{"id":479,"date":"2013-07-13T01:28:15","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=479"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:28:15","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:15","slug":"52-bal-gangadhar-tilak-vol-17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17\/52-bal-gangadhar-tilak-vol-17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17","title":{"rendered":"-52_Bal Gangadhar Tilak.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n

\n
\nBal Gangadhar<\/span> Tilak<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/font><\/span>     
\nN<\/font>EITHER Mr<\/font>.<\/b> Tilak<\/span> nor his speeches really require any presentation or
\nforeword. His speeches are, like the featureless Brahman, self-luminous.
\nStraightforward, lucid, never turning aside from the point which they mean to
\nhammer in or wrapping it up in ornamental verbiage, they read like a series of
\nself-evident propositions. And Mr. Tilak<\/span> himself, his
\ncareer, his place in Indian politics are also a self-evident proposition, a
\nhard fact baffling and dismaying in the last degree to those to whom his name
\nhas been anathema and his increasing pre-eminence figured as a portent of evil.
\nThe condition of things in India being given, the one possible aim for
\npolitical effort resulting and the sole means and spirit by which it could be
\nbrought about, this man had to come and, once in the field, had to come to the
\nfront. He could not but stand in the end where he stands today, as one of the
\ntwo or three leaders of the Indian people who are in their eyes the
\nincarnations of the national endeavour and the God-given captains of the
\nnational aspiration. His life, his character, his work and endurance, his
\nacceptance by the heart and the mind of the people are a stronger argument than
\nall the reasonings in his speeches, powerful as these are, for Swaraj<\/span>, Self-government, Home Rule, by whatever name we may
\ncall the sole possible present aim of our effort, the freedom of the life of
\nIndia, its self-determination by the people of India. Arguments and speeches do
\nnot win liberty for a nation; but where there is a will in the nation to be
\nfree and a man to embody that will in every action of his life and to devote
\nhis days to its realisation in the face of every difficulty and every
\nsuffering, and where the will of the nation has once said, "This man and
\nhis life mean what I have in my heart and in my purpose," that is a sure
\nsignpost of the future which no one has any excuse for mistaking.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>That indomitable will and
\nthat unwavering devotion have been the whole meaning of Mr. Tilak’s<\/span>
\nlife; they are the reason of his immense hold on the people. For he does not
\nowe his pre-<\/p>\n

\nPage – 348<\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

eminent position to any of the causes which have usually made for political
\nleading in India, wealth and great social position, professional success,
\nrecognition by Government, a power of fervid oratory or of fluent and taking
\nspeech; for he had none of these things to help him. He owes it to himself
\nalone and to the thing his life has meant and because he has meant it with his
\nwhole mind and his whole soul. He has kept back nothing for himself or for
\nother aims, but has given all himself to his country. <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

       
\nYet is Mr. Tilak<\/span> a man of various and no ordinary
\ngifts, and in several lines of life he might have achieved present distinction
\nor a pre-eminent and enduring fame. Though he has never practised, he has a
\nclose knowledge of law and an acute legal mind which, had he cared in the least
\ndegree for wealth and worldly position, would have brought him to the front at
\nthe bar. He is a great Sanskrit scholar, a powerful writer and a strong, subtle
\nand lucid thinker. He might have filled a large place in the field of
\ncontemporary Asiatic scholarship. Even as it is, his Orion <\/i>and his Arctic
\nHome <\/i>have acquired at once a worldwide recognition and left as strong a
\nmark as can at all be imprinted on the ever-shifting sands of oriental
\nresearch. His work on the Gita, no mere commentary but an original criticism
\nand presentation of ethical truth, is a monumental work, the first prose
\nwriting of the front rank in weight and importance in the Marathi language, and
\nlikely to become a classic. This one book sufficiently proves that had he
\ndevoted his energies in this direction, he might easily-have filled a large
\nplace in the history of Marathi literature and in the history of ethical
\nthought, so subtle and comprehensive is its thinking, so great the perfection
\nand satisfying force of its style. But it was psychologically impossible for
\nMr. Tilak<\/span> to devote his energies in any great degree
\nto another action than the one life-mission for which the Master of his works
\nhad chosen him. His powerful literary gift has been given up to a journalistic
\nwork, ephemeral as even the best journalistic work must be, but consistently
\nbrilliant, vigorous, politically educative through decades, to an extent seldom
\nmatched and certainly never surpassed. His scholastic labour has been done
\nalmost by way of recreation. Nor can anything be more significant than the fact
\nthat the works<\/p>\n

