Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak

“Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it!” were the fiery words of Tilak, which roused a sleeping nation to action, making Indian people aware of their   political plight under a foreign rule.
Tilak tried to breathe life into the moribund nation through four mantras.
(1). Boycott of foreign goods
(2) National Education
(3) Self Government
(4) Swadeshi or self-reliance.

He realized that mere protest against British rule was not going to help and insisted on native production and reliance. “We have no arms, but there is no necessity. But our strong political weapon is boycott (of foreign goods) Organize your powers and then go to work so that they cannot refuse you what you demand” - he told the masses.

He founded Deccan Education Society to give better education as per the country’s needs. He wrote scathing articles over inhuman punishment meted out to the nationalist youth who protested the division of Bengal (VangaBhanga). Indian newspapers were not to criticize the British policy in those days and two articles titled “Has the Government lost its head?” and “To Rule is not to wreak vengeance” appearing in Kesari landed him in jail.

Tilak advocated his own case and when the judgment of six years of black-waters (kalapani) imprisonment was pronounced, he gave the famous statement:
” All I wish to say is that in spite of the verdict of the jury, I maintain my innocence. There are higher powers that rule the destiny of men and nations. It may be the will of Providence that the cause I represent may prosper by suffering than by remaining free”

There was unprecedented jubilation in India after Tilak was free and was back in India. Civil resistance, the concept of Swaraj, and nationalism had taken deep roots. Tilak’s suffering did not go in vain. A band of leaders, full of zeal for nationalism and self-sacrifice had come up in India. National schools were coming up in all corners of India. He paved the way for Khadi (hand woven cloth), picketing against foreign goods and alcoholism. His death in 1920 brought Mahatma Gandhi on the scene and Gandhiji gave a concrete shape to Tilak’s ideas of Swadeshi.