Page 18 - Swatantrata to Atmanirbharta : Lokmanya Tilak’s legacy

the political leaders, in pre- and post-independence era, but
Lokmanya is among the very few professors. The only other
two who come to mind are from the author’s profession, Dr.
Bidhan Chandra Roy, founder of R.G. Kar Medical College
Calcutta and Vice-chancellor of Calcutta University and Dr.
Jivraj Mehta, the founder dean of Seth G.S. Medical College
and King Edward Memorial Hospital Mumbai. Both were
renowned and practicing clinicians, even when they were chief
ministers of West Bengal and Gujarat, respectively.

It was the genius of Lokmanya Tilak to convert an essentially
domestic religious event like Lord Ganesh’s birthday into a
vehicle for enhancing social unity and awareness. Not only
that, he made it a cultural event too. It became a much sought-
after platform, for many budding and established singers
and instrumentalists, to perform and receive public acclaim.
Similarly, it was a grammar school for tomorrow’s leaders to
hone their oratorial skills.

The other yearly event which Tilak exploited for the unification
of the people of Maharashtra, was the birth anniversary of
Chhatrapati Shivaji. He was shrewdly aware that the appeal of
the legendary king cuts across the divides of caste and class. By
adding the birthday celebration of a warrior king to that of a
deity, he amalgamated the martial ethos with the spiritual one.
In his childhood, Lokmanya Tilak must have heard and read
about the exploits of Rani Lakshmibai, Tatya Tope and other
stalwarts of the first independence movement of 1857, as it had
occurred just one year after his birth. He was perceptive enough
to realize that it was a war, primarily fought by the royalty,
aristocracy, and the uniformed men and that the common
folks were silent spectators. Having correctly diagnosed the
cause of its failure to be the lack of mass awakening, he had
taken it upon himself to do so through his newspapers and
instruments of popular appeal, like the GANESH UTSAV
and SHIV-JAYANTI. Thus, Tilak became the bridge between
the aspiration of independence among the elite as well as the
commoner.

Before Lokmanya Tilak’s entry into politics, he was restricted

Swatantrata to Atmanirbharata 16