\nPage – 349<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

which have brought him a fame other than that of the politician and patriot,
\nwere done in periods of compulsory cessation from his life-work, – planned and
\npartly, if not wholly, executed ,during the imprisonments which could alone
\nenforce leisure upon this unresting<\/span> worker for his
\ncountry. Even these by products of his genius have some reference to the one
\npassion of his life, the renewal, if not the surpassing of the past greatness
\nof the nation by the greatness of its future. His Vedic researches seek to fix
\nits pre-historic point of departure; the Gita-rahasya<\/span>
\n<\/i>takes the scripture which is perhaps the strongest and most comprehensive
\nproduction of Indian spirituality and justifies to that spirituality, by its
\nown authoritative ancient message, the sense of the importance of life, of
\naction, of human existence, of man’s labour for mankind which is indispensable
\nto the idealism of the modern spirit.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The landmarks of Mr. Tilak’s<\/span> life are landmarks also in the history of his province
\nand his country. His first great step associated him in a pioneer work whose
\nmotive was to educate the people for a new life under the new conditions, – on
\nthe one side a purely educational movement of which the fruit was the Ferguson
\nCollege, fitly founding the reawakening of the country by an effort of which
\nco-operation in self-sacrifice was the moving spirit, on the other the
\ninitiation of the Kesari<\/i><\/span> <\/i>newspaper,
\nwhich since then has figured increasingly as the characteristic and powerful
\nexpression of the political mind of Maharashtra<\/span>. Mr. Tilak’s<\/span> career has counted three periods each of which had
\nan imprisonment for its culminating point. His first imprisonment in the Kolhapur<\/span> case belongs to this first stage of
\nself-development and development of the Maratha country for new ideas and
\nactivities and for the national future.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The second period brought in
\na wider conception and a profounder effort. For now it was to reawaken not only
\nthe political mind, but the soul of the people by linking its future to its
\npast; it worked by a more strenuous and popular propaganda which reached its
\nheight in the organisation of the Shivaji<\/span> and the Ganapati<\/span> festivals. His separation from the social reform
\nleader, Agarkar<\/span>, had opened the way for the peculiar
\nrole which he has played as a trusted and accredited leader of conservative<\/p>\n

\nPage – 450<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

and religious India in the paths of democratic politics. It was this
\nposition which enabled him to effect the union of the new political spirit with
\nthe tradition and sentiment of the historic past and of both with the
\nineradicable religious temperament of the people of which these festivals were
\nthe symbol. The Congress movement was for a long time purely occidental in its
\nmind, character and methods, confined to the English-educated few, founded on
\nthe political rights and interests of the people read in the light of English
\nhistory and European ideals, but with no roots either in the past of the
\ncountry or in the inner spirit of the nation. Mr. Tilak<\/span>
\nwas the first political leader to break through the routine of its somewhat academical<\/span> methods, to bridge the gulf between the present
\nand the past and to restore continuity to the political life of the nation. He
\ndeveloped a language and a spirit and he used methods which Indianised<\/span>
\nthe movement and brought into it the masses. To his work of this period we owe
\nthat really living, strong and spontaneously organised movement in Maharashtra<\/span> which has shown its energy and sincerity in
\nmore than one crisis and struggle. This divination of the mind and spirit of
\nhis people and its needs and this power to seize on the right way to call it
\nforth prove strikingly the political genius of Mr. Tilak<\/span>;
\nthey made him the one man predestined to lead them in this trying and difficult
\nperiod when all has to be discovered and all has to be reconstructed. What was
\ndone then by Mr. Tilak<\/span> in Maharashtra<\/span>
\nhas been initiated for all India by the Swadeshi<\/span>
\nmovement. To bring in the mass of the people, to found the greatness of the
\nfuture on the greatness of the past, to infuse Indian politics with Indian
\nreligious fervour<\/span> and spirituality are the
\nindispensable conditions for a great and powerful political awakening in India.
\nOthers, writers, thinkers, spiritual leaders, had seen this truth. Mr. Tilak<\/span> was the first to bring it into the actual field of
\npractical politics. This second period of his labour for his country culminated
\nin a longer and harsher imprisonment which was, as it were, the second seal of
\nthe divine hand upon his work; for there can be no diviner seal than suffering
\nfor a cause.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>A third period, that of the Swadeshi<\/span> movement, brought Mr. Tilak<\/span>
\nforward prominently as an All-India leader; it gave<\/p>\n

