Congress party was also a place where Bal Gangadhar Tilak could meet other political and reformist leaders of the country, exchange views, update one another and draw inspiration from one another. The discussions would prove greatly educative.
Englishmen often complained that Indians were not patient and were easily excitable which was proving a hurdle in the way of solving the problems of the people. A peaceful atmosphere was required to find the solutions of the masses. To a great extent that was true. But it was also true that where there was injustice there can not be any peace. The people are bound to rise in anger. To suppress the uprisings the British were using brute force of police and the administration. It was making the British government unpopular.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak lost no opportunity to condemn the British for their injustice and the cruel attitude bordering arrogance. Tilak himself was no tolerant person. He was like that by nature. He was never able to hide his feelings. That’s what made him an outspoken person to be nicknamed Mr. Blunt. Because of that impatient nature he often offended his friends and he tried to control the organisations he was connected with to dictate terms. In the case of Deccan Education Society the same thing happened.
But Tilak continued his crusade regardless. He might have earned the scorn of his colleagues but in the public eye he gained more and more esteem and popularity inspite of the controversies.
Tilak took part in Bombay session of the Congress party after joining it where he came in contact with Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Lala Lajpat Rai and Vipin Chandra Pal and at much latter stage Mohan Das Karam Chand Gandhi. Gokhale became his mentor. In the course of time Tilak, Vipin Pal and Lajpat Rai came closer. They were all impatient people and egged the party on to adopt the aggressive postures against the British. The three became hot line spearhead of the party famously called ‘Bal-Pal-Lal’. All of them were fiery speakers.
The growing influence of the hot-heads in the Congress party was a matter of worry for the British. In the Nagpur session of the party Bal Gangadhar Tilak was in fierce mood. He was enraged at the British policy of discrimination and mistrust of Indians, Putting forward a resolution called ‘Arms Act’ he thundered, “The government is finding it difficult to get men for the army. No one is to be blamed for it. It is the result of the wrong policies it is following. It does not trust the martial races of India where it can find willing candidates for the army. But it is suspicious of them. The martial races are being turned into mules. This situation can not be tolerated. My resolution is a step in the direction of correction of such discrimination.”
The resolution was passed with huge majority and his speech was applauded thunderously.
In 1892, Bal Gangadhar Tilak was elected to a post of one of the three ministers of ‘Bombay Provincial Political Conference’ which enabled him to voice the people’s demands as their representative in the Congress party. He was a true friend of the common man and understood his plight. He opposed the Indian feudal classes who were economically exploiting the poor of India in collaboration with the foreign rulers who were following anti-labour policies to ruin the people at the bottom.
As a minister he sharply criticized the excise policy of the government under which more and more liquor shops were being opened in the towns and the rural areas. It earned the government more taxes. Easy availability of the liquor was turning the poor into drunkards and ruining their lives. The poor drank to forget their miseries and problems.
In the Congress session of the following year he raised the demand for permanent land reforms. For Congressmen it was a new kind of reform that no one had thought of before. There were several reformists in the Congress. But their reforms were limited to social evils and education. They had not shown any concern for economic, agricultural and industrial reforms.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak had reaslised that reforms in these fields were as essential as social reforms. The British were sucking the blood of the Indian masses with the help of industrialists, traders, Rajas, Nawabs and Zamindars. The farmers and the labourers were getting reduced be the beasts of burden.
The main purpose of the Englishmen to be in India was profits. They came to India in the guise of East India Company, a trading outfit. Later, they managed to seize power and conspired to turn whole of India into a market for the industrial products of England.
When they had landed in India there were no large industries. It was a land of small scale industries, cottage endeavours, craftsmen and artisans. The British deliberately followed policies which led to the destruction of domestic industrial efforts to make room for the industrial products of England.
All those people engaged in small scale cottage craft became jobless. To make a living they turned into agricultural labourers. Agricultural lands were controlled by zamindars who paid starvation wages. Entire families worked in fields including women and children. And even then the family could not eat full meals while zamindars worked them to bones. Some of them in utter helpless situation migrated to towns and cities to become industrial workers. Even there they were paid survival wages since industrialists were serving as British agents.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak proposed that through land reform laws the lands must go to the tillers. The gains of the agricultural produce should go to those who actually worked in the fields instead of to the zamindars who just sat in their havelis and pocketed all the gains. This demand angered the British because zamindars were their favoured people who were acting as posts and pillars of British Empire.
The masses had begun to see in Tilak their real well wisher and possible deliverer. It made him hugely popular among the people. This positive response from the people enthused Tilak and his tone became more aggressive and sharper. The young progressive generation was coming closer to the heart of Bal Gangadhar Tilak. He was cleverly lighting the flame of the desire for independence among the youth.
An atmosphere was building up where the start of independence struggle against the British was becoming imminent. The hard work done by Congress leaders like Tilak was bearing fruit. The masses were becoming restless and impatient. The Congress was gradually becoming a party of the Indian masses and a symbol of the aspirations of the people. It was looming as a biggest threat to the alien rulers.
Congress itself was a collection of leaders of some different shades. Meanwhile, some revolutionary groups and organisations had mushroomed in different parts of the country. The Congress was not connected to such militant outfits. The majority group in the Congress did not approve of the violent acts of revolutionaries. In fact, it considered them terrorists. Whenever they were caught by police and the law meted out severe punishments to them, the Congress would not react.
It remained silent and unconcerned.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak was not in that majority group and didn’t fully support the neutral stance of the party in such matters. He wanted Congress to speak for the revolutionaries also because they were also freedom fighters in their own right.
The majority group thought that it was foolish to challenge the British for an armed combat as Indians had no arms and resources or training to do that. The violent acts of the revolutionaries was giving the government an excuse to enact repressive laws, the majority felt.
There was big truth in it. Tilak also realised it. He advised the revolutionaries to act with restraint and hit very carefully at the selective targets only where doing so could incite the people to rise against the foreign rule. Killing individuals would gain nothings because if one official is killed another would take its place. The new one could be worse than the earlier one. He told the militants through his articles that the time was not ripe for the armed revolution in India.
He encouraged the revolutionary minded youth to join the Congress to turn it into a fierce political force.
Surendra Nath Bannerji presided over the 1895 Poona Congress Session. Tilak and his supporters demanded the party to adopt aggressive economic reforms and political policies to throw direct challenge to the government. They charged that the party was getting bogged down in social reforms agenda only. Many Congress leaders did not like this posture. The party was getting divided into hard-liners and softliners.
The opponent leaders charged Tilak with being in league with militants and acting as their mole in Congress.
Supporters of Tilak hit back in harsh language. Bal Gangadhar Tilak demanded that Congress be made an open stage for people from where anyone could air his opinion and demands.
The president of the session, Bannerji felt that the matter was getting out of hand and there was a danger of Tilak supporters invading the session. So, he sent a message to Tilak asking him to hold the rally of his supporters somewhere else and leave the Congress alone. It resulted in riots and physical fights. Division in the Congress became imminent.
