A teacher, an Indian nationalist, and an Independence activist, Bal Gangadhar Tilak was born on July 23, 1856, in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra in a Marathi Brahmin family. His father, Gangadhar Tilak, was a Sanskrit scholar and a school teacher who passed away when Tilak was sixteen.
In 1877, he completed his Bachelor of Arts from Deccan College in Pune from Mathematics. In midway, Tilak dropped out from an M.A course and completed his LLB degree in 1879 from Government Law College. After his law studies, he developed his interest in participating in the Indian Independence Struggle movement.
'Father Of Indian Unrest'
In 1890, he joined the Indian National Congress (INC) and became India's most eminent and publicly known radical element. Tilak opposed the moderate attitude of INC towards British rule and encouraged self-government. Due to him, the INC had to split into two parts- Moderates and Extremist.
The British administration used to call him as 'Father of the Indian Unrest.' b The colonial authorities also conferred him with the title of 'Lokmanya', which means a leader accepted by the people. Fearless and unstoppable, Tilak began his journey after joining the INC as a revolutionary fighter against colonial rule.
'Kesari By Tilak'
In 1897, a bubonic plague outbreak was seen spreading from Bombay (now Mumbai) to Pune, and it reached the epidemic proportion by 1898. The British administration took strict actions to curb the plague, including forceful entry of Indians into private houses, inspecting homes, preventing patients from entering or leaving the city, and forming quarantine camps.
According to Wikipedia, the measures taken by the British authorities to control the epidemic filled anger and disappointment among Indians. Tilak dragged the issue in front of the public by issuing inflammatory and provocative articles in his newspaper 'Kesari.'
He later used it as a weapon against colonial rule and continued issuing articles to spread awareness among the Indian masses about the British wrong-doings. Tilak was often charged under the law of sedition by the Britishers to stop his revolutionary movements.
'Swadeshi' Movement
In the National Congress, he formed a close alliance with Lala Lajpat Rai, Bipin Chandra Pal (Lal Bal Pal), and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. From 1906 to 1918, Lal Bal Pal was the triumvirate of assertive nationalists who effortlessly and strategically fought against the British governance ideology at the grassroots level.
After the partition of Bengal, as per the strategy to weaken the nationalist movement by Lord Curzon, Tilak, with his allies, marched forward to encourage the 'Swadeshi' movement across India. Under this movement, a complete boycott of foreign goods was seen across India, and a social boycott of Indians who used foreign goods. The leaders of Congress, along with Tilak, inspired Indians to use the native goods.
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