\nPage-351<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n       him at last the wider field, the greater driving power, the
\nlarger leverage he needed to bring his life-work rapidly to a head, and not
\nonly in Maharashtra<\/span> but throughout the country. The
\nincidents of that period are too fresh in memory to need recalling. From the
\ninception of the Boycott to the Surat<\/span> catastrophe and
\nhis last and longest imprisonment, which was its sequel, the name and work of
\nMr. Tilak<\/span> are a part of Indian history. These three
\nimprisonments, each showing more clearly the moral stuff and quality of the man
\nunder the test and the revealing glare of suffer- ing<\/span>,
\nhave been the three seals of his career. The first found him one of a small
\nknot of pioneer workers; it marked him out to be the strong and inflexible
\nleader of a strong and sturdy people. The second found him already the
\ninspiring power of a great\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>reawakening
\nof the Maratha spirit; it left him an uncrowned king in the Deccan<\/span>
\nand gave him that high reputation throughout India which was the foundationstone<\/span> of his present commanding influence. The
\nlast found him the leader of an All-India party, the foremost exponent and head
\nof a thorough-going National- ism: it sent him back to be one of the two or
\nthree foremost men of India adored and followed by the whole nation. He now
\nstands in the last period of his life-long toil for his country. It is one in
\nwhich for the first time some ray of immediate hope, some prospect of near
\nsuccess shines upon a cause which at one time seemed destined to a long
\nfrustration and fulfilment only perhaps after a century of labour, struggle and
\nsuffering.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The qualities which have supported
\nhim and given\u00a0 <\/span>him his hard-earned
\nsuccess, have been comparatively rare in Indian politics. The first is his
\nentirely representative character as a born leader for the sub-nation to which
\nhe belongs. India is a unity full of diversities and its strength as well as
\nits weakness is rooted in those diversities: the vigour of its national life
\ncan exist only by the vigour of its regional life. Therefore in politics as in
\nevery- thing else a leader, to have a firm basis for his life-work, must build
\nit upon a living work and influence in his own sub-race or province. No man was
\nmore fitted to do this than Mr. Tilak<\/span>. He is the very
\ntype and incarnation of the Maratha character, the Maratha qualities, the
\nMaratha spirit, but with the unified solidity in the character, the touch of
\ngenius in the qualities, the<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-352<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

vital force in
\nthe spirit which make a great personality readily the representative man of his
\npeople. The Maratha race, as their soil and their history have made them, are a
\nrugged, strong and sturdy people, democratic in their every fibre, keenly
\nintelligent and practical to the very marrow, following in ideas, even in
\npoetry, philosophy and religion the drive towards life and action, capable of great
\nfervour<\/span>, feeling and enthusiasm, like all Indian
\npeoples, but not emotional idealists, having in their thought and speech always
\na turn for strength, sense, accuracy, lucidity and vigour, in learning and
\nscholarship patient, industrious, careful, thorough and penetrating, in life
\nsimple, hardy and frugal, in their temperament courageous, pugnacious, full of
\nspirit, yet with a tact in dealing with hard facts and circumventing obstacles,
\nshrewd yet aggressive diplomatists, born politicians, born fighters. All this
\nMr. Tilak<\/span> is with a singular and eminent
\ncompleteness, and all on a large scale, adding to it all a lucid simplicity of
\ngenius, a secret intensity, an inner strength of will, a single- mindedness in
\naim of quite extraordinary force, which remind one of the brightness, sharpness
\nand perfect temper of a fine sword hidden in a sober scabbard. As he emerged on
\nthe political field, his people saw more and more clearly in him their
\nrepresentative man, themselves in large, the genius of their type. They felt
\nhim to be of one spirit and make with the great men who had made their past
\nhistory, almost believed him to be a reincarnation of one of them returned to
\ncarry out his old work in a new form and under new conditions. They beheld in
\nhim the spirit of Maharashtra<\/span> once again embodied in
\na great individual. He occupies a position in his province which has no
\nparallel in the rest of India.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>On the. wider national field
\nalso Mr. Tilak<\/span> has rare qualities which fit him for
\nthe hour and the work. He is in no sense what his enemies have called him, a
\ndemagogue: he has not the loose suppleness, the oratorical fervour<\/span>,
\nthe facile appeal to the passions which demagogy requires; his speeches are too
\nmuch made up of hard and straight thinking, he is too much a man of serious and
\npractical action. None more careless of mere effervescence, emotional applause,
\npopular gush, public ovations. He tolerates them since popular enthusiasm will
\nexpress itself in that way; <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage -353<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

