic and financial burden on the Indian government and of
the latter on the provincial government18 and the resulting absence of
functional independence to the local bodies. In his articles in the media,
public speeches and memoranda to the governments, Tilak exposed the
unjust and oppressive administrative measures and rules and laws of the
British administration in the fields of agriculture, land revenue and land
tenure, police, forests, industry, business and trade, education, defence and
foreign affairs.19 While developing the ideology of Indian nationalism
and infusing it among the people, Tilak did not neglect dealing with con-
crete issues and matters of laws and rules, administration and judicial
cases.

Tilak expounded in his writings the Drain theory20 prop

Dadabhai Naoroji. He utilised Naoroji's and British writers'
of the exploitative British imperial regime to contrast it with
native regimes. Tilak felt Ranade's concern for industrialisati
country. But he articulated serious differences with Ranade on
of the British regime in regard to its role in investments in tr
communication, industrial development, growth of internal a
trade and ancillary services, etc. Tilak also shared uts an
the growing rural impoverishment due to recurringj fami
due to mounting indebtedness of the farmers.
In keeping with his ardent faith in the potentialities o
nationalism, Tilak developed a world view indicating a uniq
India in the unity of Asian countries along with other leaders
Japan's victory over China in 1985 and over Russia in 19042

16. Ibid.
17. SLT. VII (1965), pp. 262-273.
18. N.R. Inamdar, "Kendra ani Pranta Yanchyatila Arthik Sambandbhababat Lo.
Tilakni Vykta Kelele Moolagami Raiakiya Vichar". Kesari. 3 Jolv. 1972.
19. N.R. Inamdar, "Sthanik Swarajyacha Puraskarte Tilak", Kesari, 27 July
1980 and N.R. Inamdar, "Bureaucracy and Political Ideology of Lokmanya
Tilak", Inamdar, n. 8.
20. SLT, III, pp. 51-54, 615-618.
21. SLT, IV. pp. 1031-1061.

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 TILAK AND THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS 391

Tilak as other nationalist leaders and strengthened his trust in the vitalit
of the emerging Indian nationalism.
If Tilak has been accepted all around as an effective architect and
exponent of the ideology of Indian nationalism as articulated and
embodied in the Indian National Congress, his role as a secularist has been
doubted and disputed. But, the very fact that Tilak was one of th
foremost workers of the Congress believing in and fostering its characte
as an all-India political forum of all Indians22 belonging to differen
religions, races, languages, castes and communities, classes, regions and
sexes, should settle the issue in favour of Tilak as a secularist. He expecte
that with the spread of Western education among the Muslims they woul
join the freedom movement in greater strength.
During the anti-Bengal Partition agitation in Bengal and outside it was
alleged that it would lead to the withdrawal of the Muslims from the fol
of the Congress. Tilak replied to this allegation asking the British rule
to handover the government to the representatives of the Muslims if the
intended to part with power.23 This reply by Tilak to the possible mov
on the part of the British government to divide the Indians on religiou
and caste lines anticipated Gandhiji's similar call to the British governmen
during 1942 and thereafter to transfer power to the representatives of th
Muslims as it must. It might be recalled that the anti Bengal Partition
agitation was followed by the grant of the Muslim deputationists'
demand for separate electorates in the elections to the Central and
Provincial legislatures. Tilak was not free then to let his reaction to the
Morely-Minto reforms conceding the Muslim demand for separate electo-
rates known to the people.
Tilak has been recognised to be an architect of the Lucknow Pact2
between the congress and the Muslim League in 1916 as a prelude to the
grant of 'responsible' government to the Indians by the British after the
War. Whatever be the merit of the Lucknow Pact in stereotyping th
separate electorates and extending the separatist claims to other segment
of authority, it removes the charge of his being biased in favour of th
Hindus and against the Muslims.
The Home Rule League established by Tilak in 1916 attracted support
from Muslim leaders like Jinnah and sent to Britain Joseph Baptista, a
non-Hindu, as its spokesman.
The manifesto of the Congress Democratic Party (Group founded by
him within the Congress) which was published in 1920, recognised equal
religious freedom to all citizens and proclaimed adherences to the ideal of
Hindu-Muslim unity.
Within the fold of Hindu society, secularism would imply exercise and

