by A K Bhagwat
Law Class and Other Activities
After resigning from Fergusson College, Tilak threw himself headlong into public life. An account of his political activities during this period appears in the next chapter. Apart from the episodes mentioned so far, Tilak participated in various other activities of social service. During this period he had to find out such ways of earning a livelihood as would not interfere with his public work. He therefore started a law class in Poona. His mastery over law and his aptitude as a teacher made the class a tremendous success. Students appearing for the High Court Pleader’s examination found Tilak’s lectures highly instructive and illuminating. His students in the law class recall how Tilak’s treatment of the subject enabled the students to grasp the fundamentals of it and how he always gave a penetrating analysis of the most difficult sections of law. The only defect with his teaching was his impersonal method. Tilak was so absorbed in the subject that he seldom looked at the class when he lectured. V. G. Javadekar, one of his students, recalled how even when a student had a difficulty, Tilak solved it without looking at him. If a student persisted in the difficulty, Tilak would look up at him just for a moment, and start giving the explanation with his eyes cast downward as usual. Javadekar has also stated that on one occasion Ranade himself attended the class and complemented Tilak on his exposition of Hindu law. The class continued uninterruptedly for seven years.
As another source of income, Tilak started a ginning factory at Latur in Nizam State in partnership with a friend. Tilak had little leisure to pay attention to the business aspect of the enterprise and therefore, though the factory continued, it never brought rich dividends.
Among other public activities of Tilak, particularly worthy of mention was the representation made to the Duke of Connaught, during his visit to India, about starting a school for military training. Tilak was the secretary of the deputation that waited on the Duke of Connaught. The Duke approved of the proposal and agreed that the proposed military school be named after him. However, the bureaucratic wheels turned in their usual inscrutable manner, the princes who had taken initiative in the matter backed out at the tacit suggestion of the authorities, and the move was dropped.
Tilak also took keen interest in civic matters and was elected to the Poona Municipality in 1895.
Vedic Research: Orion
Despite these multifarious activities Tilak found enough time to devote to learning. Prof. Max Müller remarked that “Tilak lived more in the past than in the present.” This remark came as a surprise to those who knew all the political and social activities of Tilak. But though the remark lays stress on only one facet of Tilak’s personality, that facet was as real as the rest of the personality. In fact if Tilak had been born in free India, that facet would have been the pivotal point of his personality. Tilak, in his letter to Prof. Max Muller wrote, “I spend my leisure in doing research about Vedic literature and culture.” Some of his friends recall how even when some political strife was going on wherein Tilak was the central figure, he was found completely absorbed in reading some book about antiquity. He did not read these books merely to get more information. His mind worked in an independent way and his critical spirit would not allow him to accept a proposition simply because it was advocated by some eminent scholar. The problem of the antiquity of the Vedas exercised a peculiar fascination over his mind. He pursued an original line of inquiry by considering the astronomical details referred to in the Vedas and formulated his theory. He delivered one lecture on the subject at Hirabag in Poona in 1891, and another on the same subject in May of the same year on the occasion of the social gathering of the Deccan College. In 1892, he wrote Orion in which he endeavoured to show that the traditions recorded in the Rigveda unmistakably point to a period not later than 4000 B.C., when the vernal equinox was in Orion. He sent a summary of it to the Oriental Congress held in London during the same year and it has been printed in the proceedings of the Congress. Tilak had a scholar’s conscience and could not be satisfied by writing just one book. He studied the problem in all its aspects and as a result of this research work he wrote in 1903 The Arctic Home in the Vedas. These two books have to be considered together, which is done in a later chapter. Though Tilak had come under the influence of western philosophy in his college days, his mind found greater repose in the cultural tradition of the East. He was mostly preoccupied with the plans for changing the present. He, however, found in research about the past a solace and a satisfaction, particularly when he could establish the antiquity of Aryan civilization.