but he has
\nalways been a little impatient of them as dissipative of serious strength and
\nwill and a waste of time and energy which might better have been solidified and
\ndevoted to effective work. But he is entirely a democratic politician, of a
\ntype not very common among our leaders, one who can both awaken the spirit of
\nthe mass and respond to their spirit, able to lead them, but also able to see
\nwhere he must follow the lead of their predominant sense and will and feelings.
\nHe moves among his followers as one of them in a perfect equality, simple and
\nfamiliar in his dealings with them by the very force of his temperament and
\ncharacter, open, plain and direct and, though capable of great reserve in his
\nspeech, yet, wherever necessary, admitting ‘them into his plans and ideas as
\none taking counsel of them, taking their sense even while enforcing as much as
\npossible his own view of policy and action with all the great strength of quiet
\nwill at his command. He has that closeness of spirit to the mass of men, that
\nunpretentious openness of intercourse with them, that faculty of plain ‘and
\ndirect speech which interprets their feelings and shows them how to think out
\nwhat they feel, which are pre- eminently the democratic qualities. For this
\nreason he has always been able to unite all classes of men behind him, to be
\nthe leader not only of the educated, but of the people, the merchant, the
\ntrader, the villager, the peasant. All Maharashtra<\/span>
\nunderstands him when he speaks or writes; all Maharashtra<\/span>
\nis ready to follow him when he acts. Into his wider field in the troubled Swadeshi<\/span> times he carried the same qualities and the same
\npower of democratic leadership.
\n    It is equally a mistake to think of Mr. Tilak<\/span>
\nas by nature a revolutionary leader; that is not his character or his political
\ntemperament. The Indian people generally, with the possible exception of
\nemotional and idealistic Bengal, have nothing or very little of the
\nrevolutionary temper; they can be goaded to revolution, like any and every
\npeople on the face of the earth, but they have no natural disposition towards
\nit. They are capable of large ideals and fervent enthusiasms, sensitive in
\nfeeling and liable to gusts of passionate revolt which are easily appeased by
\neven an appearance of concession; but naturally they are conservative in temperament
\nand deliberate in action. Mr. Tilak<\/span>,<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\nPage –
\n354<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nthough a
\nstrong-willed man and a fighter by nature, has this much of the ordinary Indian
\ntemperament, that with a large mind open to progressive ideas he unites a
\nconservative temperament strongly in touch with the sense of his people. In a
\nfree India he would probably have figured as an advanced Liberal statesman
\neager for national progress and greatness, but as careful of every step as firm
\nand decided in it and always seeking to carry the conservative instinct of the
\nnation with him in every change. He is besides a born Parliamentarian, a leader
\nfor the assembly, though always in touch with the people outside as the
\nconstant source of the mandate and the final referee in differences. He loves a
\nclear and fixed procedure which he can abide by and use, even while making the
\nmost of its details, – of which the theory and practice would be always at his
\nfinger-ends, – to secure a practical advantage in the struggle of parties. He
\nalways set a high value on the Congress for this reason; he saw in it a
\ncentralising body, an instrument and a first, though yet shapeless, essay at a
\npopular assembly. Many after Surat<\/span> spoke of him as
\nthe deliberate breaker of the Congress, but to no one was the catastrophe so
\ngreat a blow as to Mr. Tilak<\/span>. He did not love the
\ndo-nothingness of that assembly, but he valued it both as a great national fact
\nand for its unrealised possibilities and hoped to make it a central
\norganisation for practical work. To destroy an existing and useful institution
\nwas alien to his way of seeing and would not have entered into his ideas or his
\nwishes.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Moreover, though he has
\nideals, he is not an idealist by character. Once the ideal fixed, all the rest
\nis for him practical work, the facing of hard facts, though also the overcoming
\nof them when they stand in the way of the goal, the use of strong and effective
\nmeans with the utmost care and prudence consistent with the primary need of as
\nrapid an effectivity as will and earnest action can bring about. Though he can
\nbe obstinate and iron- willed when his mind is made up as to the necessity of a
\ncourse of action or the indispensable recognition of a principle, he is always
\nready for a compromise which will allow of getting real work done, and will
\ntake willingly half a loaf rather than no bread, though always with a full
\nintention of getting the whole loaf in good time. But he will not accept chaff
\nor plaster in<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 355<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nplace of good
\nbread. Nor does he like to go too far ahead of possibilities, and indeed has
\noften shown in this respect a caution highly disconcerting to the more
\nimpatient of his followers. But neither would he mistake, like the born
\nModerate, the minimum effort and the minimum immediate aim for the utmost
\npossibility of the moment. Such a man is no natural revolutionist, but a
\nconstitutionalist by temper, though always in such times necessarily the leader
\nof an advanced party or section. A clear constitution he could use, amend and.
\nenlarge would have suited him much better than to break existing institutions
\nand get a clear field for innovations which is the natural delight of the
\nrevolutionary temperament.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>This character of Mr. Tilak’s<\/span>
\nmind explains his attitude in social reform. He is no dogmatic reactionary. The
\nMaratha people are incapable of either the unreasoning or too reasoning rigid
\nconservatism or of the fiery iconoclasm which can exist side by side, – they
\nare often only two sides of the same temper of mind, – in other parts of India.
\nIt is attached to its social institutions like all peoples who live close to
\nthe soil, but it has always shown a readiness to adapt, loosen and accommodate
