Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Bal Gangadhar Tilak was a vibrant personality in the Indian national Movement scenario. He was born in 23rd July, 1856 in village Chikhali near Ratnagiri, Maharashtra. His father, Gangadhar Ramchandra Tilak was an eminent scholar of Sanskrit. From the very young age he was a very brilliant student and received modern education. While Tilak was a student, he was married to a 10 year old girl named Satyabhama. After his graduation, he further continued to get his LL.B degree. Tilak started his career as a teacher in Pune and later on he shifted to the Journalism. He was critical of the western style of education; his feeling about the system was that it was meaningless and insolent to the Indian heritage.
In the year 1880 Tilak founded two weekly papers one in vernacular language and named it Kesari and the other was in English and named Maratha. The Kesari became very popular within a very short span of time. In his papers Tilak use to criticize the atrocities and the suppressive techniques adopted by the government. Tilak joined the Indian National Congress in the year 1890. But soon he realized that Congress was a party of the moderates and it would not provide him the required platform for the protests easily. In the year 1897 Maharashtra was attacked by the bubonic plague and due to the careless attitude of the government people suffered heavily. Tilak raised the voice of discontent through his paper and after his fiery outburst Assistant collector of Pune Mr. rand and his associate was assassinated and Tilak was imprisoned charged with conspiracy. In the year 1907 in Surat convention of congress the party was divided into two factions namely moderates and extremists. The extremist faction or the hot faction was led by the famous trio of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal and Lala Lajpat Rai.
In the year 1908 when Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki tried to assassinate a Judge the British papers cried foul and Tilak supported the action of the youth in his paper, again he was imprisoned and sent to Mandalay Prison Where he wrote the famous book Gita Rahasya. He was released from the prison in the year 1916, he once again joined the congress and tried to unite the two factions but he could not get success in doing so. Then he went on to form the Home Rule League in association with Mrs. Annie Besant and Mohd. Ali Jinnah.
In the later years of his life Tilak cooled down a lot and instead of armed conflicts he preferred the dialogues. Tilak died in the year 1920.
