Lokmanya Tilak

by A K Bhagwat

  Vivekananda

  At this time the dynamic personality of Swami Vivekananda sent a thrill throughout India. Essentially a man of action, Vivekananda had turned to sanyas from agnosticism. He preached the message of Vedantic Hinduism in a modern way, intelligible to westerners and in the Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893 he preached Hinduism to a western audience and was given a tremendous ovation. He sought to make Vedantism into a spiritual science which far from being incompatible with western science, would go beyond it. Vivekananda’s success synchronised with Tilak’s comparative study of the Hindu and western thought.

  Tilak sought to prove the superiority and antiquity of the Vedas over the western religious thought and philosophy and the fruit of his researches was embodied in the two papers submitted to the Oriental Congress in London, to which reference has akeady been made.

  Difference with the Liberals

  In political ideology, he still stuck to the liberal principles but differences between him and the liberals were becoming more and more marked on matters of strategy. He wished to concentrate all his energies on the political front and hence his opposition to social reform being mixed up with political agitation. In this he wholly subscribed to what Telang had written in 1887 on political reform: “In political matters we can all unite at once. Hindus, Muslims, Parsis, the people of eastern India, southern India, western India, northern India all can unite and not only can they do so in theory, they have actually done so in fact, as demonstrated at the National Congress held last Christmas.” Tilak had thrown himself heart and soul in the political activity as outlined by the Congress and did yeoman service in spreading its message through the vernacular and middle classes. By 1893, when the Congress had already survived a major crisis, Tilak must have realised that the liberal leadership of the Congress was against any widespread agitation and that it was scared if the bogey of sedition was raised. This was clearly demonstrated in the threatened split between the liberals and the extremists at the time of the Hume circular. Tilak had also parted company with Agarkar and was already crossing swords with him on the question of social reform. He constantly refers now to the need of a more resolute and realistic stand on the part of delegates of the Congress and stresses the representative character of the Congress.

  While seconding a resolution on land tenures in the Lahore Congress in 1893 Tilak remarked, “This is one of those resolutions which furnish a complete answer to the charge brought against the Congress that it exists for the benefit of the educated classes of the country. We are not seeking to benefit that class but the poor classes and I shall point out, coming as I do from Bombay, I don’t plead for the zemindars but the ryots of Bombay.”

  Politically, therefore, Tilak had come to realise the need of taking the message of the Congress to the hearths and homes of the masses as he had already taken it to the door-step of the middle class people in Maharashtra through the Kesari. He had noted with regret the predominantly Western character of the Congress leaders. Again and again, in the Kesari he harps on the rootlessness of the westernised generation. The decay of morals and the growth of self-complacency and selfishness he attributes to the loss of a wider principle or institution to which the individual going beyond himself would owe allegiance. “During a great part of history men had found significance of their social order in its relation to the universal purpose of religion. It stood as one rung in a ladder which stretched from hell to paradise and the classes who composed it were the hands, the feet, the head of a corporate body which was itself a microcosm imperfectly reflecting a larger universe.” According to Tilak, the Hindu system of the four Varnas was a similar idea. It allotted a functional basis to the castes and it is for this reason that Tilak upheld it. He had realised that there was no point of contact between leaders and the masses of people in the country, who drifted in their own traditional ways, unconcerned about their past, present and future. He had also come to realise now that Hinduism can be a powerful force of regeneration and union. This was only a partial truth. The Varna system had long outlived its utility and was now only a reactionary principle retarding progress.

  Tilak’s mind was now working in the direction of giving a deep-rooted cultural basis to the political movement by breaking through the routine of the somewhat academic nature of the Congress movement and he strove to bridge the gulf between the present and the past and to restore continuity to the political life of the nation. He wanted to develop, in the words of Sri Aurobindo, “a language and spirit” and use methods which would Indianise the movement and bring it to the masses.

  The Ganapati and the Shivaji Festivals

  It is with these ideas that two movements shaped themselves in his mind which were educative in the wider sense of the term. By this time, he had again emerged as a public leader with unmistakable powers of organisation and execution. His work in the Crawford case and in the Bapat Commission, the zeal with which he helped to organise the various industrial and provincial conferences and his championship of Hindu social customs as against the reformers had already made him a leader of the people. His sense of confidence in his own ability was enhanced by his study of Hindu religious books and philosophy and his researches into the Vedas. He had crossed swords with elders like Ranade and Bhandarkar and had carved a unique position for himself in the public life of Maharashtra. Now was the time to build up a solid organisation behind him for the propagation of his political ideas which were gradually turning from liberalism to nationalism.

  Communal Riots and Government’s Responsibility

  Before an idea takes an objective form in a movement, agitation or consideration, a concrete stimulus of some actual incident is often required. Tilak tried to use the religious fervour of the people for political purposes by reviving the Ganapati festival.