\nthem in practice to the pressure of actual needs. Mr. Tilak<\/span>
\nshares this general temperament and attitude of his people. But there have also
\nbeen other reasons which a strong political sense has dictated; and first, the
\nclear perception that the political movement could not afford to cut itself off
\nfrom the great mass of the nation or split itself up into warring factions by a
\npremature association of the social reform question with politics. The proper
\ntime for that, a politician would naturally feel, is when the country has a
\nfree assembly of its own which can consult the needs or carry out the mandates
\nof the people. Moreover, he has felt strongly that political emancipation was
\nthe one pressing need for the people of India and that all else not directly
\nconnected with it must take a second place; that has been the principle of his
\nown life and he has held that it should be the principle of the national life
\nat the present hour. Let us have first liberty and the organised control of the
\nlife of the nation, afterwards we can see how we should use it in social
\nmatters; meanwhile let us move on without noise and strife, only so far as
\nactual<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 356<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nneed and
\nadvisability demand and the sense of the people is ready to advance. This
\nattitude may be right or wrong; but, Mr. Tilak<\/span> being
\nwhat he is and the nation being what it is,. he could take no other.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>If, then, Mr. Tilak<\/span> has throughout his life been an exponent of the idea
\nof radical change in politics and during the Swadeshi<\/span>
\nagitation the head of a party which could be called extremist, it is due to
\nthat clear practical sense, essential in a leader of political action, which
\nseizes at once on the main necessity and goes straight without hesitation or
\ndeviation to the indispensable means. There are always two classes of political
\nmind: one is preoccupied with details for their own sake, revels in the petty
\npoints of the moment and puts away into the background the great principles and
\nthe great necessities, the other sees rather these first and always and details
\nonly in relation to them. The one type moves in a routine circle which mayor
\nmay not have an issue; it cannot see the forest for the trees and it is only by
\nan accident that it stumbles, if at all, on the way out. The other type takes a
\nmountain-top view of the goal and all the directions and keeps that in its
\nmental compass through all the deflections, retardations and tortuosities<\/span> which the character of the intervening country
\nmay compel it to accept; but these it abridges as much as possible. The former
\nclass arrogate the name of statesman in their own day; it is to the latter that
\nposterity concedes it and sees in them the true leaders of great movements. Mr.
\nTilak<\/span>, like all men of pre-eminent political genius,
\nbelongs to this second and greater order of mind.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Moreover in India, owing to the
\ndivorce of political activity from the actual government and administration of
\nthe affairs of the country, an academical<\/span> turn of
\nthought is too common in our dealings with politics. But Mr. Tilak<\/span> has never been an academical<\/span>
\npolitician, a "student of politics" meddling with action; his turn
\nhas always been to see actualities and move forward in their light. It was
\nimpossible for him to view the facts and needs of current Indian politics of
\nthe nineteenth century in the pure serene or the dim religious light of the
\nwitenagemot and the Magna Charta and the constitutional history of England
\nduring the past seven centuries, or to accept the academic sophism of a<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 357<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\ngradual preparation for liberty,
\nor merely to discuss isolated or omnibus grievances and strive to enlighten the
\ndarkness of the official mind by luminous speeches and resolutions, as was the
\ngeneral practice of Congress politics till 1905. A national agitation<\/span> in the country which would make the Congress
\nmovement a living and acting force was always his ideal, and what the Congress
\nwould not do, he, when still an isolated leader of a handful of enthusiasts in
\na corner of the country, .set out to do in his own strength and for his own
\nhand. He saw from the first that for a people circumstanced like ours there
\ncould be only one political question and one aim, not the gradual improvement
\nof the present administration into something in the end fundamentally the
\nopposite of itself, but the early substitution of Indian and national for
\nEnglish and bureaucratic control in the affairs of India. A subject nation does
\nnot prepare itself by gradual progress for liberty; it opens by liberty its way
\nto rapid progress. The only. progress that has to be made in the preparation
\nfor liberty, is progress in the awakening of the national spirit and in the creation
\nof the will to be free and the will to adopt the necessary means and bear the
\nnecessary sacrifices for liberty. It is these clear perceptions that have
\nregulated his political career.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Therefore the whole
\nof the first part of his political life was devoted to a vigorous and living
\npropaganda for the reawakening and solidifying of the national life of Maharashtra<\/span>. Therefore, too, when the Swadeshi<\/span>
\nagitation gave the first opportunity of a large movement in the same sense
\nthroughout India, he seized on it with avidity, while his past work in Maharashtra<\/span>, his position as the leader of a small advanced
\nsection in the old Congress politics and his character, sacrifices and
\nsufferings at once fixed the choice of the New Party on him as their
\npredestined leader. The same master-idea made him seize on the four main points
\nwhich the Bengal agitation had thrown into some beginning of practical form, Swaraj<\/span>, Swadeshi<\/span>, National
\nEducation and Boycott, and formulate them into a definite programme<\/span>,
\nwhich he succeeded in introducing among the resolutions of the Congress at the
\nCalcutta session, – much to the detriment of the uniformity of sage and
\ndignified impotence which had cha-<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 358<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

