Tilak, Nationalism and the Forgetful Prince

A week has gone past, a blip on the life of the nation which has to its credit the honour of being the cradle of civilization. India has been in a state of flux ever since Congress lost power and the current Congress leadership, which always looked at the right to rule this great nation as their divine and dynastic right has not been able to come to terms with the democratic churn which threw them out of power. The tribute of Congress Chief Rahul Gandhi to one of the greatest India writer of the modern time, Munshi Premchand, three days after his birthday could be a lazy oversight, but then, not being able to recollect the memories of one of the tallest socio-political intellectual of all times, and one of the founding leaders of Congress, Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak cannot be innocent mistake. While the populace claims him as one of their own, aristocrats recognize that he represented, in his intellectual and spiritual eminence, a nobler aristocracy than has fallen their lot.” At the age when being more British than the British were touted as the sole way of salvation, the trio of Tilak, Vishnushastri Chiplunkar and Gopal Ganesh Agarkar embarked on the idea of Indian way towards modernism and social reforms. And when the morning broke, one of Tilak’s contemporary wrote – people found that the vigilant watchman of India’s cause has disappeared from their midst…the news of his death gave a shock to the people, it stunned them, they looked at each other with blank eyes and they knew not what to do…In the funeral procession were seen Mr Gandhi, Mr Shaukat Ali, Dr Kitchlew, Mr Jamnadas and other prominent citizens of Bombay…His body was seated in a palanquin and the pall-bearers included Mr Gandhi, Mr Shaukat Ali, Dr Kitchlew and many others.