Lokmanya Tilak

by A K Bhagwat

  Tilak could not attend the next two sessions of the Congress in 1902 and 1903 as the Tai Maharaj case absorbed all his attention, and in 1902 he was convicted on a charge of perjury by a Criminal Court. The case with all its complications is treated separately in a different chapter. He wrote in the Kesari about the internal administration of India, criticizing the extravagant expenditure on the army and all attempts made by the government to keep internal peace by depriving the people of the right to bear arms, its gagging the press by the Press Security Act and reducing the Indian States to the position of minions and slaves. He also wrote on the “Unlimited extension of the Empire” on the 25th February 1902 and narrated the story of the British attempts to extend their influence beyond the frontiers of India. He refers to the fact that India’s armies were sent to the frontiers and even outside to help England’s enemies at India’s expense. In Afghanistan, Iran, Africa, China and Baluchistan the British were extending their sphere of influence, and there was a likelihood of their annexing an independent kingdom like Nepal.

  In 1902 the nuber of pages of the Kesari were doubled and the new and enlarged Kesari was issued on the 4th February 1902. Tilak takes a review of the growth of the Kesari during its twenty-two years of existence. From a humble beginning of having a number of subscribers ranging from 700 to 1,000, it reached a circulation of 13,000 in 1902 and the number of its readers rose to 75,000. Stating the political policy of the Kesari, Tilak declared: “We do not wish to take anybody’s kingdom. So long as our desire is to teach people to be fearless in order that they might get strength to fight for their rights under the present rule, we have nothing to fear. The Kesari was born at a time when Lord Lytton had passed his Act of the Freedom of the press. That was a time when it was thought that writing in the newspaper should be such as would not hurt the feelings of the rulers. That time has now gone. We consider it our duty to work for awakening the people, to teach them sincerity and the sense of unity. We write not for the rulers but in order that the readers might imbibe our spirit and understand our thoughts, our agonies and our indignation.”

  Tilak on Resurgent Asia

  A number of articles in 1903, dealt with Asian politics, particularly the Russo-Japanese war. He begins his articles on ‘Asian Affairs’ by describing the effects of Pax Britannia. “With the foreign government monopolising the defence of India from foreign aggression the people of India had no national or patriotic duty as such. The opportunity to unite against a common enemy and sink our petty differences, jealousies and self-interests was denied to us, and we began frittering away our energies on fruitless schemes of social reform. To watch the goings on in foreign countries as impartial onlookers is, therefore, all that we can do.”

  With this introduction, Tilak briefly refers to the causes of the great upheavals in Asian countries. According to him, the root of these dissensions is whether the overlordship of the Asian nations is to remain with the Asians or whether, as in Africa, India and America, it is to pass to the European Christian powers. “Though India is dependent today, no Indian would wish to see China and Japan reduced to that state.... If in the struggle against the Russian bear a small but brave nation like Japan loses, every Indian will feel sorry. ... In this conflict the power that emerges victorious will rule over the destinies of China, and everyone in India wishes that it be Japan, not Russia, that should get this chance. If that happens the unity among the three Asiatic nations, viz. Japan, China and India, will be easily achieved and, at least in the eastern part of Asia, freedom will reign.” With the Muslim power on one side and the united Buddhist powers on the other, the balance of power would be maintained and India would be safe.

  On the 28th April 1903, Tilak wrote an article on ‘Unity of Thought Among the People of the East’ and refers to a book by a Japanese professor, Okakura. This article and the article written in 1904 on Japan’s victory over Russia are an indication of how nationalists in India had begun to think in terms of Asian unity to counteract the European influence. This gave new strength and infused a fresh spirit in the Indian struggle for freedom. He refers to the tradition of unity among the Asiatic countries that had come down from antiquity. On the frontiers of China in ancient days three travellers, a Hindu, a Chinese and a Japanese met, and to show that all of them were one, they described themselves by the metaphor of a Japanese fan of which the three were parts. “India formed the skeleton with sticks, the paper covering the sticks was China, and Japan was the nail that kept the sticks together....” Though Buddhism was at times opposed to Hinduism, it is, as Vivekanand puts it, a rebel son of Hinduism. Tilak next refers to the two points of view advocated by Japanese patriots for the regeneration of Japan. One was for a wholesale imitation and grafting of western ways, while the other was for taking up judiciously only that in western reform which was fit to be imitated, at the same time, retaining their self-respect and pride in things Japanese. The writer of the book, says Tilak, belonged to the second category with which Tilak too agreed.