racterised<\/span> the august, useful and calmly
\nleisurely proceedings of that temperate national body. We all know the convulsion that followed the injection of this foreign
\nmatter; but we must see why Mr. Tilak<\/span> insisted on
\nadministering annually so potent a remedy. The four resolutions were for him
\nthe first step towards shaking the Congress out of its torpid tortoise-like
\ngait and turning it into a living and acting body.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Swaraj<\/span>,
\ncomplete and early self-government in whatever form, had the merit in his eyes
\nof making definite and near to the national vision the one thing needful, the
\none aim that mattered, the one essential change that includes all the others.
\nNo nation can develop a living enthusiasm or accept great action and great
\nsacrifices for a goal that is lost to its eye in the mist of far-off centuries;
\nit must see it near and distinct before it, magnified by a present hope,
\nlooming largely and actualised<\/span> as a living aim whose
\nearly realisation only depends on a great, sustained and sincere effort.
\nNational education meant for him the training of the young generation in the
\nnew national spirit to be the architects of liberty, if that was delayed, the
\ncitizens of a free India which had rediscovered itself, if the preliminary
\nconditions were rapidly fulfilled. Swadeshi<\/span> meant an actualising<\/span> of the national self-consciousness and the
\nnational will and the readiness to sacrifice which would fix them in the daily
\nmind and daily life of the people. In Boycott, which was only a popular name
\nfor passive resistance, he saw the means to give to the struggle between the
\ntwo ideas in conflict, bureaucratic control and national control, a vigorous
\nshape and body and to the popular side a weapon and an effective form of
\naction. Himself a man of organisation and action, he knew well that by action
\nmost, and not by thought and speech alone, can the will of a people be
\nvivified, trained and made solid and enduring. To get a sustained authority
\nfrom the Congress for a sustained effort in these four directions seemed to him
\nof capital importance; this was the reason for his inflexible insistence on
\ntheir unchanged inclusion when the programme<\/span> seemed
\nto him to be in danger.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Yet also, because he is a
\npractical politician and a man of action, he has always, so long as the
\nessentials were safe, been ready to admit any change in name or form or any
\nmodification<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 359<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n\u00a0 <\/span>of programme<\/span> or
\naction dictated by the necessities of the time. Thus during the movement of
\n1905-1910 the Swadeshi<\/span> leader and the Swadeshi<\/span> party insisted on agitation in India and
\ndiscouraged reliance on agitation in England, because the awaking and fixing of
\nself-reliant national spirit and will in India was the one work for the hour
\nand in England no party or body of opinion existed which would listen to the
\nnational claim, nor could exist, – as anybody with the least knowledge of
\nEnglish politics could have told, – until that claim had been unmistakably and
\ninsistently made and was clearly supported by the fixed will of the nation. The
\nHome Rule leader and the Home Rule party of today, which is only the "New
\nParty" reborn with a new name, form and following, insist on the contrary
\non vigorous and speedy agitation in England, because the claim and the will have
\nboth been partially, but not sufficiently recognised<\/span>,
\nand because a great and growing British party now exists which is ready to make
\nthe Indian ideal part of its own programme<\/span>. So; too,
\nthey insisted then on Swaraj<\/span> and rejected with
\ncontempt all petty botching with the administration, because so alone could the
\nreal issue be made a living thing to the nation; now they accept readily enough
\na fairly advanced but still half-and-half scheme, but always with the proviso
\nthat the popular principle receives substantial embodiment and the full ideal
\nis included as an early goal and not put off to a far-distant future. The
\nleader of men in war or politics will always distrust petty and episodical<\/span> gains which, while giving false hopes, are
\nmerely nominal and put off or even endanger the real issue, but will always
\nseize on any advantage which brings decisive victory definitely nearer. It is
\nonly the pure idealist, – but let us remember that he too has his great and
\nindispensable uses, – who insists always on either all or nothing. Not
\nrevolutionary methods or revolutionary idealism, but the clear sight and the
\ndirect propaganda and action of the patriotic political leader insisting on the
\none thing needful and the straight way to drive at it, have been the sense of
\nMr. Tilak’s<\/span> political career.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The speeches in this
\nbook belong both to the Swadeshi<\/span> and the Home Rule
\nperiods, but mostly to the latter. They show Mr. Tilak’s<\/span>
\nmind and policy and voice with great force that will <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 360<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