Ideological Differences: A Retrospect
Every controversy has two aspects, the temporary and the perennial. Most people take sides according to their views about the temporary aspect. To them the local issue, the momentary interests, the immediate gains or losses - these are the things which matter. They, therefore, pay little attention to the principles involved in the dispute and their opinions are influenced by personalities and parties. There are, however, a few persons who transcend the limitation of the local issue and soar to the plane of principles. On this plane alone the perennial aspect of a controversy is brought out and the merits or demerits of a stand taken by the leaders of public opinion can be judged only in the light of this aspect. We have already mentioned some controversies in Maharashtra during the period 1885-95. If one follows the different articles written on these controversial issues and leaves out the chaff of personal criticism, one finds that there was always a theoretical difference between Tilak and Agarkar and both of them made a clear statement of their respective ideological positions. These controversies, now looked at in retrospect, appear in a very different light than when they were started and it is possible to make an analysis of the conflicting points of view expressed by persons like Tilak and Agarkar. Such conflicts are but inevitable in a period of intellectual ferment and in spite of the momentary bitterness arising from them, they ultimately enrich the intellectual life of society. Moreover the controversy between Tilak and Agarkar was not an isolated phenomenon. In other provinces too, there were similar conflicts when the reformist zeal of certain individuals clashed with the traditionalist ways of the orthodox. Owing to contact with the “Western civilization there was a growing consciousness of the need for social reform and in some parts of India, some individuals gave it an organised shape and form. In Bengal, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, the first great social reformer of modern India, ‘The symbol of Renascent India’, started the Brahmo Samaj movement which criticised the caste system, idol worship and certain other reactionary features of Hindu society. When Keshav Chandra Sen became the leader of the Brahmo Samaj, Christianity had become the dominant influence and this led to a split and consequently to the formation of Sadharan Brahmo Samaj. In Punjab the Arya Samaj movement was started by Dayanand, ‘a very soldier of light and a sculptor of men and institutions!’ He gave a new interpretation of the Vedas, asserted the greatness of their teachings and attacked those who had exalted ritual above the real teachings of the Vedas. The Arya Samaj ruthlessly criticised the stagnation of Hindu society and condemned the reactionary customs which had sapped the vitality of the people. The workers of Arya Samaj had a missionary zeal for the uplift of society and were militant in opposing the preachings of Islam and Christianity. Theosophy, which started in Madras, was a purely cultural movement and contributed a good deal to the regeneration of Hinduism. In Maharashtra there was the Satyashodhak Samaj of which Jyotirao Phule, the first great social reformer of Maharashtra, was the leader. He insisted on social equality and was the first to champion the cause of the Harijans. This movement, spread among the masses in Maharashtra, is important because it was a manifestation of the discontent felt by the backward classes over the social and religious domination of the upper classes. The upper classes had shown their love of reform in the Prarthana Samaj which was started in Bombay in 1867. Ranade, Bhandarkar, Modak and others had taken the lead in this movement. They attacked the caste system, idol worshi
p and other superstitions in Hindu religion but they wanted to bring about reforms without breaking away from tradition. Unlike the Brahmo Samaj, the Prarthana Samaj always claimed to be a sect of the Hindu religion.
Whenever the leaders of these different movements advocated their ideals and strove to usher in some reforms, they had to face great opposition from the people who stood for the status quo in religious and social matters. Apart from these major movements, there were also certain groups of individuals who could not openly face the wrath of the orthodox section but who formed secret societies in order to live up to some progressive ideals. There was, for instance in Bombay in 1845, a secret group known as Paramhans Mandali whose members were opposed to the caste system and idol worship and who were in favour of widow remarriage. The society was liquidated in 1860. There were also certain individuals who did not start a sect or organise a movement, but who created quite a stir in society by their attacks on established customs and by their advocacy of new ways. Thus Balshastri Jambhekar, a great intellectual, started a weekly - Darpanin 1832, in Bombay and advocated progressive views on social and religious matters. He pleaded for women’s education, widow remarriage and insisted on taking back people in Hindu religion, if they were forcibly converted to other religions. For the latter he had to suffer great vilification and maltreatment at the hands of orthodox society. Another great writer, Sardar Gopal Hari Deshmukh, popularly known as Lokahitwadi (Pro Bono Publico), wrote articles in the weekly Prabhakar in Bombay from 1848, in which he exposed the degeneration in Hindu society and advocated all-sided reforms.
These individuals belonged to the first generation of English-educated people in Maharashtra. The leaders of the Prarthana Samaj belonged to the second generation and Tilak and Agarkar to the third generation. In the first two generations ideas had an importance for their own sake. Afterwards, however, ideas could not be divorced from action. Moreover, so far, there was little political activity worth the name, but Tilak and Agarkar had, right from their college days, realised the importance of a political change. Public life was therefore becoming more and more complex, as the social and political forces mingled with each other. The controversies had therefore ceased to exist on a purely theoretical plane and had a relation to the action of the participants. They had a direct reference to reality and consequently there was a greater vehemence in the mutual attacks of the contending parties. Moreover Tilak and Agarkar had a greater fervour than their predecessors which was partly an outcome of the courage of their convictions and partly because they belonged to a disillusioned generation which had begun to realise in their personal lives the detrimental effects of British rule and had grown weary of stranglehold of superstitious customs and orthodoxy. The intensity of feelings displayed in Agarkar’s writings and the fundamental change which he advocated distinguish him from the reformers who came before him and he can justly be called a social revolutionary rather than a social reformer.