  The success achieved by Japan upto 1904 over Russia filled the nationalists with great jubilation and this is clearly echoed by Tilak in his article on the 6th December 1904, entitled ‘Japan and India’. This victory, he says, would be a death-blow to the complacent belief of the European powers that Asia, Africa and America were pastures created by God in which the Europeans could graze at will. Historically, therefore, the Russo-Japanese conflict was a unique event with tremendous significance. “The fact that in 40 years Japan should come forward and sit in line with western nations while we become more and more despondent, sapless and fit to carry the burdens of foreigners has an explanation. That explanation can be given in one word ‘Independence.’ This does not mean that the present rule in India should be replaced by another; but like other colonies India should be free and fit to look after her own interests.”

  The confidence given to the nationalists by the victory of Japan was incalculable. “Her successful resistance to the aggressive design of Russia was attributed, and rightly so, to her unique patriotism, spirit of self-sacrifice and national unity. These virtues, it was thought, could work miracles, and enable even a subject and disarmed country like India, to free herself from the crushing bondage of England. To a person like Tilak, therefore, it afforded a wider back-ground to India’s struggle for independence and reaffirmed his faith in India’s ancient civilization and the liberating influence of Hinduism in bringing about a wider unity of all Asiatic nations.”8

  Advocacy of a Radical Line in the Congress

  These thoughts were strengthened by the autocratic regime at home and with the moderate line followed by those in power in the Congress. It dawned very early on Tilak’s mind that to be really effective, the Congress would have to come down from its pedestal and work actively among the people. Trying to answer certain objections against the Congress raised by Malbari,9 Tilak observes: “If people in India were actuated by motives of a single nationality, as the people of the western nations are, then the English would not have come to India nor would it have been necessary to have a body like the Congress. It is not that each of our provinces or communities have not produced able, learned persons with understanding; but for certain reasons the idea of a single nationality is not so very prominently in our minds, nor are the Congress leaders free from this defect. Once it has been realised that certain things have got to be done for the sake of our country, and when it is further realised that to do them something more than mere speech-making would be necessary, our leaders must kick off everything and devote themselves wholly and solely to the service of the country as Hume and Dadabhai have been doing. The defects in the Congress of the present day are entirely due to the fact that the truth of the above has not yet been realised by the leaders.” Tilak, therefore, advised Congressmen to “muse by day and dream by night” of their country’s future and do their utmost by taking the people with them. He reminds the leaders that Rama carried out his task with
the help of the monkeys, and Shivaji could accomplish his historic task with the help of the ordinary Mawalas.

  In another article,10 Tilak comments on the farewell message of Hume to Congressmen. Quoting a Vedic hymn he compares the leaders of the Congress assembling at exactly the same time every year and making the same types of speeches to frogs of variegated colours, appearing every rainy season and croaking, some like bulls, others like goats. He considers the question as to why the Congress should be ineffective in influencing the government even though it has been carrying on its work for eighteen years.... “If ‘constitutional agitation’ is the only real way of ameliorating our condition, then we must get the benefits of our agitation; if, on the other hand, it is not, then we must give it up and follow some other method.” According to Tilak, it was necessary to go beyond mere talk of constitutional agitation. “If you want justice from the British, and that too quickly, then mere shouting once a year will not achieve this. You must carry on both in India and in England an agitation so persistently as to allow no rest or respite to the British. You must bring them to such a state that they should feel that the only way to rid themselves of this situation would be to give everything that is just to the people of India. The true wedding does not consist in celebration, similarly the true Congress work is not in the annual show (tamasha) that is held every year.... Perseverance and agitation are the two qualities that Congress leaders must develop, and if they fight this legal battle for political rights, they are sure to get followers in the younger generation as well.”