and
\npolitical thought now dominant in the country which he has so prominently
\nhelped to create. Mr. Tilak<\/span> has none of the gifts of
\nthe orator which many lesser men have possessed, but his force of thought and
\npersonality make him in his own way a powerful speaker. He is at his best in
\nhis own Marathi tongue rather than in English; for there he finds always the
\napt and telling phrase, the striking application, the vigorous figure which go
\nstraight home to the popular mind. But there is essentially the same power in
\nboth. His words have the directness and force – no force can be greater – of a
\nsincere and powerful mind always going immediately to the aim in view, the
\npoint before it, expressing it with a bare, concentrated, economy of phrase and
\nthe insistence of the hammer full on the head of the nail which drives it in
\nwith a few blows. But the speeches have to be read with his life, his
\ncharacter, his life-long aims as their surrounding atmosphere. That is why I
\nhave dwelt on their main points; – not that all I have said is not well-known,
\nbut the repetition of known facts has its use when they are important and
\nhighly significant.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Two facts of his life and
\ncharacter have to be insisted on as of special importance to the country
\nbecause they give a great example of two things in which its political life was
\nlong deficient and is even now not sufficient. First, the inflexible will of
\nthe patriot and man of sincere heart and thorough action which has been the
\nvery grain of his character: for aspirations, emotion, enthusiasm are nothing
\nwithout this; will alone creates and prevails. And wis4 and will are not the
\nsame thing, but divided by a great gulf: the one, which is all most of us get
\nto, is a puny, tepid and inefficient thing and, even when most enthusiastic, easily
\ndiscouraged and turned from its object; the other can be a giant to accomplish
\nand endure. Secondly, the readiness to sacrifice and face suffering, not
\nneedlessly or with a useless bravado, but with a firm courage when it comes, to
\nbear it and to outlive, returning to work with one’s scars as if nothing had happened<\/span>. No prominent man in India has suffered more for
\nhis country; none has taken his sacrifices and sufferings more quietly and as a
\nmatter of course.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The first part of Mr. Tilak’s<\/span> life-work is accomplished. Two<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 361<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

