EXPLAIN TILAK’S CONCEPT OF SWARAJ .

Lokmanya Tilak: Concept of Swaraj

The first phase of the Indian struggle for freedom is unthinkable without the most popular slogan:
‘Swaraj is my birth right and I will have it’. The call was given by Bal Gangadhar Tilak (23 July 1856 – 1
August 1920), the first most popular leader of the Indian Independence Movement. The British colonial
authorities derogatorily called him ‘Father of the Indian unrest’. He was also respectfully called
‘Lokmanya’, which literally means ‘Respected by the people [as their leader]’. Tilak was an ardent
nationalist, journalist, teacher, social reformer, lawyer and theorist. To understand his concept of Swaraj
or Swaraj we have to keep this multifaceted image of Tilak in mind.

INTRODUCTION
Tilak, was born as Keshav Gangadhar Tilak at Chikhal in Ratnagiri district of the Indian state of
Maharashtra. His father, Gangadhar Tilak was a school teacher and a Sanskrit scholar who died when
Tilak was sixteen. Young Keshav graduated from Deccan College, Pune in 1877. Tilak was amongst one of
the first generation of Indians to receive a college education. After graduating, Tilak began teaching
mathematics at a private school in Pune. Later due to ideological differences with the colleagues he left
the job and became a journalist. He also organized the Deccan Education Society with a few of his
college friends. Tilak joined the Indian National Congress in 1890 but was opposed to its moderate
attitude, especially towards the fight for self-government. A plague epidemic spread from Bombay to
Pune in late 1896, and by January 1897, it reached epidemic proportions. In order to suppress the
epidemic and prevent its spread, it was decided to take drastic action. Accordingly, a Special Plague
Committee under the Chairmanship of W C. Rand was formed, however, the measures that the Rand
Committee took, were widely regarded as acts of tyranny and oppression. Tilak took up this issue by
publishing inflammatory articles in his paper Kesari, quoting the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita,
against the action of the government. Following this, on 22 June 1897, Rand and another British officer
were shot and killed by the Chapekar brothers and their other associates. Tilak was charged with
incitement to murder and sentenced to 18 months imprisonment. When he emerged from prison, he
was revered as a martyr and a national hero. Following the 1905 Partition of Bengal, which was a
strategy set out by Lord Curzon to weaken the nationalist movement, Tilak encouraged the Swadeshi
movement and the Boycott movement. Tilak opposed the moderate views of some Congress leaders
and was supported by fellow Indian nationalists – Bipin Chandra Pal in Bengal and Lala Lajpat Rai in
Punjab. They were referred to as the Lal-Bal-Pal, the Extremist triumvirate of INC. In 1907, the annual
session of the Congress Party was held at Surat, Gujarat.
Again, in 1908, Tilak was sent to Mandalay, Burma to serve six years' transportation and a fine of Rs
1,000 from 1908 to 1914, in connection with his defense of two Bengali revolutionaries, Khudiram Bose
and Prafulla Chaki, in his paper, Keshari. While imprisoned, he continued to read and write, further
developing his ideas on the Indian nationalist movement. While in the prison he wrote the most-famous
Gita Rahasya. Many copies of which were sold, and the money was donated for the freedom fighting.
After this term, Tilak re-united with his fellow nationalists and re-joined the Indian National Congress in
1916 and signed the historic Lucknow Pact, a Hindu-Muslim accord, with Mohammed Ali Jinnah. He also
helped found the All India Home Rule League in 1916–18, with G. S. Khaparde and Muhammad Ali
Jinnah and Annie Besant. Tilak travelled from village to village trying to conjure up support from farmers
and locals to join the movement towards self-rule. Tilak was impressed by the Russian Revolution, and
expressed his admiration for Vladimir Lenin.
Tilak visited England in 1918 as president of the Indian Home Rule League. He realized that the Labor
Party was a growing force in British politics, and he established firm relationships with its leaders. He
came back in 1919, advocated in favor of participation of elections to legislative councils as part of the
Montagu-Chelmsford reforms. But he could not do much in this direction, since he died in 1920.