  Tilak, therefore, like Bipin Chandra Pal in Bengal was trying to insist that mere loyalty of the Mehtas, Gokhales and Wachas would carry the cause of the Congress no further. With the President of the 1904 session, Sir Henry Cotton, he held: “Autonomy is the keynote of England’s true relations with her great colonies. It is the keynote also of India’s destiny. It is more than this: it is the destiny of the world.... The ideal of an Indian patriot is the establishment of a federation of free and separate states. The United States of India, placed on a fraternal footing with the self-governing colonies, each with its local autonomy, cemented together under the aegis of Great Britain.” Though in this ideal he did not differ from the moderate leaders, still, unlike them, he had no faith in their loyalty to the Empire. He insisted that the agitation should keep within the limits of the law and to that extent the extremist party in its idea of political agitation was also loyal to the British rule; but it was legal loyalty, born out of the peculiar circumstances of India, and not the whole- hearted loyalty of the moderate leaders. The differences between the stand taken by the two sections of leaders in the Congress became more marked in the Benares Congress of 1905.

  An article, written by Tilak on the 27th September 1904, is devoted to the campaign of calumny and vilification carried on by the Times of India against the Marathi paper Kal edited by Professor Shivram Mahadeo Paranjpe. The article is appropriately entitled, The English Times and the Marathi Times.’ Tilak gives a warning that the Times of India was once again at its old game of raising the bogey of sedition by quoting translations of articles in the Kal. This the Times had done successfully in 1897 against the Kesari. He points out that though his views differ from the socialistic views of the editor of Kal, still for this difference in views he does not wish the editor of to be Kal gagged; while the Times is all the time insisting upon this. The following words of Tilak are a clear indication of his views and the views of the extremist party:

  “We admit that as editors we must, by all means, take care to see that we do not unnecessarily antagonise the government. At the same time it must be remembered that we have not started our papers for the pleasure of the government, nor do we care if, while severely criticising the government, we incur their wrath. If we are not to criticise the tyrranical rule of the government and point out that in the end it will create trouble for the rulers and the ruled, why have newspapers at all? In short, our language of opinions may be very strong - it is the tendency of our mind; but one whose heart burns will only write in this strain. One thing is certain that there cannot be the same trust and confidence between the rulers and the ruled in India as that which exists in England because there both belong to the same nation. Everyone should keep this in mind and try to see that government does not mistrust his motives and actions even if it gets angry. If the editor of Kal is guilty only of this and has not like Caesar’s wife been above suspicion, then we do not think that it is a very serious matter. It may be a mistake, but for that we are not prepared to go so far as to say that the editor is actuated by evil motives, or that he wishes Lord Curzon to be assassinated.”

  1 kesari 4th July 1899.

  2 Prof. D. Gadgil: Industrial Evolution of India, p. 113

  3 Every time Tilak rose to speak the Congress report adds the words “Mr. Tilak was received with prolonged cheers” or “was given a tremendous ovation.” This is an indication of how Tilak had captured popular imagination with his sore suffering for the cause of the country.

  1901 was the first Congress attended by Gandhi. He moved in it a resolution on the South African Indian question. He was disconcerted over the perfunctory way in which he was given leave to move his resolution. He described the agonies he suffered when he was given only five minutes to move the resolution. His platform-fear had not yet left him. Though a poor orator and an humble admirer of all the great people who had gathered, Gandhi was critical of what he saw. He found too much of waste, also too much of chaos, too much bossing over the volunteers, the proceedings entirely confined to English. About Tilak, he records: “And as was natural, Lokmanya would never be without his Durbar. Were I a painter, I could paint him as I saw him seated on his bedso vivid in the whole scene in my memory. Of the numberless people that called on him, I can recollect today only one, namely the late Babu Motilal Ghose, editor of the Amrit Bazar Patrìka. Their loud laughter and their talks about the wrong-doings of the ruling race cannot be forgotten.”

