Page 42 - Swatantrata to Atmanirbharta : Lokmanya Tilak’s legacy

were witnessed in Kolkata and the delegates dispersed to spread
the movement to different parts of the province.
Lokmanya Tilak on Shishir Kumar Ghosh, Founder of
Amrut Bazar Patrika –

Lokmanya Tilak had delivered a speech in the memory of
Shishir Kumar Ghosh on Jan 3, 1918. In his speech he mentioned
(Ref 2) “ I may further tell you that when we started our paper
in vernacular, we tried to follow the editor of the ‘A. B. Patrika.’
This was the time when one had to teach the people how to
criticize the bureaucracy and at the same time keep oneself safe,
bodily at least if not pecuniary. That was the idea developed
by Shishir Kumar in those days of journalism. Bureaucracy
is always anxious to conciliate it’s critics not by mending it’s
way but by offering bribes to them and the dignity of Shishir
Kumar lay not so much in his writings as in the courage which
he showed at a critical time, when favours were offered to him
and he rejected them with contempt. Such a man he was.”

It means that Lokmanya Tilak got inspiration from the work
done by Babu Shishir Kumar Ghosh as an Editor of the news
paper ‘Amrita Bazar Patrika.’ He followed Shishir Babu when
he used to criticize the British govt in his news papers ‘Kesari’
in marathi and ‘Marhatta’ in English.
Lokmanya Tilak also mentioned ‘I revered him (Shishir
Kumar) as my father and I venture again to say that he, in
return, loved me as his son.’

Similarly, Lokmanya Tilak called Shishir Kumar Ghosh as
‘True Political Saint’.

Lokmanya Tilak’s 3rd imprisonment and Bengal
In 1908, two Bengali youths, Prafulla Chaki and Khudiram
Bose, bombed a carriage at Muzzafarpur, to kill the Chief
Presidency Magistrate Douglas Kingsford of Calcutta.
Lokmanya Tilak, defended the revolutionaries and called for
immediate Swaraj or self-rule in Daily ‘Kesari’. Tilak was
arrested for sedition and Justice Davar sentenced him a six
years jail which he served in Mandalay, Myanmar (Burma) with
a fine of Rs.1,000 (US$14).

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