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[[image:Tilak.gif|thumb|Lokmanya Tilak]]
'''Bal Gangadhar Tilak''', was an [[Indian]] [[nationalist]], social reformer and [[freedom fighter]] who was the first popular leader of the [[Indian Independence Movement]]. Tilak sparked the fire for complete independence in Indian consciousness, and is considered the father of [[Hindu Nationalism]] as well.
''Swaraj {Freedom) is my birthright, and I shall have it!''
This famous quote of his is very popular and well-remembered in India even today. Reverently addressed as ''Lokmanya'' {Beloved of the People}, Tilak was a scholar of [[Indian history]], [[Sanskrit]], [[Hinduism]], [[mathematics]] and [[astronomy]].
==Early Life==
He was born on July 2, 1856, in [[Ratnagiri]], [[Maharashtra]], into a middle class [[Hindu]] family. Tilak was an avid student with a special aptitude for mathematics. With great determination he completed his college education despite financial difficulties, thus becoming one of India's first generation of youth to receive a modern, college education.
After graduation, Tilak began teaching mathematics in a private school in [[Pune]] and later became a journalist. He became a strong critic of the Western education system, feeling it demeaning to Indian students and disrespectful to India's heritage. He organized the Deccan Education Society to improve the quality of education for India's youth.
==Political Career==
Tilak founded the [[Marathi]] daily ''Kesari'' (The Lion) which fast became a popular reading for the common people of [[India]]. Tilak strongly criticized the government for its brutalism in suppression of free expression, especially in face of protests against the division of [[Bengal]] in 1906-07, and for denigrating India's culture, its people and heritage. He demanded the British immediately give the right to self-government to India's people.
Tilak joined the [[Indian National Congress]] in the 1890s, but soon fell into opposition of its liberal-moderate attitude towards the fight for self-government. Tilak opposed the moderate views of [[Gopal Krishna Gokhale]], and was supported by fellow Indian nationalists [[Bipin Chandra Pal]] in [[Bengal]] and [[Lala Lajpat Rai]] in [[Punjab]]. In 1906, the Congress Party split into the ''Garam Dal'' (literally, "Hot Faction"), led by Tilak, Pal and Lajpat Rai, and the ''Naram Dal'' (literally, "Soft Faction") led by Gokhale.
When arrested on charges of sedition in 1906, Tilak asked a young [[Mohammad Ali Jinnah]] to represent him. But the British judge convicted him and he was imprisoned for many years in [[Rangoon]], [[Burma]].
Upon his release, Tilak re-united with his fellow nationalists and re-united the Indian National Congress in 1916. He also helped found the [[All India Home Rule League]] in 1916-18 with [[Annie Besant]] and Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
==Philosophical and Social Contribution==
Although he was basically a proponent of [[Advaita]] [[Vedanta]], he differed from the classical Advaitin view that jnana (knowledge) alone brings release. Tilak added a measure of [[karma]] [[yoga]] (the yoga of activity) to this, not as subordinate to [[jnana]] [[yoga]] , but as equal and complementary to it.
Tilak proposed various social reforms, such as a minimum age for marriage, and was especially keen to see a prohibition placed on the sale of alcohol. His thoughts on education and Indian political life have remained highly influential — he was the first Congress leader to suggest that [[Hindi]], written in the devanagari script, should be accepted as the sole national language of India, a policy that was later strongly endorsed by [[Mahatma Gandhi]]. However, English, which Tilak wished to remove completely from the Indian mind, remains an important means of communication in India. But the usage of Hindi (and other Indian languages) has been reinforced and widely encouraged since the days of the [[British Raj]], and Tilak's legacy is often credited with this resurgence. Another of the major contributions relates to the propagation of Sarvajanik (public) [[Ganesh Chaturthi]] festival which contributed for people to get together and celebrate the festival and provided a good platform for leaders to inspire masses.
==Later Years and Legacy==
Tilak was a critic of [[Mahatma Gandhi]]'s strategy of non-violent, civil disobedience. Although once considered an extremist revolutionary, in his later years Tilak had considerably mellowed after a long visit to England. He favored political dialogue and discussions as a way to obtain political freedom for India, and did not support leaving the [[British Empire]].
However, Tilak is considered in many ways to have created the nationalist movement in India, by expanding the struggle for political freedoms and self-government to the common people of India. His writings on Indian culture, history and [[Hinduism]] spread a sense of heritage and pride amongst millions of Indians for India's ancient civilization and glory as a nation.
Until the rise of Mahatma Gandhi in 1918, Tilak was considered the political and spiritual leader of India by many, and Gandhi is considered his successor. When Tilak died in 1920, Gandhi paid his respects at his cremation in [[Bombay]], along with 200,000 people. Gandhi called Tilak ''"The Maker of Modern India"''.
Tilak is also today considered the father of [[Hindu Nationalism]]. He was the idol of Indian revolutionary [[Vinayak Damodar Savarkar]], who penned the political doctrine of [[Hindutva]].
==Books==
Tilak authored ''Arctic Home in the Vedas'' in 1903. In it he argues, primarily on the basis of astronomical statements, that the [[Vedas]] could only have been composed from an Arctic ___location. The [[Aryan]] bards having brought them south after the onset of the last [[Ice age]].
Tilak authored The Orion, or, Researches into the antiquities of the Vedas in which he used astronomy to establish that the Vedic people were present in India at least as early as the 4th millennium BC.
Other collections of his writings include:
* The Hindu philosophy of life, ethics and religion (published in 1887).
* Vedic chronology and vedanga jyotisha.
* Letters of Lokamanya Tilak, edited by M. D. Vidwans.
* Selected documents of Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, 1880-1920, edited by Ravindra Kumar.
* Trial of Tilak.
==References==
Hitler's Priestess: Savitri Devi, the Hindu-Aryan Myth, and Neo-Nazism (in chap. 3, "Hindu Nationalism") by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, 1998, ISBN 0814731112
==External links==
* Address to Indian National Congress, 1907
* Review of a book on Tilak describing his contribution to Indian Freedom Struggle, as Mahatma * Gandhi's guide
* [[Indian Nationalism]], [[Hindu Nationalism]]
* [[Indian Independence Movement]], [[Indian National Congress]]
[[Category:1856 births|Tilak, Balganghadar]]
[[Category:1920 deaths|Tilak, Balganghadar]]
[[Category:Indian freedom fighters|Tilak, Balganghadar]]
[[sa:बाल गङ्गाधर तिलक]]
[[sv:Lokmanya Tilak]]
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