22. S LT, IV, pp. 192-237.

23. N.C. Kelkar. op . cit, II, Parts 5, 6.
24. N.C. Kelkar, op. cit., III.. (1928), Part 2. pp. 59-70.

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 392 THE INDIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SC1NE

enjoyment of equality and equal rights by the backward castes along wit
the advanced. The Manifesto of the Congress Democratic Party (192
did not recognise caste distinctions in the matter of confernment of righ
on individuals.25 During the last decade of the last century Tilak h
showed up a conservative outlook on women in regard to the controvers
on the Age of Consent Bill and related social reforms. His outlook o
women during the last years of his life was not known. But it is quite
possible that one full year's stay in Britain during 1918-19 would have
turned him a socially progressive person.
Tilak did not hold an anti-religious outlook in regard to the role of th
state in the religious matters. He himself in his personal life and outlo
was a deeply religious person without being a worshipper of the religiou
ritual. He did not want the state to promote, sponsor or favour a parti
cular religion disfavouring another. But he held that the state shou
maintain religious freedom for all individual persons in its fold. H
desired the state to hold an even balance between different religions to
prevent one of these dominating others, avoiding suppression of religiou
freedom to those professing faith in other religions.

IV

Tilak developed a positive outlook in regard to the role of the

state vis-a-vis the people in economic matters. The economists who
favoured the British rule in India defended the state's interference in
economic matters in favour of the British capitalists and traders. But,
Tilak with Ranade, Naoroji, Mehta, Gokhale, Dutt and others believed
that in order to initiate and promote economic development in industrial,
agriculture, trade, transport and other fields the Indian state must shed its
professed laissez-faire policy and positively put in investments and remove
obstacles in these fields. The disadvantaged sections in the community
such as the peasants and cultivators, artisans, labourers had to be rendered
financial and economic assistance and helped by the state by modifying
laws and rules and relaxing their execution. Tilak, in collaboration with
like-minded workers, got the Congress to adopt resolutions in matters like
land revenue, land tenure, famine code, etc. In adopting a resolution on
the promotion of Swadeshi, however, he came across resistance from
the Moderates. It should therefore be noted that Tilak developed over
years an orientation to welfarism in regard to the policy of the state in
economic matters. It would however be an exaggeration to mark him as a
'socialist' in the strict sense of the term.
It is true that during his sojourn in Britain for more than a year during
1918-19, he came into close contact with the socialists, including the
Fabians, trade unionists and Labour Party leaders.26 He also referred in

25. SLT, VIII, pp. 296-299.

26. N.C. Kelkar, op, cit., III, Part 5.

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 TILAK AND THE INDfAN NATIONAL CONGRESS 393

his articles in the media to the proceedings of the world Soc

Congresses held from time to time.27 His imprisonment durin
generated a wave of resentment among the industrial (and railway) w
of Bombay which assumed the form of a token strike.28 He sough
help of the British Labour Party and other sympathisers in Britai
bringing about suitable amendments in the British Parliament
Montford Reforms Act of 1919.29
The Manifesto of the Congress Democratic Party30 formed by Tilak
within the Congresss in 1920 to contest the impending elections to the
legislatures under the reformed Act is the most authoritative/latest
document written by himself, to ascertain his views on the economic
policy he desired the Indian state to fol!ow after his return from
Britain.
The Manifesto pledged "securing for the labouring classes, agricultural
and industrial, a fair share of the fruits of labour, a minimum wage,
relationship between capital and labour on equitable basis, and promoting
organizations for the purpose." The Manifesto also promised "taxation
according to the capacity of various classes, corporations or individuals, so
that the burden may be proportionate to the means or wealth of the taxpa-
yers". But, simultaneously, the Manifesto assured promotion of swadeshism
and development of industries by all recognised methods, including state
subsidies and protective tariff. Graduated taxation along with minimum
wage and equitable industrial relations mentioned in the Manitesto sought
to give a fair deal to the less advantaged and labouring classes. However,
industrial development under private auspices was sought by the Manifesto
to be facilitated through state subsidies and protective tariff. Under
Provincial subjects, the Manifesto listed permanent ryotwari settlement with
equitable assessment, absolute prohibition of bonded and sweated labour
and venal practices, and free and compulsory education without distinction
of sex. The first two measures would remove grossly unjust and inequitous
economic practices, while the third would provide an essential civic
facility in modern times. The Manifesto also guaranteed agricultural
development, extension of irrigation, cooperative development, industrial
and technical education suitable to the needs of the country, organised
medical relief and encouragement to indigenous system of medicine. These
all were welfare measures that would ensure a modicum of economic
development and standard of life to the majority of the country's
population. The Manifesto did not provide for the abolition of private
property nor nationalization of industries, the hallmarks of the socialist
economic system. Tilak's economic philosophy was thus broadly in
conformity with the prevailing economic ideology of the Indian National