  4

  5

  6 Sir Jagadishchandra Bose, the eminent botanist famous for his studies in Plant Life.

  7 First Indian Senior Wrangler of the Cambridge University and Principal of the Fergusson College.

  8 R. G. Pradhan: Indian Struggle for Swaraj, p. 75.

  9 Kesari, 24th November, 1903

  10 Ktsari, 29th December, 1903

  A PERSONAL INTERLUDE

  8

  While Tilak was busy with his ever-increasing public activities and was fast becoming an all-India leader he found himself entangled in a very complicated and protracted law suit of a purely private nature. This was the famous Tai Maharaj case, which took no less than seven long years of Tilak’s life and literally sapped his life blood. The country’s cause, as Tilak had learnt after his imprisonment in the sedition case of 1897, prospers with each jail-going. With each of these cases freedom’s fame finds wings and the martyrdom of the patriot carves a niche for him in the people, hearts. Tilak, after his release in 1898, had thus become the most popular man in India but this new case seemed to threaten his very existence. At one stage he was branded as a common felon and was actually sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment of 18 months for perjury. For a man of his position and standing this was civil death. Had the conviction been upheld in the High Court too an altogether different turn would have been given to Tilak’s life. The moral turpitude arising from the sentence would have stuck to him ever after. It is one of those awful might-have-beens of history at the thought of which one shudders. However, after years of trials and tribulation Tilak emerged unscathed from his ordeal to pursue with unabated zeal his work in the cause of his country’s freedom.

  The best way to look at the whole complicated episode is to look upon it as a sombre tragi-comedy in four acts with a prologue and an epilogue. At one stage it threatened to be a bleak tragedy, with the slow-moving and blindfold justice turning the scal
es against Tilak.

  The prologue of the drama opens at the death-bed of Baba Maharaj Pandit, a first-class Sirdar and a close friend of Tilak. Tilak hurried to the bedside of his friend, on the 7th July 1897, two days after his release on bail in the sedition case. At the insistence of his friend he agreed to be the executor and trustee of his estate under his last will and testament. Apart from the promise to a dying friend Tilak also hoped to regenerate the estate of one of the oldest of the aristocratic families of the Deccan. Like many nationalist leaders of those days, Tilak looked upon these relics of the feudal aristocracy with the hope that one day they might be useful in his work of the country’s regeneration. Whatever might have been his reasons he had given his promise; and to a strong willed person with integrity the promise had to be kept, come what might. Baba Maharaj died on the same day and Tilak and Khaparde, who was the father-in-law of one of Baba Maharaj’s daughters, became the trustees, along with Rao Saheb Kirtikar of Kolhapur, Mr. Kumbhojkar, a friend, and Mr. Nagpurkar, a clerk of the estate. Of the trustees Rao Saheb Kirtikar refused to take up the responsibility and the other two, being persons with average ability, more or less dependent on the estate itself, were not very effective at least in the beginning. The whole responsibility devolved, therefore, on Tilak and Khaparde, who with their usual zeal applied themselves to the task of repairing the fallen fortune of the family by effecting a drastic cut in the budget of the late Baba Maharaj’s widow, Tai Maharaj. Tai Maharaj, it is important to remember, was the second wife of Baba Maharaj. She was only fifteen at the time of the death of her husband and it was his natural anxiety, therefore, that some trustworthy person should look after her and the estate, particularly because at the time of his death, Tai Maharaj was enceinte. Baba Maharaj expected that his wife would give birth to a son or failing this the trustees would help her in getting a son adopted, after she attained majority. It was to such a simple document that Tilak set his signature of approval. A son was born to Tai Maharaj, but unfortunately he died within two months. Tilak was sentenced in the sedition case and was removed to Yeravda Jail. It was here, in February 1898, that he was twice consulted about the estate affairs and a probate was taken for him and the other executors. After his release on the 6th September 1898, Tilak attended two meetings of the trustees in Poona and everything was plain sailing till the year 1901.