great
\nopportunities have hastened its success, of which he has taken full advantage.
\nThe lava-like flood of the Swadeshi<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>movement fertilised<\/span>
\nthe soil and did for the country in six years the work of six ordinary decades;
\nit fixed the goal of freedom in the mind of the people. The sudden irruption of
\nMrs. Besant<\/span> into the field with her unequalled gift,
\n– born of her untiring energy, her flaming enthusiasm, her magnificent and
\nmagnetic personality, her spiritual force, – for bringing an ideal into the
\nstage of actuality with one rapid whirl and rush, has been the second factor.
\nIndeed the presence of three such personalities as Mr. Tilak<\/span>,
\nMrs. Besant<\/span> and Mr. Gandhi at the head and in the
\nheart of the present movement, should itself be a sure guarantee of success.
\nThe nation has accepted the near fulfilment of his great aim as its own
\npolitical aim, the one object of its endeavour, its immediate ideal. The
\nGovernment of India and the British nation have accepted complete
\nself-government as their final goal in Indian administration; a powerful party
\nin England, the party which seems to command the future, has pronounced for its
\nmore speedy and total accomplishment. A handful of dissentients there may be in
\nthe country who still see only petty gains in the present and the rest in the
\ndim vista of the centuries, but with this insignificant exception, all the
\nIndian provinces and communities have spoken with one voice. Mr. Tilak’s<\/span> principles of work have been accepted; the ideas
\nwhich he had so much trouble to enforce have become the commonplaces and
\ntruisms of our political thought. The only question that remains is the
\nrapidity of a now inevitable evolution. That is the hope for which Mr. Tilak<\/span> still stands, a leader of all India. Only when it is
\naccomplished, will his life-work be done; not till then can he rest while he
\nlives, even though age grows on him and infirmities gather, – for his spirit
\nwill always remain fresh and vigorous, – any more than a river can rest before
\nthe power of its waters has found their goal and discharged them into the sea.
\nBut whether that end, – the end of a first stage of our new national life, the
\nbeginning of a greater India reborn for self-fulfilment and the service of
\nhumanity, – come tomorrow or after a little delay, its accomplishment is now
\nsafe, and Mr. Tilak’s<\/span> name stands already for history
\nas a nation-builder, one of the half-dozen greatest political perso-<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 362<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

nalities<\/span><\/span>,
\nmemorable figures, representative men of the nation in this most critical
\nperiod of India’s destinies, a name to be remembered gratefully so long as the
\ncountry has pride in its past and hope for its future.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage – 363<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bal Gangadhar Tilak   \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0      NEITHER Mr. Tilak nor his speeches really require any presentation or foreword. His speeches are, like the featureless Brahman,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17","wpcat-9-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}