27. SLT, IV, pp. 277-283.

28. N.C. Kelkar, op , cit., II, pp. 46-49.
29. Ibid. .Ill, Part 5.
30. SLT, VIT, pp. 296-299.

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394 THE INDIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

Congress, may be it was a little in advance.

The scheme of government envisioned by Tilak could be gleaned fro
his memorandum to the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the n
Government of India Bill of 1918-19.31 It was patterned on the
parliamentary model in Britain with a federal structure as obtaining in
the Dominion of Canada and Australia. Tilak expressed himself in
favour of viable decentralised local governments, both in urban and
rural areas. He also opted in favour of strong village panchayats endowed
with judicial powers. Tilak stressed the need of a Declaration of Rights
for the citizens of the country. He believed in the potency of democratic
doctrines for the solution of Indian problems. He stood for the removal
of all civic, secular or; social disabilities based on caste or custom, a firm
indication of his being a secularist.
Tilak, thus, foresaw in his Manifesto of 1920 the essential elements of
the basic structure of free India's Constitution.

Tilak played a great role as a pioneer of the political movements on

the sufferings of the peasants during the famine of 1896-97, to prepare the
popular mind for passive resistance to the partition of Bengal during
1905-08, and for an early grant of the Home Rule to India during 1916-20.
All the three movements were conducted by Tilak outside the Indian
National Congress as its official moderate leadership was not favourably
inclined to them.
At the same time, the peasants' movement was pioneered by Tilak in
some districts in the vicinity of Poona, another movement was conducted
by him in the Pune City to mobilise the citizens against the oppressive
acts of the British soldiers to enforce the measures, preventive and
remedial, during the plague epidemic.5* In both these movements, Tilak
utilised his newspapers, 'Kesari' in Marathi, and 'Maratha' (in English)
to educate public opinion regarding the ways to deal with these calamities,
the nature of the legal and financial provisions, and administrative powers
of the government officials, in these matters. He did not stop at this. He
sent the workers of the 'Sarvajanik Sabha', a socio-political association,
recently taken over by him from the followers of Ranade, including
Gokhale, to the famine affected villages in the districts, to collect factual
information on the extent of sufferings of the peasants due to famine and
the damage to the crops, as well as the administrative measures being
adopted by the officials in regard to the realisation of land revenue and
implementation of the relief provisions in the famine code.33 The Sabha
workers confronted stiff apathy and at times opposition of the officials.
At a village meeting of the peasants addressed by the Sabha workers in

31. Ibid % pp. 274-289.

32. N.C. Kelkar, op . cit., II, pp. 518-535.
33. N.C. Kelkat, op. cit., I, pp. 499-517.

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 TILAK AND THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS 395