  The Ganapati festival, in honour of Ganesh, the elephant-headed God, the most popular of all Hindu deities, was celebrated on a large scale in Maharashtra at the time of the Peshwas, but with the advent of the English rule this festival had lost its national importance.

  The immediate occasion was a number of communal riots which occurred in different parts of the Bombay Presidency, during the period from 1890 to 1894. One riot also occurred in Poona. Tilak wrote a number of articles on the riots and analysed their causes and suggested methods for a more amicable and peaceful relationship between the two communities. He urged very strict measures to be taken against the rioters,18 and noted the instigation of the third party - the rulers. The best way to bring about good understanding and unity among the two communities was to make them realise that each is capable of resisting any aggression by the other.19 Tilak also pointed out that historically the two communities had lived amicably for centuries but it is no use going into history.20 Today both communities must realise that nothing is to be gained by these riots. He, however, deplored the tendency shown by such people as Mr. Beck of Aligarh who tried to brand all Hindus as seditionists, though he appreciated the fact that Beck was trying to educate the Muslims.

  Tilak makes it quite clear, that even though the Ganapati celebrations were revived to bring together the Hindus and though the immediate cause was the Hindu-Muslim riots, the object was not to foster a spirit of enmity against the Muslims. An important feature of the festival, he notes, is the enthusiasm shown by all castes and communities among the Hindus. Tilak himself being essentially a man of the masses has given a vivid description of the festivals. He shows the jubilation of the promoter of a novel idea who sees the popular response that it has evoked. He was fighting reformers so far on the social front in lectures or by writing articles against them. The great enthusiasm shown by all classes of people in the Ganapati festival, Tilak thought, was a fitting answer to the atheistic and anti-religious feelings let loose by the reformers. He says: “It is particularly gratifying to note that in spite of the propaganda of Christian missionaries and atheistic reformers the heart of the so
ciety, viz. the Marathas, were yet true to their religion. If this spirit continued he is quite confident that under the British rule India would reach the pinnacle of glory and a new bond of affection would be created between England and India.”21 Tilak felt particularly ekted because he could see now that these classes of society which had remained aloof from the politics of the Congress could now be brought together and made politically conscious.

  After paying an enthusiastic tribute to the orderly manner in which the festival was celebrated in Poona and at other places Tilak speaks about the wider importance of the celebration. According to him such festivals are an important means of bringing about national unity. If people come together with the object of public worship their minds are moulded in a particular way and the sense of brotherhood for all fellow-worshippers is developed. Once the mind and the heart reach a particular state of culture it is possible to use them for other purposes as well. How can a person who does not feel proud of his religion, be proud of his country? That is how religion and nationality are interconnected.22

  National Festivals

  In another article entitled “The Need of National Festivals”, Tilak refers to the part pkyed by them in Greece and Rome. In India religion will always be regarded as of primary importance and as such our celebrations will naturally have a religious colour. Formerly such occasions were used for keeping the religious sense alive and to give ethical, social and political education to the people. In the time of the Vedas, the great sacrifices were in the nature of national celebrations. The rishis gathered at the time of the sacrifices carried on discussions on ethical and religious problems. Such festivals were revived by the saint Ramdas in the days of Shivaji. It is the duty of the educated people, therefore, to take an active part in these celebrations instead of lecturing on Bhakti or uttering the name of God behind closed doors.

  When writing about the function of the Brahmin class in modern society, Tilak had spoken of the necessity on the part of the Brahmins to take up the work of social education by turning into missionaries. He calls them ‘Graduate Ramdasis’, recalling how in the time of the saint Ramdas a number of his disciples had wandered over the length and breadth of Maharashtra, preaching the message of Hindu national revival under the Muslim rule.

  Need of a Mass Basis to the Congress

  On the Congress front also Tilak seemed to be growing more and more critical of the exclusive attitude of the Congress leaders and showed an impatience to give it a real mass basis. In a review that he has taken of the Congress, ten years after its establishment, in the Kesañ of the 8th January 1895, he says that upto its fifth year it was only an assembly of delegates, criticising the government. With Bradlaugh’s patronage it became a political assembly and carried its agitation abroad with the establishment of a Congress Committee in London. He refers to the twofold crisis which the Congress survived, viz. the stalemate that overtook it threatening its dissolution with the Hume circular and secondly the communal riots. Plans must, therefore, be made, according to him, to establish the internal organisation of the Congress on a sound footing, such as the establishment of a permanent committee, starting district and provincial committees, sub-committees, etc. The work of the Congress which had been verbal so far and of a very general propaganda nature should now be made more particular and pointed. Instead of making it annual fare it must be given a day-to-day function. In another article written after the llth Congress at Poona, he says that the Congress had been the ideal basis of national unity and solidarity. It had brought the intellectual elite together; but looking at the resolutions of the past decade there appears, to him, to be a monotonous uniformity about them. He also refers to the statue of a famished peasant which was raised by a critic of the Congress at its pandal-doors in the Poona session and says that it was the duty of the Congress to make the peasants understand the significance of Congress resolutions. The time had now arrived to take the message of the Congress to the hearths and homes of the masses.

