Lokmaya Tilak: the man who dared to dream

*Lokmanya Tilak

Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have it!”- Lokmanya Tilak

Every child in India knows the above sentence and the man who said it. However, when he talked about it Swaraj was considered a hopeless dream, a mission impossible. The British had invested in a lot of propaganda to make Indians believe that British Raj was for their own good and how freedom wasn’t a happy outcome. Many Indian leaders shared the outlook. Bal Gangadhar Tilak was the first leader who not only challenged the idea but believed that freedom was possible.

Most of the leaders of that time preached from the dais but half of them weren’t eager to work along with the people. They considered the Indian people backward in ideas. Tilak was the leader of the masses and earned the title ‘Lokmanya’(acceptable to the people) with his involvement with the people from all strata of society.

Emergence of Gandhi- J.N

World war I ended at last and peace, instead of bringing us relief and progress, brought us repressive legislation and martial law in the Punjab. A bitter sense of humiliation and passionate anger filled our people. All the unending talk of constitutional reform and indianization of services was a mockery and an insult when the manhood of our country was being crushed. And the inexorable and continuous process of exploitation was deepening our poverty and sapping our vitality. We had become a derelict nation.

Yet what could we do, how change this vicious process? We seemed helpless in the grip of this all-powerful monster; our limbs were paralyzed, our minds deadened....

And then Gandhi came.