the presence of the police, eruption of violence was imminent.34

Sabha brought out a book containing the provisions of the famine co
the gist of government reports tnd accounts of the incidence of the famin
and concerned directives of the officials. Peasants were advised not to
remit land revenue to the government. Fair Price grain shops were
encouraged to be opened. Weavers in the affected towns and cities were
organised in associations to keep up the production of cloth which had
suffered a slump due to decline in demand on account of the famine. By
and large, the reaction of the government to the efforts of the Sarvajanik
Sabha under Tilak's leadership during 1897 was adverse, in contrast to
those of the Sabha under Ranade's mentorship during the earlier famine
of 1876. For the first time, the peasants' movement led by Tilak reached
the political awakening to the peasants who were educated in the first
instance and aroused later to refuse to remit land revenue. This movement,
though it covered a small area, and Tilak's imprisonment later, cumula-
tively lifted (he freedom movement to a higher level of self-consciousness
and reached a wider populace, thus preparing for a take-off during the
following decade.
The agitation for passive resistance which Tilak sponsored from 1905
when Curzon announced the decision to partition Bengal, was unique in
many respects. It carried the freedom movement to a larger area
involving more people in the country. Though the movement had its
origin in Bengal in a public meeting held at Calcutta, Maharashtra under
Tilak's leadership picked it up in no time. Tilak himself visited Bengal
during the agitation and encouraged the people in Bengal in their
militant movement. Tilak found kindred spirits in the Bengal movement.
In fact, during 1904, even before Curzon's decision to partition Bengal,
Tilak had expressed himself through the columns of 'Kesari' in favour of a
radical change in the Congress outlook influenced so far by the Moderate
standpoint. Hints were also coming in from Congress sympathisers in
Britain like Wedderburn. Maharashtra had already set in the movement
of 'Swadeshi' in the seventies of the last century under the initiative of
Sarvajanik Kaka who was encouraged by Ranade. It was a coincidence
that the passive resistance movements both in Bengal and Maharashtra
set in simultaneously during 1905. In the second place, this political
movement enveloped new sections of the population; the petty traders
and shopkeepers; the educated middle classes, women, and more signifi-
cantly the student community.36 Thirdly, the freedom movement then
assumed a more militant form. The movement devised and exerted to
adopt defiant methods: boycott of British goods, non-payment of land
revenue and other taxes to the government, public processions and
meetings with chanting of "Vande Mataram" and other patriotic slogans,37

34. Ibid p. 513.

36. Ibid., Parts 4-7
37. lbid.% Parts 4-7.

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396 THE INDIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

When the peaceful modes of agitation were banned, the seething disconten
in the minds of the youth was vented in the terrorist acts of th
revolutionaries. This changed the profile of the freedom movement
leaving little room for the Moderate leadership to continue its influenc
over opinion.
The trial methodology of passive resistance comprising Swadeshi
Boycott and National Education was termed byTilak as "Bahishakara-yog
Swadeshi with its constructive cult of fostering manufacture of Indian
goods was to be supplemented and reinforced by the boycott of British
goods. The Moderates opposed the resolution on boycott at the
Calcutta Congress in 1906 on the ground that it implied application of
force and direct confrontation with the British Government and the
industrialists arid traders in Britain. Pherozeshah Mehta had opined that
adequate demand for Indian goods did not exist in the country. But
Tilak affirmed that once the Indian goods were available, there would be
enough demand to absorb them in the market. New employment would
be available. Indian capital would have profitable channels of investment;
and due to additional stock of goods, their prices also would be reduced
leading in turn to higher demand for them. But Tilak stressed the
avowedly political character of the swadeshi and boycott movements.39
These would serve as planks for inculating and stepping up the partriotic
feelings among the people.
Tilak did not merely agitate for swadeshi, he sponsored the
constructive activity of swadeshi. He initiated the 'Paisa Fund', asking
all people to contribute a paisa each towards setting up of Indian industries
and trading concerns. He patronised with others the Swadeshi Coopera-
tive Stores to trade Indian goods.40
Tilak defined 'National Education' as education which gave
nationalist orientation to the outlook of the students.41 National
Education would train the youth to be self-reliant and independent i
their future life. National educational institutions would not depend on
government grants and so would be in a position to defy governmen
circulars like "Risley Circular" in Bombay Province to compel the student
not to participate in or articulate in any way patriotic political activities.
Tilak warned the government not to treat the students as their slave
infringing the domain of their parents or guardians.42 Tilak's motiv
along with that of his compatriots in the Deccan Education Society i
establishing the Society and its school and college was to inculcate
nationalistic outlook among the youth by freeing education from
government control. But later he was despaired since the private college
he helped in founding chose to abide by the dictates in the Risley
38. SLT, IV, pp. 567-577.
39. SLT, IV, pp. 556-577.
40. SLT ; III, pp. 719-723, N.C. Kelkar, op. cit., II, Part 5, pp. 2-5.
41. SLT, pp. 231-280.
42. Ibid., pp. 275-280.

