Page 27 - Swatantrata to Atmanirbharta : Lokmanya Tilak’s legacy

all patients and the Sassoon Hospital took care of treatment of
the Europeans. On the same line, four segregation camps were
set up where family members and other contacts of the plague
patients were kept under observation.

There were also certain complaints against the soldiers where
they were found looting cash, ornaments, and other things of
value. This led to significant unrest, matters became worst when
soldiers were accused of sexual harassment and exploitation of
women. Old men complained that soldiers forcibly took them
down.
This angered Tilak to a great extent and he took to writing
in his English newspaper the Mahratta (sic) “Plague is more
merciful to us than its human prototypes now reigning the
city. The tyranny of the Plague Committee and its chosen
instruments are yet too brutal to allow respectable people to
breathe at ease.”

Tilak’s Marathi newspaper, Kesari, which had been in
existence for 17 years then, carried two articles on 15 June
1897. In the first article, Tilak wrote as if Shivaji Maharaj was
commenting about the condition of the country. He wrote of
how “relentless death moves about spreading epidemics of
diseases” in India. He added that in Shivaji Maharaj’s time,
no man could have “dared to cast an improper glance at the
wife of another”, whereas now, “opportunities are availed of in
railway carriages, and women are dragged by the hand” – where
he possibly criticised mishandling of women passengers at train
stations by the guards. The other article praised the killing of
Afzal Khan by Shivaji Maharaj, citing Krishna’s speech to
Arjuna in the Mahabharata.
This inspired three brothers, Damodar, Balkrishna & Vasudev
to avenge the humiliating treatment meted out by the Plague
Commission on Punekars.
On the midnight of 22nd June 1897, Celebrations for Queen
Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee had just ended in what was formerly
known as the Government House ,currently the main building
of the Savitribai Phule Pune University.

25 Swatantrata to Atmanirbharata