Swarajya/Swaraj
Lokmanya Tilak popularized four concepts: Swaraj, Swadeshi, national education, and boycott. Swaraj
for him was self-government. He claimed that with Swaraj everybody would be free and have a right to
participate in the government of the country. He demanded national self-determination for all colonized
countries and argued that India’s freedom would usher in the freedom of other subject countries. He
declared that Swaraj was his birthright and he would secure it.
For Tilak, Swaraj does not only stand for external/political freedom but also for internal freedom or
freedom of the inner-self. According to him, both have a complimentary relationship: one cannot
survive without the other. Ethically speaking, by Swaraj, Tilak meant Dharma Rajya. It was not simply a
question of transfer of power but beyond that.
Tilak referred to ancient Indian philosophical and religious texts. In his words, ‘Religion and practical life
are not different. To take sanyas (renunciation) is not to abandon life. The real spirit is to make the
country, your family work together instead of working only for your own. The step beyond is to serve
humanity and the next step is to serve God.’ He further said, ‘I regard India as my Motherland and my
Goddess, the people in India my kith and kin, and loyal and steadfast work for their political and social
emancipation my highest religion and duty.
He was overwhelmingly influenced by the teachings of Bhagwad Gita. According to him, by
understanding the basics of the Karmayoga principles, enshrined in Gita, one can realize the fullest
meaning of the word Swarajya and act upon it. He wrote: our Gita religion is a permanent, undauntable
religion and the blessed Lord has not felt the necessity for Hindus to rely on any other book or religion.’
According to him, Gita teaches us that man can and must achieve the self-fulfilment (oneness with the
Paramatman or the Absolute Self) through karmayoga, i.e. through a life of selfless and disinterested
performances of duties. In his words: ‘The most practical teaching of the Gita, and one for which it is of
abiding interest and value to the men of the world with whom life is a series of struggles, is not to give
way to any morbid sentimentality when duty demands sternness and the boldness to face terrible
things.’ The karmayoga ethics, he argued, is superior to materialistic or hedonistic ethics.
Critique of Hedonism and Utilitarianism
Tilak made a strong critique against the materialistic hedonism. He found the instances of hedonism in
ancient India as well as in the modern west. He divided hedonistic philosophies into three categories: 1)
the advocates of self-interest; 2) the advocates of enlightened self-interest; and 3) the proponents of
the compatibility of self interest with common interests. Despite their differences, these philosophies
maintained that one’s own material pleasures ought to be the objective of one’s morality. Tilak rejected
such an ethical position since they stand against social harmony and spiritual salvation.
According to him, the dichotomy between the interest of the self and those of others have to be
overcome by subordinating former to the latter. This can be done by inculcating in the individual the
virtues of kindness, prudence, foresight, bravery, fortitude, forbearance, selfcontrol etc. Tilak held that
bodily pleasures are fleeting, while spiritual happiness is ever lasing.
Swaraj: Tradition and Modernity
He emphasised the spiritual freedom of the individual during the Home Rule movement. In Gitarahasya,
he wrote: ‘Freedom was the soul of the Home Rule Movement.’ Like Swami Dayananda, he searched for
his political ideals in ancient Indian texts like Vedas, Gita, Kautilya’s Arthashastra etc and held that the
king must promote people’s welfare and be accountable to the people. After tracing the term
‘Swarajyam’ in Vedas, Tilak pointed out that since the people have the essence of God in them, they
have the right to remove the oppressive rulers.
Like Dayananda, Tilak also argued that Swaraj is an ancient concept. ‘The idea of Swaraja is an old one’,
he held. In ancient India too, the states enjoyed political, economic and moral autonomy. However, he
differed with Dayananda in infusing the element of democratic election into it. In his words: ‘Swaraj is
possessing these [ancient] rights which native princes had in Indian states with the difference that
instead of hereditary chiefs under Swaraja there would be an elected President.’ Thus, Tilak was not
simply a revivalist of old traditions. Like other major modern Indian political thinkers, he too sought to
keep the ideational autonomy in the modern world. As Bankim Chandra Chatterjee sought to keep
cultural autonomy and blend with the modern rational institutions, similarly, Tilak emphasised that in
political realm too, ancient India enjoyed autonomy, however, introduction of modern democracy
would widen the scope of such autonomy.
Gita and the Idea of Swaraj
Tilak’s idea of Swaraj is based on his firebrand nationalism, centred on the ethics of performance of duty
without caring for the fallout. The Gita is a sacred text for Hindus but for Justice S.A.T. Rowlett, who was
the President of the Sedition Committee (1908), it was an instrument of subversion and sedition.
According to him, the Bengal revolutionaries used the teachings of the Bhagawad Gita, as also the
teachings of Vivekanand “to create an atmosphere suitable for the execution of their projects”. The time
was also ripe for it as Justice Rowlett says, “But neither the religious teachings of Bhagavad Gita would
have afforded so moving a text to preach from had not the whole world, and especially the Asiatic
world, been electrified and amazed by the victories of Japan over Russia…”

Evaluation
Tilak’s concept of Swaraj has a deep link with his ethics, evolved in his Gitarahasya. He created a
revolution in the world of ethics with this book. K.M.Panikkar observes that it is Tilak’s Gitarahasya
which marked the change in Indian political scenario. He showed for the first time that the message of
the Gita was not renunciation as others had thought before, but it was essentially a scripture preaching
a doctrine of social activism where action for human good without personal attachment is preached as
the first imperative. Aurobindo Ghose, one time colleague of Tilak, assessed the latter’s contribution
towards development of the idea of Swaraj as a definite and realizable concept. According to him,
‘Swaraj, complete and early self-government in whatever form, had the merit in the eyes of making
definite and near to the national vision, the one thing needful, the one aim mattered, the one essential
change that includes all the others. No nation can develop a living enthusiasm or accept great action or
great sacrifices for a goal that is lost to its eyes in the mist of far off centuries; it must see it near and
distinct before it, magnified by a present hope, looming largely and actualised as a living aim whose
early realization only depends on a great, sustained and sincere effort.’ Tilak’s notion of Swaraj/Swarajya
acted as a concrete and realizable goal before the radical nationalist youth of India.