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 TILAK AND THB INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS 397

Circular,13 Tilak desired that the College should have spurned the
government grants. During this phase of the freedom movement Tilak
helped to found new nationalist educational institutions like "Samarth
Vidyalaya". He mobilised funds from the people to support these
patriotic ventures.
His militant activities during 1903-08 naturally invited the wrath of
the imperialist rulers who inflicted on him six years' imprisonment at
Mandalay, adding the balance of six months from the earlier punisnment,
the remission he received on account of his promise not to repeat the
offence of causing disaffection among the people against the government.
The Congress, during the period of Tilak's longest captivity, 1*08-14, drew
a blank in terms of political activity. It became a sort of camp-foilower
of the imperial government pinning faith in liberal Secretary of State,
Morley, to deliver the goods to the dependent India and content with
crumbs of executive and legislative offices to a few of its leaders. The
political temper of the people, however, had risen to a higher pitch, thanks
to the militancy of leaders like Tilak, Aurobindo, Lajpat Rai, Bipin
Chandra Pal and others, waiting for a favourable time to come up on the
surface.
The last phase of Tilak's career, 1914-20, was marked by his
sponsorship of the Indian Home Rule League.44 It may be noted that
until the Lucknow session of the Indian National Congress in December
1916 Tilak was not readmitted to its sessions and committees meetings.
The branches of the All India Home Rule League of Annie Besant were
afforded the opportunity of propagating the message of the Self-Govern-
ment resolution of the Congress. But even at the Lucknow session of
the Congress, Tilak's Indian Home Rule League and its branches were not
afforded this opportunity. But the return home of the prodigal and his
active participation in bringing about the Lucknow Concordat between
the Congress and the Muslim League gave an imprimature of authority to
his efforts in the Home Rule movement.
Way back in 1895, Tilak had prepared a note on a Home Rule Bill to
be tabled before the British Parliament,45 which indicated the genre of
his interest in the Home Rule movement. In the wake of the Calcutta
Congress of 1906, great emigre patriot Shyamji Krishna Varma bad set up
a home rule league in England in 1907.
Tilak had established the Indian Home Rule League on 28 April 1916
at Belgaum, while Annie Besant had commenced propaganda of her Home
Rule League earlier in January 1916. Originally the activities of Tilak's
Home Rule League were intended to be confined to Bombay and C.P
and Berar Provinces, but from the records of the League it is evident that
the branches of the League were spread over the whole of the country,

43. Ibid.
44. See Inamdar. n. 1 1 .
45. Ibid.

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 398 THE INDIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCB

as far as in Punjab in the northwest, Bengal in the east and Madras in t

south. The President of Tilak's Home Rule League was Joseph Bapt
of Bombay and Secretaries N.C. Kelkar and Gokhale. Within a ye
since its establishment, the membership of Tilak's League registere
strength of thirteen to fourteen thousand; in 1918 it reached thirty f
thousand. The League's membership was drawn from people of differe
religions, including Muslims and Christians, of different castes amon
Hindus, upper, middle and lower, and also from women.44 Annie
Besant's League's appeal was mainly directed to the English educat
The deputations of both Tilak's and Besant's Leagues went to Brita
independently of that of the Congress to plead for the early grant
responsible government before the Joint Parliamentary Committee*
The Home Rule League movement not only afforded to Tilak and hi
followers an independent platform apart from the Congress, but it al
consolidated his own following, and most importantly, exerted pressure
the Congress to own the demand for home rule and transmit it to the
British government both here and in Britain. In actual fact, the Luckno
Pact had whittled down even the demand for full responsible governme
so did Tilak in his memorandum to the Joint Select Committee.
From 1892 Tilak participated actively in the annual Congress sessions.4
But even before that Tilak had evinced continuous interest in the delibe
tions of the Congress. -Kesari' used to report regularly the happenings
the Congress. From 1892 onwards Tilak would move resolutions o
amendments to these, such as on the subject of land revenue assessmen
excise, etc.48 His concern over the deliberations in the Congress and it
outlook became more pronounced after his release from prison in 1899
He asserted his presence at the Congress session along with his followe
to wean it away from the hold of the Moderates. The Calcutta Congres
of 1906 witnessed a victory for the Nationalists led by Bai, Lai and Pal
securing the adoption of the resolution on Swaraj, Swadeshi, Boycott a
National Education. The fracas at the Surat Congress in 1907 symbolise
the conflict between the stands of the Moderates led by Mehta a
Gokhale and the Nationalists led by Tilak on the earnestness of t
former in acting upon the resolution adopted at the Calcutta Congress
Swaraj, Swadeshi, Boycott and National Education. As already mentione
Tilak had a large hand in the conclusion of the Lucknow Concordat
1916. Tilak was elected President of the Delhi Congress of 1918, but he
had left for England, he could not preside over the Delhi session. Tilak
brought about reorganisation of the British Committee of the Congres
during 1918-19, which was conducive to the freedom struggle in India.