  Channelising the Religious Fervour

  In another article, ‘The Ganesh Festival”, Tilak is more explicit about his primary aim of channelising the religious fervour of the people for political ends. The aims of such national festivals are the two-fold aims of entertainment and public education. A nation fettered by the foreigner rarely sees such days of glory and happiness. Dassera was the only day of national rejoicing in Maharashtra but today under a foreign yoke celebrate in its true spirit. It is not again a new thing; religious festivals are age-old and our religious sentiments naturally surge up at their mere mention. They are ways devised by our ancestors to keep up the religious faith of the people, to vitalise our ethical and political life and to keep the flame of our nationalism burning bright. The educated people, therefore, are betraying a sacred trust by not joining these festivals. Why should these occasions not be utilised for industrial exhibitions of indigenous products? Why should the educated people not use these fairs for the propagation of various ideas? After all this will not be as expensive as the National Congress. Besides, the educated person can easily do here the work that can never be done by the Congress. Why should not these faks be converted into huge meetings? Will not your political agitation enter the huts in the villages by these methods? Can you not spread the ethical and religious knowledge that you have acquired after a good deal of labour by these methods which are so easy and which cost so little? Why should not the educated people bring home to them the real state of the country? Why not those who call themselves wise enlighten people about the tyranny of the Government? Or again why should they not strengthen our feeling of nationalism on the basis of religious faith?.... There is no greater folly than considering the educated classes as different from society. The educated are, after all, a part and parcel of society. They will sink and swim with society.23

  Tilak’s expectations were more than fulfilled, for the Ganapati celebrations were held in all parts of Maharashtra and people from all communities took part in them. They provided one of the cheapest means of varied entertainment and besides they were used as a ground for political propaganda as Tilak had envisaged. Its choirs of- singers or melas, mostly recruited from the gymnasts, sang songs which had a political or ethical import. These songs did yeoman service in popularising Swadeshi and carried on effective propaganda for the anti-drink campaign; as it normally happens it also developed certain obnoxious traits later, but at the time of its inception it more than fulfilled the expectations of its promoter.

  In 1894, Tilak was elected to the Bombay University Senate. In the same year he wrote a petition to the House of Commons on the question of taking the I.C.S. examinations simultaneously in England and India. In 1895 he was elected to the Poona Municipality and in the same year became a member of the Bombay Legislative Council. In this election, the six districts of Maharashtra, Khandesh, Nasik, Sholapur, Satara, Ahmednagar and Poona sent their elected representatives to the provincial legislature for the first time. The election was by indirect representation: The local board members of the six Districts, being empowered to constitute the electoral college. Tilak was elected by a comfortable majority. His opponents were, Garud from Dhulia and Rao Bahadur Jathar, supported by Ranade. Out of a total polling of 63 votes (the constituency consisted of 65 votes) Tilak polled 35 votes, Garud 26 and Rao Bahadur Jathar 2. Attempts were made by Anglo-Indian papers to recommend to the Governor that he should not give his approval to Tilak’s election; but on the 12th June 1895, Tilak’s election was formally approved of by the Governor.

  These successes of Tilak were a clear testimony to his popularity among the different classes of people. His plea for a common front on political issues had borne fruit. He could command support from the upper classes by his scholarship; he had earned a place in the hearts of the middle classes by his championship of lost causes and he had succeeded in bringing together the masses through the Ganapati festival and had succeeded in modernising them to a certain e
xtent. He was an ardent supporter of indigenous industry and had enthusiastically applauded the opening of the first cloth mill in Poona. He had also become popular among the newly rising merchant and capitalist classes.

  The Shivaji Festival

  Tilak now wanted to give his political activities a really national turn by arousing the sentiments of the people around a national hero. No better figure in Maratha history was so respected by all sections of the public as Shivaji. The forts standing in different parts of the Sahyadri ranges in Maharashtra were a living testimony of Shivaji’s prowess and in Poona, as also in other parts of the Deccan, a number of places were still remembered for their association with the exploits of Shivaji. However, as in the case of the Sacred Books of the East and of the Renascent Hinduism in general the inspiration for the Shivaji festival also came from Europeans. Like the Ganapati festival, this festival too was used by Tílak for a wider national education and in its initial stages he could enlist the support of the rulers of Maratha States and the Sardars.