Tilak also used his profound knowledge of Sanskrit and mathematics to research certain astronomical references in the Vedas and was able to prove from these their hoary age. A scholar of antiquity, he contributed papers to the International Congress of Orientals held in London in 1892 which was subsequently published as The Orion or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas. The work attracted the attention of European scholars like Max Muller, Dr. Whitney and Weber. Tilak held detailed written discussions with them and Dr. Whitney conferred the highest praise on him in the Journal of the American Oriental Society. Tilak also earned sincere admiration from another scholar, Dr. Bloomfield, from the Johns Hopkins University.
The work undertaken by Tilak was not simply to satisfy his own antiquarian curiosity. Despite the fact that India could claim a civilisation that was thousands of years old, the western scholars doubted it. Tilak’s objective in undertaking this research was twofold. If factual data to accurately establish the age of Indian civilisation could be collated, it would add to the existing knowledge about India and rectify misconceptions about it. He proved ably that the hymns of the Rig Ved were composed before 4000 BC.
Soon thereafter, Tilak found himself in the midst of a high-profile public event, the prosecution of his friend Rao Saheb W. S. Bapat, an officer in the Settlement Department of the State of Baroda. Bapat was accused of corruption. The case arose out of a conspiracy against the department. It was timed in such a way that the Maharaja of Baroda was out of the country when it all started. The Maharaja’s enemies expected to cause some damage to him and to his administration through Bapat. Matters soon came to a head. Bapat was being made a scapegoat. When Tilak realised that his friend was innocent, he threw himself into the case to defend him. Along with M. C. Apte and D. A. Khare, Tilak fought the case so successfully that his contemporaries believed that under different conditions he would have been elevated to the bench of the High Court. His cross-examination of the witnesses for the prosecution and his masterly arguments for the defence stood out as a monument to his legal acumen.
The incident brought Tilak to the forefront. He was now associated with the Indian National Congress and was elected as the secretary of the Deccan Standing Committee of the Congress. He organised the first five sessions of the Bombay Provincial Conference. The last one, held in Poona under the presidency of Pherozeshah Mehta, was a huge success. Tilak was twice elected to the Bombay Legislative Council and was also a Fellow of the Bombay University. He was the Municipal Councillor of Poona and returned as the Member of the Municipality in 1895. He was also chosen as one of the City Fathers of Poona by the largest number of votes.
Tilak was elected secretary of the Poona Congress, the eleventh national Congress session. But there were party differences among the Congressmen of Poona about the propriety of holding the sessions of the Social Conference in the Congress pandal, and Tilak retired from the work. However, he continued to be associated with the Congress, spoke at the sessions and carried on work on the lines of the Congress until the Surat split.
Around this time, Tilak had been thinking of ways to arouse people’s pride in their own history. It would, he believed, arouse their confidence and make them understand that what was possible under adverse conditions is possible even today. They needed to be reminded of their heroes in whose stories they would find inspiration and strength. Tilak then introduced the Shivajayanti or the Shivaji birth celebrations. No other name in the history of the Marathi-speaking people was as glorious, as confidence-evoking as that of the founder of the Maratha kingdom, an embodiment of the Marathi genius. The celebrations were meant to give rise to national consciousness. The first celebrations took place at Fort Raigad amidst wonderful fanfare and enthusiasm.
The year 1896 was the year of the famine. Food grains were in short supply and the prices of whatever was available touched the skies. Tilak was moved deeply by the suffering and the hunger around him and incessantly appealed to the grain merchants to show humanity at this hour of need. Cheap grain shops sprung up in Poona to the relief of the people. Tilak’s popularity soared. He then went on to work for the famine-affected in Solapur, Ahmednagar, Thane, and Colaba.
Tilak had all the intentions of working in cooperation with the government officials when it came to relief work. However, there was distrust on the part of the government. Tilak had suggested that the weavers in the textile land of Solapur be given their traditional work with financial help offered by the government instead of making them undertake hard work like breaking stones in the course of famine-relief measures. The government ignored his suggestion. Tilak went to Solapur and eventually the Weaver’s Guild was formed with the help of weavers and merchants who were comparatively well off. It was because of the guild that the weavers were not only saved from hard labour like breaking stones but they managed to survive the famine better than many, eventually prospering over the years.
The government naturally disliked the fact that Tilak seemed to play an important role during the tough times. Tilak criticised the government openly and was deliberately ignored in his attempts to help out. He expected the people to know and understand their rights during the famine and so requested the government to distribute the Marathi translation of the Famine Relief Code. The government refused. Tilak then published it in the Kesari to make the common man aware of his rights and to insist on them peacefully but consistently. Tilak made available to the people every possible government document related to the famine, translated from the English.
The government decided to find an opportunity to get back at Tilak. In one of the issues of Kesari, Tilak had asked people not to take loans to pay the taxes. The government tried to trap him but the case against him was so flimsy that it collapsed in no time. Tilak appealed to the people as well as to the government in his writings saying that those were not the days for aggression and bullying. Those were the days when the law had to be respected but then the government had to remember it as much as the common man. He added that even though a few well-meaning citizens were trying their best, the real work of famine relief was not possible without the effective and just role of the government under the circumstances. He told his fellow workers that no matter how dismissive the government was towards them, they could not give up. They would have to continue making applications and sending petitions and see to it that the laws related to famine relief were followed.