46. Ibid.
47. Articles by Kalelkar and Kelkar in, N.R. Inamdar fed.). Political Thought and
Leadership of Lokmanya Tilak, (New Delhi, Concept, 1983).
48. B. Pattabhi Sitaramayya, The History of the Indian National Congress, Vol. I
(Bombay, Padma Publications, 1935, 1946), Parts I and II.

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 TILAK AND THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS 399

Before the organisational issue contested at the Surat session is dealt w

Tilak's views on the federal nature of the Congress organisation may
presented.
During the first two decades of the career of the Congress, Tilak
developed his outlook on the federal nature of its organisation.49 Tilak
held the view that the annual speech-making on pious resolutions moved
at the Congress session did not serve its basic objectives, namely, to act
as a rallying forum for the people strewn over the length and beadth of
the country and to channelise the grievances of the people at the grass
roots level. The Congress at best brought together a few representa-
tives of the English educated Indians, which did not fashion it into an
effective organ for accentuating the political consciousness of the masses
of the people on the exploitative character of the British rule and the
urgent need for reforming the bureaucratic administration and inculcating
among the people an ardent desire for self-government. By setting up a
network of branches of the Congress in villages, towns, districts and cities
and activising these alone, the then dormant Congress could be trans-
formed into a virile and dynamic organ of the people in their struggle for
redressai of their economic, administrative and political grievances, and
for the political freedom of the country. It is towards the same end that
Tilak sponsored and actively participated in the district and provincial
political conferences.50 The last provincial conference he attended was in
the Bombay Presidency, held at Sholapur in 1920.51 Tilak held firmly to
his view regarding the federal nature of the Congress organisation until
his death. This was in keeping with his strong belief in the need for a
federal political system in the country.
At the Surat Congress in 1907, the issue of the sovereignty of the
delegates to the session from different provincial units and associations
over the executive and reception committees of the Congress was raised53
and pressed to the near break up of the organisation. This again was in
conformity with his essential faith in democratic organisation.

VII

The paper has brought out in its covers Tilak's contributions to the
ideological, activist and organisational aspects of the Indian National
Congress during its formative years 1885-1920. Tilak's role as an
ideologue, a philosopher of Indian Nationalism is well recognised. The
movement of passive resistance he helped to develop during 1905-1903

49. Seen. 22 above.

50. N.C. Kelkar, op. cit., I, pp. 388-192 ; II, Part-I, pp. 29-36 : Part 2, pp, 32-35 ;
Part 7, pp. 3, 15.-17, III, Part 2. pp. 3-6, ; Part 6, pp. 50-51, 54-58.
51. N.C. Kelkar, op. cit., III, Part 6, pp. 54-59.
52. Ibid., Part 6 ; S LT, IV. pp. 313-379. Also see B. Pattabhi Sitaramayya, op. cit.,
pp. 96-98. For Gokhale's side, see B.R. Nanda, Gokhale, th* Indian Moderates
and the British Raj (.Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1977), Chapter 25.

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 400 THB INDIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

laid down a dynamic legacy for Gandhiji to carry forward (and enrich
after 1920 in the movements of Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience.
Tilak's outlook on the federal nature of the Congress organisation with
linguistic units as its constituents was also followed in the development of
its organisation after 1920. Tilak's visions of parliamentary democracy,
with federalism as the basis of the regional organisation of its structure, a
charter of fundamental rights of the citizens to enrich its content, and the
creed of secularism to preserve its multi-religious and multi-cultural
character, has been in essence embodied in the framework of the constitu-
tion of independent India.

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