Lokmanya Tilak: Father of the Indian renaissance

Identity was once considered a primordial subject by the social science fraternity. Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak was perhaps the first political leader in modern India to appreciate the importance of identity issues Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak was perhaps the first political leader in modern India to appreciate the importance of identity issues. He spoke of how we should “form one separate state each for Marathi, Telugu and Kanarese provinces.” The principle that education should be given through the vernaculars is self-evident and clear.” A master strategist, Tilak adroitly used the two things — constitutionalism and democracy — that the British rulers used to boast about, to his maximum advantage. Once, in an editorial of Kesari he wrote, “This festival is both age old and universal; but this time the new thing about it was that all castes — and not just Brahmins — came together and made it a festival of all Hindus, a thing we must take pride in.” Swadeshi was the other important cause espoused by Tilak. It was the same zeal for promoting swadeshi manufacturing that led to Tilak and Ratanji Jamshedji Tata coming together to open the Bombay Swadeshi Co-operative Stores Co. in order to promote products that were made in India.