Foreword by DR. S. RADHAKRISHNAN Former President of India “SWARAJ IS MY BIRTHRIGHT, AND I SHALL HAVE IT!” This biography of Lokmanya Tilak was written in collaboration by Prof. A.K. Bhagwat and Prof. G.P. Pradhan in 1956, the birth-centenary year of Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak. The book was awarded a prize in the All India Competition held under the auspices of the All India Congress Committee. Dr. S. Radhakrishnan had written the foreword to this biography.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1961.

In Indian context.

Tilak was born in the year 1856 and died in the year 1920. He was a paramount figure in the freedom struggle. Hundred years have passed since his death. But today, Bharat needs him more than ever. This book is a dovetail of Tilak's thoughts and the concept of self-reliance. The author of this nook firmly believes that, among all possible paths, the path of self-reliance is the only one that brings about the material, moral and cultural renascence of a dormant nation and raises it to the greatest level by peaceful revolution.

About the book Bal Gangadhar Tilak Bal Gangadhar Tilak was an Indian nationalist, social reformer and freedom fighter who was the first popular leader of the Indian Independence Movement and is known as “Father of the Indian unrest.” Tilak was one of the first and strongest proponents for Swaraj (complete independence) in Indian consciousness, and is considered the father of Hindu nationalism as well. His famous quote, “Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have it!” is well-remembered in India even today. Reverently addressed as Lokmanya (meaning “Beloved of the people” or “Revered by the world”), Tilak was a scholar of Indian history, Sanskrit, Hinduism, mathematics, law and astronomy. Tilak aimed at Swarajya (Independence), not piecemeal reforms, and attempted to persuade Congress to adopt his Purna Swarajya programme. This book is a comprehensive design to offer an in-depth analysis of the major, and rather disturbing, global problems in the human-centered, Bal Gangadhar Tilak peace-oriented framework. CONTENTS • Introduction • Educational Thoughts of Tilak • Tilak and Vedic Myths—The Matutinal Deities • Tilak’s Commentary on the Gita • Lokmanya Tilak : An Eminent Indologist • Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s: Views on Women’s Education • The History of Primitive Aryan Culture and Religion • Loyalist Agents in Indian Aristocracy and Early Congress • Swaraj—Our Birth-Right

This work is a systematic study of Bal Gangadhar Tilak's thought, focusing on his views on 'communal' relations within the Indian polity, on caste and reform in Hindu society, and on political ethics regarding violence and non-cooperation. The Thought of Bal Gangadhar Tilak adopts a contextualist approach, situating his ideas in local Maharashtrian as well as pan-Indian and global cultural-intellectual contexts. The approach blends Tilak's quotidian journalism and speeches alongside his canonical texts on Aryan history and on the Bhagavad Gita. The work marks a departure from current interpretations, emphatically arguing that he is misappropriated and/or misunderstood as a proto-Hindutva thinker. Instead, he is revealed to be a radical liberal who supports counter-autocratic violence, a majoritarian pluralist in terms of intercommunity relations, a self-strengthening reformer who focuses on masculinity, and a Brahmin supremacist who is committed to reshaping India for the challenges of modernity. This book lays emphasis on his remarkable recognition as the nation's 'founding father' and particularly demonstrates how this later appropriation by Gandhi was contested by those celebrating Tilak's approach to contest him during the crucial mid-1920s period when he was indelibly linked to re-emerging Hindutva. More recently, growing ahistorical demi-official insistence on his social progressivism illustrates a change in India's public culture, as does the use of popular or even legal pressure to de-legitimize perennial criticism of Tilak's socio-political positions.

“स्व राज हमारा जन्मसिद्ध अधिकार है’ का नारा देनेवाले लोकमान्य बाल गंगाधर तिलक का जन्म 23 जुलाई, 1856 को महाराष्ट्र के रत्नागिरि नामक स्थान पर हुआ था। उनके पिता गंगाधर राव संस्कृत और व्याकरण के विद्वान् थे। वे रत्नागिरि की मराठी शाला के प्रधानाचार्य थे। माता-पिता ने बड़े लाड़-प्यार से बालक गंगाधर का लालन-पालन किया। कुछ बड़ा होने पर उन्हें पढ़ने के लिए रत्नागिरि की प्राइमरी पाठशाला में भेजा गया। वे मन लगाकर पढ़ाई करने लगे। तिलक बचपन से ही निर्भीक और साहसी थे। स्वाभिमान की भावना तो उनमें कूट- कूटकर भरी हुई थी। ये सब गुण उन्हें अपने पिता से विरासत में मिले थे।