Page 48 - Swatantrata to Atmanirbharta : Lokmanya Tilak’s legacy

Lokmanya was a towering political leader and founder of
Indian Independence Movement, which is known to all. But he
was an active supporter of the goal of Swadeshi by encouraging
and helping young budding entrepreneurs who wanted to
launch their industrial projects. He not only preached Swadeshi
but brought it into practice by raising funds and resources for
‘Young Starters’ of industries in Maharashtra and the country. I
desire to bring this fact into limelight in this article.
In December 1907, Tilak addressed the Open Assembly of
Indian National Congress and talked about the urgent need of
opening industrial units all over the country and manufacture
all the goods which are imported in India and the need to make
Bharat self-reliant and achieve goal of Swadeshi. After his
speech one young man Ishwardas Varshneya approached Tilak
and took him in confidence by telling him that he went to Japan
in 1901 to study Sugar Technology but switched to study Glass
Technology. After finishing the course, he joined one leading
Japanese company which used to manufacture all varieties of
glass products and got practical experience. Then he went to
Boston in the US in 1904 and completed his advanced training
in MIT, after which he visited European countries and returned
to India in 1905. For two years viz 1905 to 1907, he made
every possible effort to raise finances, but he failed. Therefore,
he requested Tilak to help him by granting financial support.
Tilak gave a serious thought to his proposal and a very brilliant
idea came to his creative mind. He assured that within 3 to 4
months he would fulfill the desire of Varshneya. Tilak’s idea
was crowd funding - collecting ‘Pygmy’ contributions of one
paisa (equivalent to half anna or 3 naya paise) from common
masses. The idea clicked amazingly with a windfall of mass
contributions and the fund exceeded the collection target. Tilak
sent him to Shri Vijapurkar, who used to run a ‘Rashtriya
Shala’ (As per Tilak’s Sutra of Sikshan) at Talegaon Dhabade.
Vijapurkar arranged to make adequate land available for factory
premises at a cheap rate. A plant became ready within 6 months,
in the meantime, Varshneya gave training to foremen and glass
blowers and absorbed them in the staff of the first glass factory
of India by the name ‘Paisa Fund Kaach Karkhana’, which
was inaugurated by Lokmanya. In November 1914, Varshneya
Swatantrata to Atmanirbharata 46