In the meanwhile the Sarvajanik Sabha got into trouble with the government. Tilak, in his usual style, expressed what he thought of the issue in Kesari: “Organisations like the Sabha are neither created, nor destroyed by the Government. Their birth and death depends on the support of the people. Till the time they serve people, make them aware of their rights, no one should delude themselves into believing that they will disappear simply because the Government does not favour them. The efforts made by the Sabha are fully within the realm of law and it reflects poorly on the Government that because it cannot find any other way of attacking the people who work for the society, it is using intimidating tactics against them. This will have a totally opposite effect and the Government will end up with a stain on itself.”
People’s troubles were not over even after the famine. Soon another disaster made its entry in the form of bubonic plague. Tilak advised the people to cooperate with the governmental measures undertaken for sanitation to stop the spread of the disease. He also appealed to the government to ensure that the people’s sensibilities were not offended in any way. The government adopted very harsh measures and in the process caused terror and alienation of the people. The soldiers, both white and native, entered the homes and discharged their duties brutally. Even women were manhandled. The soldiers also offended people’s religious sentiments. There came a time when people preferred death by plague to the home inspections by the soldiers.
The government hospital did not offer the right kind of environment to middle class people and when nothing improved despite complaints, Tilak decided to do something
about it. He helped form the Hindu Plague Hospital. It was open to people of all castes and the patients and their relatives could admit themselves without force, on their own, unlike the government hospital. The admission charges were ten rupees and the services charges were one rupee a day. The funds were not adequate though a lot of people did take advantage of it. Tilak persisted. Soon the hospital became a place of solace for the plague-affected and their families. The family members could look after the patients, and friends and relatives could go and meet them from time to time. This flexibility changed the way people looked at the medical treatment offered there and the atmosphere changed from utter despair to relief. Tilak himself visited the hospital twice a day to ensure that it ran smoothly.
Tilak was also responsible for forming a relief committee of citizens. The committee ensured that the segregated relatives of the patients near the government hospital who otherwise suffered due to inadequate arrangements of food facilities, were given some relief in the form of temporary restaurants and shops constructed specially for them. The relatives were often herded like cattle in the badly-maintained shacks. Tilak collected funds and got the shacks repaired so that the conditions became more livable. He did whatever he could to improve matters although it was not always enough. The brutality of the soldiers continued. The regulations were extraordinarily strict. If anyone wished to go out in the night, they had to buy a pass. Those who were unaware of this regulation were arrested for the night. The soldiers stole or openly helped themselves to the expensive belongings of the people under the pretext of confiscating them. No one could go to the court for fear of the direct consequences at the hands of the armed soldiers. Tilak wrote in the Kesari that it was not wrong to stop the soldiers from their wrongdoings. It was not necessary to be intimidated by them just because they were armed soldiers. As long as the citizens did not break the law, it was not difficult to stop the misconduct of the soldiers. If people were aware of their rights it would not be easy for the soldiers to oppress them irrespective of the powers bestowed upon them by the government. However, since more prominent citizens had fled the city, those who remained were weak and therefore not in a position to oppose the injustice of it all. Nevertheless, Tilak was confident that even the weakest would not tolerate this oppression for too long.
The brutality of the government soldiers continued unabated. Walter Rand, the special plague officer in Poona, who was responsible for the implementation of such strict measures, was hated intensely. Gradually, the epidemic subsided but the scars on the minds of the people did not heal. On 22 June 1897, Rand was shot along with another officer, Lt. Charles Ayerest. Ayerest died on the spot and Rand died of his wounds on 3 July.
That year, it had so happened that the Shivjayanti celebrations took place not on Shivaji’s birthday but on his coronation day. The celebrations went on for three days and included speeches by Tilak’s friends Prof. Jinsiwale and Prof. C. G. Bhanu. Prof Bhanu, in his speech, referred to the killing of Afzal Khan by Shivaji. He said that it wasn’t a sin to kill a man like Afzal Khan. Not all acts of killing are condemnable. Shivaji had to do it for the public good. Shivaji strived to drive away the alien oppressors and there was no sin of covetousness in that. Prof. Jinsiwale supported him and Tilak indicated that he agreed with Prof. Bhanu. Kesari, in the 15 June issue, published a report of the proceedings along with a poem on Shivaji which was lying in the Kesari office for a few days. The week went on peacefully but Rand was shot on the night of 22 June. The government, particularly the bureaucracy, incensed by Tilak’s growing political influence, had been waiting for an opportunity to nail him. They alleged that the act of killing Rand was an outcome of the article in the Kesari and Tilak was therefore responsible for the killings of the British officers by his support for seditious activities. The Times of India and Bombay Gazette wrote provocative articles urging the government to arrest Tilak. The newspapers in London supported this heavily. Questions were raised in the Parliament and the government decided to institute proceedings against Tilak for sedition.