Differences between Tilak and Agarkar
It is very interesting to observe the evolution of the ideas of Tilak and Agarkar. Tilak upto 1885 shared Agarkar’s views about the dormant orthodoxy in Hindu society, though he did not always approve of the defiant tone and iconoclastic attitude of Agarkar. Experience of public work strengthened Agarkar’s conviction about the urgent need of social reform, though he advocated, at the same time, progressive political ideals. Tilak, on the other hand, had a growing feeling that political problems should have priority over social questions. This drift in Tilak’s attitude became more and more distinct and he not only emphasised the political issues but also belittled the efforts of those who strove for social reform. The difference of opinion between Tilak and Agarkar in the Deccan Education Society led to a further divergence in ideas and the Kesari and the Sudharak did not lose a single opportunity of attacking each other. There were wordy duels in which severe blows were dealt and the people of Maharashtra witnessed the sparks emitted from the clash of these two strong personalities.
Agarkar’s Faith in Individual Freedom
The fundamental point of difference between Tilak and Agarkar was the social structure of Hindu society. To Agarkar individual freedom was the basis of all social reforms. Agarkar maintained that an individual would not be happy unless he enjoyed liberty with respect to thought, marriage and occupation; and he further emphatically stated that a society which did not allow this liberty would never be progressive. He argued that the Varna system symbolised the law of stability, and progress would not be possible unless it yielded place to the law of change. Agarkar, therefore, strongly advocated the necessity of discarding the Varna system and of following western ways which granted an individual freedom in essential matters.
Tilak on the Varna System
Tilak’s position in this matter was entirely different. He wrote: “According to our Varna system, the choice of occupation for an individual is determined by factors which do not include his will or desire. In the free countries of Europe, there are no such restrictions. As a result of this free competition the able and efficient people prosper and others have to starve. In short, people have now realised that no social system is without fault or blemish.... Rao Bahadur Ranade and others want to change the basis of our society viz., Varna system, and want to give it the basis of the western societies, viz. free choice to individuals. They think that unless this change is made, we would not survive in the struggle of the nineteenth century. We do not think this to be correct. The social system of the west is not without ill effects.... In a society based on competition, wealth is not equally distributed, some become very rich and others grow very poor. Under this system, marriage becomes a contract and instead of widows there are a number of unmarried women who are denied the happiness of married life. From this, it can be found that it is thoughtless to say that society can be happy only if it is based on certain principles. We do not think that there should be no change in the structure of Hindu society or that there would be no change. Everyone would admit that with the contact of the east and the west, of the spiritualist and the materialist, of the systems based on determinism and free will there must be some change in the principles governing the old social order and change there will be. The dispute is whether we should entirely replace the old system by the new or whether we should revive the old system by making certain desirable changes. It is only owing to our Varna system that we have kept up our special features and though we could not be free at all times, we have survived for thousands of years. If we give up these special features, we shall lose whatever we have preserved and we shall be neither here nor there.... Nobody is opposed to reforms, but from the foregoing discussion it would be evident that its ways are quite different.”
In all this argument of Tilak, one finds a justification of and a plea for the Varna system and a criticism of the faults of the western individualist civilization. It is clear therefore that Tilak was not prepared to discard the traditional structure of Hindu society and his statement that he was not opposed to desirable reforms can only be understood as an admission of the inevitability of change.
Tilak on the Necessity of Reform
Thus writing on ‘The Necessity of Adoption’ in 1881, he had compared a nation that allowed no reform to a stagnant pool whose water stinks as it does not flow. In a meeting held in Poona to protest against the Age of Consent bill he had suggested an alternative to resolution of the orthodox sections which sought to condemn wholesale government interference in social reforms. The reformers had suggested that the meeting should not merely stop at condemning the government but should pass a resolution on behalf of the Hindu community showing their readiness to bring about reforms like widow-remarriage and prohibition of child marriage. Tilak suggested that a joint application, signed by members of different communities, should be made, to the government showing their readiness to work certain reforms which he specified. In addition he wanted all the signatories to pledge themselves to these refor
ms in their own personal life and also convey to the government their readiness to undergo any punishment if they broke this pledge. The reforms that he advocated were: (1) A girl should not be married before she was 16. (2) A boy should not be married before he was 20. (3) No man should marry after 40. (4) If he has to marry after 40 he should marry a widow. (5) Drinking should be stopped. (6) Dowry should be abolished. (7) Everyone should devote a tenth of his income for public work (established for this purpose). (8) Shaving of widows should be discontinued.