LOKAMANYA
TILAK

Bal Gangadhar Tilak, being good at heart, always wished for an ethical society. He, along with Vishnushastri Chiplunkar, Gopal Ganesh Agarkar, M.B. Namjoshi, Vamanrao Apte, and others, started the New English School in Poona, in January 1880. He realized that the education system brought on by the British was to capture the will, intellect, and imagination of the young mind to their benefit. He wanted to bring back all that was lost in the last 100 years. Started with a handful pupils, it gradually gained popularity resulting in a significant increase in the number of scholars within a short span of time. Tilak started his career with the hope of inducing the Government to transfer the whole of secondary education (and college education, if possible) to popular control. The President of the Education Commission, Dr. Hunter, was absoutely pleased with Tilak’s wonderful spirit and solid improvements.

Lokamanya Tilak joined Congress in 1889, after splitting-up from the Deccan Education Society. He played a major role in popularizing the Congress Party in Maharashtra. During the Bombay Session of the Congress in 1889, he moved an amendment to the resolution regarding the constitution of Legislative Councils for India. The amendment stated that the members of the Imperial Legislative Council should be elected by the Provincial Legislative Councils by undertaking the indirect election method. Tilak supported and appreciated the resolution passed by the second Bombay Provincial Conference, held in Poona under the Presidentship of Rao Bahadur G.H. Deshmukh, related to the Crawford case.

By the end of his jail term in Mandalay in June 1914, Lokamanya Tilak’s health started showing signs of weariness and exhaustion due to diabetes. Also, the death of his wife, during his term at Mandalay, made him vulnerable. Despite the hard times, being the man he was, he gathered a mass following under the Home Rule League, incorporated in 1916, in collaboration with Dr. Annie Besant. Tilak was thoroughly disappointed by the brutal incident of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919, which further weakened him.

Long imprisonment, personal losses, and his deteriorating health did not let him get his share of freedom that he always dreamt of. In mid-July 1920, his condition worsened and finally on August 1, he left for his heavenly abode. With the outbreak of the sad news of his demise, a veritable ocean of people surged to his residence in Bombay, to have the last glimpse of their beloved leader.