Page 19 - Swatantrata to Atmanirbharta : Lokmanya Tilak’s legacy

to writing petitions or seeking audience with, and appeal to, the
Viceroy and the British Government. An Englishman, A. O.
Hume was one of the founders of Indian National Congress and
the colonial administration was looking at it as a safety-valve
for popular unrest. Tilak gave the politics its first set of teeth,
through his scathing editorials, against various governmental
policies, in his papers, KESARI and MARATHA.
In the case of obtaining concessions from the colonial
government too, Lokmanya Tilak’s role of a bridge, stands out.
He first formed the “Home Rule league” with Annie Beasant
and then ratcheted it up to his famous roar, “SWARAJYA is my
birth-right and I shall have it.”
He can be credited to cross the geographical divide too. Before
him, the political leaders of various regions of the country, like
Maharashtra, Bengal and Punjab used to have few interactions
among themselves. Tilak had excellent personal relations with
the Punjab-Kesari, Lala Lajpat Rai and Bipin Chandra Pal of
Bengal. Lal, Bal, and Pal are the famous three-some of our
Independence struggle.
Lokmanya Tilak passed away at the age of 61. It will be
interesting to see what would have happened to Indian politics
if GOD had been kind enough to extend Tilak’s life by twenty
years. The public space would not have become a sole preserve
of Gandhiji, but the Lokmanya would have acknowledged the
connect of the Mahatma, with the masses and would have
drawn him to the cause of social upliftment, education and
so on. He would have worked as a bridge between Gandhiji’s
non-violence and the propagation of armed struggle by the
revolutionaries and would have struck a middle ground. So, the
likes of Chandra Shekhar Azad might have given up violence
and Gandhiji would not have wounded up the non-co-operation
movement after the Chauri-Chora incidence in February 1922.
He would certainly have demanded amnesty for Bhagat Singh,
Sukhdev and Rajguru before accepting 1931 proposal of the
Viceroy, Lord Irwin.

Tilak, being acknowledged as a custodian of Hindu interests,
Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, Swami Shraddhanand and

17 Swatantrata to Atmanirbharata