That was the period when India was passing through a great social unrest. The society was groaning under social evils, caste systems, blind faiths, horrendous customs and many many more woes. The British were well set and they now knew the weaknesses of the Indians. They knew that social evils had hollowed the Indian society and every Indian was in a trap of self doubts. Being an Indian meant no self respect and no confidence . On the one hand Englishmen were introducing social reforms to look good and on the other hand large numbers of Christian missionaries were being inducted to spread western culture, thought and religion. This resulted in Indian reformists divided in two camps.
One camp was follower of English and the western way of life. They were asking people to adopt English language and western culture. The other camp opposed it. Their running battle was harming the interests of the people and creating confusions in native minds. The warring camps were too busy in pulling the rug from under each other’s feet to care for the political independence of India.
That suited the Englishmen fine.
Meanwhile, the reformist Raja Ram Mohan Roy came on the scene. He was close to the Englishmen. It helped him get some major reform laws passed. The prominent law being the one that banned Sati custom. In the social reforms field he became a star. Raja Ram Mohan Roy founded an organisation called ‘Prarthna Samaj’ to serve as a vehicle for his brand of reforms campaigns. The organisation spread fast all over India. Its objective was to remould Indian society on western cultural format.
Then, Swami Dayanand Saraswati emerged on the scene who was opposed to westernisation. He preached ancient Vedic culture of India with a new modern interpretation which was different from what the orthodox Brahmin clergy had been preaching for centuries. Being home based and close to the hearts of Indians, Swami Dayanand’s reformist movement under the banner of ‘Arya Samaj’ caught the imagination of the masses. It became very popular all over the country. It opposed those forces who were advocating adoption of western life style.
In Maharashtra Jyotiba Phule founded ‘Satya Shodhak Samaj’ which also gained popularity. It was against the exploitation by Brahmin caste of the Hindu society by loading it with reprehensible blind faiths, evil customs and orthodoxy through misinterpretation of scriptures.
So, the various hues of reform movements were dividing the Hindu society instead of becoming one unified force of concerted reforms. That was further confusing the people. It does not mean that the people leading reforms were villains. They were all good and noble intentioned people. Hindu society was a plethora of castes, sub-castes, sects and a sea of local beliefs. Hence the evils were also of different hues, shades and kinds. The people were ignorant and illiterate which confounded the situation. They were unable to use commonsense to realise which reform applied to them at the grassroot level.
There was economic dimension to the evils issue. Landlord class, zamindars and fiefs were colluding with priest class to keep the people chained to the evil practices which reduced them into sitting-duck state for economic exploitation.
These situations deeply hurt Bal Gangadhar Tilak. There was complete silence on the political front barring a few revolutionary acts of revenge. The British had succeeded in keeping the public attention diverted on the reforms. The foreign rulers were sitting pretty. No one was there to challenge them politically. The administration could concentrate on dealing with the revolutionaries. Moves were afoot to declare them terrorists. It was a cunning and sinister move. Tilak decided to make noises to tell the Britishers that they could not fool everyone.
He used his Marathi periodical ‘Maratha’ to give a clarion call to the people to rise against the alien rule. The politically minded people woke up from the state of inaction. Those who were engaged in the social reforms works also realised that political battle for the liberation of the country was also a vital aspect of reforms. Thus political activities got initiated.
It was during this period that he met Vivekananda and the two exchanged views. Swami Vivekananda also agreed that India must gain political freedom and the growing influence of western culture must be stemmed. Later, in his foreign tours Swamiji maintained that the biggest hurdle to the solutions of India’s problems was the presences of British in India.
Meanwhile, Bal Gangadhar Tilak launched a frontal attack on those movements that wanted Indians to become western copies. He argued that the Indian culture merely need reforms and brushing up only. A rootless culture could not survive the test of time, he said. He was sharply critical of the orthodox people and orthodox priests who for their own benefit were perpetuating social evils in the society. He was leading this battle through his magazines pecking at the minds of the thinking people through power of his pen. The impact he was making was remarkable.
It couldn’t escape the notice of the British authorities. The political stir-up was causing concern as they never wanted the people incited politically. Tilak also realised that he had to take careful steps as there was no well organised political party to take cover under.
