On 1st January, 1880 ‘The New English School’ planned by Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Agarkar and Chiploonkar was formally opened. The opening made a big news which attracted the well-known educationists M.B.N. Joshi and V.S. Apte to join the venture. Within three months the school has 500 students on its rolls. The modern teaching methods adopted by the school impressed everyone and the positive results showed very soon. The school earned fame fast. More and more parents wanted to send their children the school run by Tilak and company.
Soon, The New English School was imparting modern education to thousands of students. The school was affiliated to ‘Deccan Education Society’.
The success of the school proved a great inspiration to Tilak and he worked harder.
Just setting up one school was not the aim of Tilak. It was just a model. The message of the necessity to spread the education was required to be passed around. So, he organised meetings, seminars and get togethers to give the message.
He would exhort, “We must understand that education is the only key to the solution of our problems. Only an educated India can fight off social evils it suffers from and the foreign rulers who are trampling upon our freedom and pride. Education will make people wise enough to understand what is happening around them, how, the evil practices are eating away our society from within, how ignorance is keeping them tied to the yoke of grinding poverty and how economic exploitation is leading them to utter ruin. The exploitative landed upper castes in collusion with foreign power are impoverishing us.”
Tilak had a very analytical mind. He was different from others who wanted to free the country but their outlook was shallow and the understanding of the problems superficial. Some of them wanted the country gain freedom through strikes, demonstration and slogan shouting. Others thought in terms of guns and bombs. Tilak knew that Indians couldn’t gain independence unless ignorance and illiteracy didn’t go away. Indians were slaves of their own slavish mindset. If Englishmen left some others would walk in to take their place. An uneducated society didn’t know its duty, rights and its own power.
On the academic front his friends were doing a fine job of teaching. The school was making a name for itself and the success of the school was also earning fame for Bal Gangadhar Tilak. His views were being taken seriously by the people who mattered. Even British authorities and education experts were all praise for the efforts of Tilak.
Ironically, Tilak had learnt the spirit of selfless services, sacrifice and dedication from a particular sect called ‘Jesuits’, a Christian branch, that was well known for its work in the field of social upliftment and service to people. Jesuits had done several experiments and had earned the respect and the admiration of the local people.
Brick-bats
Then, there was a kind of setback. The associates of Tilak who were involved in the school project started singing a different tune as more and more students got enrolled. They were now becoming money minded and corrupt. It pained Bal Gangadhar Tilak. He was not ready to give up his idealism of their mission being a selfless service to the society.
He sharply condemned this greedy behaviour of his associates.
It infuriated his old friends. Of all the people, even Agarkar too felt outraged. He stopped talking to Tilak. The school was affiliated to ‘Deccan Education Society’ which gave recognition and financial support to the school project. Several members of the society objected to the harsh remarks made by Tilak.
Even the luminary social reformer and educationist like Gopal Krishna Gokhale was not in agreement with Tilak.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak became an unwanted and unwelcome person in the society. The things came to such head that at the end of 1890, Tilak resigned from Deccan Education Society.
It was a very sad development. Because of the hard work and selfless dedication of Tilak entire Maharashtra was being swept by education revolution and awareness. It was the fruit of his 10 years of sweet labour.
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