Tilak The Torch Bearer of Swaraj

Bal Gangadhar Tilak occupied an important place in the Indian politics. His famous slogan Swaraj (Self Rule) is my birthright reverberated across the country during the freedom struggle. Apart from politics, Tilak also made his mark in the field of journalism. In this book, the author Vishnuchandra Sharma has dwelt upon the various facets of Tilak’s life.

From my father Pt. Krishnachandra Sharma, I had inherited a picture. This book contains the story of the same picture. In this story you will get to know a simple and honest citizen and the period of his nationalist struggles. I had heard from my father about the personal virtuosity of Tilak, a fearless campaign in the political movement of his time.

The day when Ashok ji asked me to write a biography of Tilak I was confronted with ‘gomukh’ of rugged mountains of our country. I searched and went through several biographics of Tilak published in Marathi, English and Hindi language. Every biography was the writer’s account of how he saw and thought about his icon. And I had prepared a new album of Tilak’s life selecting pictures from the larger album of these books.

This biography reminds us about a fearless civil rights activist and a capable freedom fighter. As a citizen ‘Tilak was a pious and powerful like the ‘gomukh’ — and as a freedom fighter he gave the basic mantra of Swarajya or self rule to the Indians.

Tilak’s life is like a open book. I have written the story of the same book. This story flows in the veins of India as the Ganges, emerging from the ‘gomukh’. Every fearless Indian feels proud in his heart of Tilak’s struggles, his selfless service and his firmness and resoluteness.

I have tried to understand the life of Tilak from his Marathi biography written by Tambekar and Jog. I am grateful to them and other writers who have helped me to understand the life and character of Tilak by going through his personal letters and copies of "Kesari" and "Maratha" edited by him, I have been able to understand deeply that Tilak was never alone in his personal life and national struggle. Until his last breath he was a complete Indian-alive, fearless and a speaking India.