Page 115 - Swatantrata to Atmanirbharta : Lokmanya Tilak’s legacy

of religion, caste, culture, and language. Today, our enemy is
not outside the country but within the country in the form of
poverty, unemployment, and lack of healthcare facilities and
infrastructure. If we remain divided and fragmented; we cannot
channelise our energies for removal of poverty, unemployment,
and religious and caste differences. Lack of healthcare facilities
and lack of infrastructure facilities are two big challenges in
front of us.
To achieve ‘Surajya’, we should follow the path of unity
between various religious communities in the country, especially
Hindu-Muslim unity, and cooperation. Lot of times, money
and energy is wasted on infighting in our country. Same is the
case with the caste differences. Let us keep “development of
India as a goal in front of us and forget about all the differences.
Let us come together. ‘United we stand, divided we fall’ is the
message we get from Lokmanya’s guidelines. Social integration
through culture, is also a feature of Lokmanya Tilak’s strategy,
which is relevant today.

Lokmanya Tilak advocated economic nationalism. His
principle of ‘swadeshi’ can be seen in this light. His idea
of economic nationalism is based on the development of
indigenous industries, which will give us ‘Atmanirbhar’ Bharat.
Indigenous industries will create employment opportunities in
India. Indian people will get jobs in our own industries, which
will raise their standard of living. This will be an important step
towards removal of poverty in our country.

For the development of industries, we need proper
infrastructure facilities like roads, electricity, development
of ports, railways, and communications. Lokmanya’s idea of
‘National education’, is applicable here. For ‘suraj’, we need
people who have love for our country and at the same time,
have requisite “skills’ for the development of our country. So,
we must make ‘skills development’ as a part of our education
system.

For the cultivation of an enlightened mind, Lokmanya Tilak
used “Education” as a tool. ‘Education for all’ was the idea
in his mind. For achieving ‘suraj’ along with the spread of

113 Swatantrata to Atmanirbharata