Tilak was arrested on 27 June. A week before the arrest Tilak wrote an editorial in the Kesari titled “What is Sedition?” He wrote: “Criticising an officer or a law in strong language does not amount to sedition. Penal Code has made a distinction between ‘disapproval’ and ‘disaffection’. Wisdom is not the monopoly of our rulers. However great their strength or power be, at times they behave childishly and commit mistakes as a result of which the people suffer. In such circumstances there is nothing illegal in discussing their actions and asking people to appeal to the rulers for a fair treatment. It is our earnest desire that under British rule, our people should get more rights and not suffer repression. There may have been an article in some newspaper transgressing the limits of the Penal Code. The British Empire is so strong that such an article can in no way harm it. Hence it is in the interest of the government and also of the people that such articles should be ignored and principles which have evolved after a great deal of thought and are of perennial importance should continue to be the basis for governing the people.”4
At that time Tilak was also busy with another project. He wanted to know whether the government was planning anything against him and also to publish a booklet on the brutality and uncivilised conduct of the British soldiers during the days of plague in Poona. Gopal Krishna Gokhale, in an interview to the Manchester Guardian, had already raised questions about it in England and had created quite a stir with the evidence that he had presented before the British government there (one such piece of evidence was later proved to be exaggerated and incorrect). But the secretary of state for India, when questioned, had flatly denied all such happenings. Tilak had every plan of bringing out a booklet to prove how flimsy the denials were. However, it was on the same night that the chief presidency magistrate signed his warrant and Tilak was arrested at 9 in the night. To ensure that the officials from Mumbai did not mistake someone else for him, they were accompanied by police officials from Poona who knew him well. He was arrested at night so that very few people would know about it. After the arrest, Tilak’s lawyer friend, Daji Aabaji Khare, tried to secure bail for him. The magistrate refused. When Khare went to Tilak to give him the bad news, he found Tilak fast asleep. Khare had to shake him awake. When he told Tilak that his bail had been refused, Tilak merely said, “Why did you have to wake me up for this? You could have given me the news tomorrow morning.”5
Raids were conducted at the Kesari office and the clerk and administrator, Keshavrao Bal, was arrested and taken to Bombay. The owner of the Arya Bhushan press, Hari Narayan Gokhale, was away in Konkan and hence escaped arrest. The chief presidency magistrate denied bail to Tilak. On the 29th the High Court was moved but refused the application for bail too. In the meanwhile, Tilak gave in writing that he alone was responsible for all that appeared in Kesari and Bal told the court that he was merely a clerk. The papers found during the raid on Kesari were returned. On 2 August, Tilak was committed to stand his trial at the High Court and a second application for bail was made. It was opposed by the government. However, Justice Tyabji released Tilak on bail and in his order expounded the law in the light of the principles governing the action of criminal courts in England. Tilak was released on bail after furnishing two securities of Rs. 25,000 each and a personal bond of Rs. 50,000 and reached Poona on 5 August.
Tilak’s trial was the second under the Press Law in India. During the trial a great deal of discussion took place about the meaning of individual vernacular words and his conviction was obtained on the grounds that they were of seditious nature. A jury consisting of six Europeans and three Indians was empanelled. The case against Tilak came up for hearing on 8 September and lasted for a week. Justice Strachey was the presiding judge and Basil Lang, the advocate-general, conducted the prosecution. In his speech the advocate-general said, “If any article in a newspaper creates in the mind of the reader a desire to obstruct or overthrow the government, the article should be regarded as se
ditious. Tilak is a fellow of the university, a member of the Legislative Council, a respected and an influential person. The circulation of the Kesari of which Tilak is the editor is about seven thousand. The editorial in the Kesari is bound to have an impact on the people. The Kesari calls this government ‘alien’. Mahratta, another newspaper edited by Tilak, says that some day the people will have to take to arms. Though there is nothing wrong in celebrating the Shivaji festival, it is wrong to politicise the occasion and use it for spreading resentment against the government by referring to the flourishing of swords during Shivaji’s times. It is evident that the intention of the writer was not just to appeal to the government for justice . . . The writer has dubbed the government tyrannical in context of what happened at the time of the plague epidemic.
“Tilak has also justified the murder of Afzal Khan. All these have to be considered in totality and it becomes evident that his intention was not to express disapproval at the actions of the government but to spread disaffection against the government.”
The advocate-general however did not level the charge that there was a link between the articles written by Tilak and the murderers of Rand. Barrister Pugh, Tilak’s counsel, repudiated the arguments of the advocate-general. There were some heated exchanges between Justice Strachey and Barrister Pugh regarding the meaning of the word “disaffection”. Justice Strachey granted that there was no connection between Tilak’s articles and Mr. Rand’s murder, but, while summing up, remarked that if the accused intended to incite enmity against the government, an enmity that might take root and spring up in the distant future, it was sufficient to hold him guilty under Section 124-A.
Lokmanya Tilak- the First National Leader Page 2