POLITICAL SCIENCE 1

Political Science

Subject : Political Science

(For undergraduate students)

Year : 1st

Paper Code & Title : 2

Indian Political Thought

Topic No. & Title : 5

Bal Gangadhar Tilak

Lecture No. & Title : 2

Tilak’s Concept of Swaraj

SCRIPT

Lokmanya Tilak: Concept of Swaraj

The first phase of the Indian struggle for freedom is

unthinkable without the most popular slogan: ‘Swaraj is
my birth right and I will have it’. The call was given by
Bal Gangadhar Tilak (23 July 1856 – 1 August 1920), the
first most popular leader of the Indian Independence
Movement. The British colonial authorities derogatorily
called him ‘Father of the Indian unrest’. He was also
respectfully called ‘Lokmanya’, which literally means
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‘Respected by the people [as their leader]’. Tilak was an

ardent nationalist, journalist, teacher, social reformer,
lawyer and theorist. To understand his concept of Swaraj
or Swarajya we have to keep this multifaceted image of
Tilak in mind. But before that, let us briefly discuss his
life and times.
Life

Tilak, was born as Keshav Gangadhar Tilak at Chikhal in

Ratnagiri district of the Indian state of Maharashtra. His
father, Gangadhar Tilak was a school teacher and
a Sanskrit scholar who died when Tilak was sixteen.
Young Keshav graduated from Deccan College, Pune in
1877. Tilak was amongst one of the first generation of
Indians to receive a college education. After graduating,
Tilak began teaching mathematics at a private school
in Pune. Later due to ideological differences with the
colleagues he left the job and became a journalist. He
also organized the Deccan Education Society with a few of
his college friends.
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Tilak joined the Indian National Congress in 1890 but was

opposed to its moderate attitude, especially towards the
fight for self-government. A plague epidemic spread
from Bombay to Pune in late 1896, and by January 1897,
it reached epidemic proportions. In order to suppress the
epidemic and prevent its spread, it was decided to take
drastic action. Accordingly, a Special Plague Committee
under the Chairmanship of W C. Rand was formed,
however, the measures that the Rand Committee took,
were widely regarded as acts of tyranny and oppression.
Tilak took up this issue by publishing inflammatory
articles in his paper Kesari, quoting the Hindu scripture,
the Bhagavad Gita, against the action of the government.
Following this, on 22 June 1897, Rand and another British
officer were shot and killed by the Chapekar brothers and
their other associates. Tilak was charged with incitement
to murder and sentenced to 18 months imprisonment.
When he emerged from prison, he was revered as a
martyr and a national hero.

Following the 1905 Partition of Bengal, which was a

strategy set out by Lord Curzon to weaken the nationalist
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movement, Tilak encouraged the Swadeshi

movement and the Boycott movement. Tilak opposed the
moderate views of some Congress leaders and was
supported by fellow Indian nationalists – Bipin Chandra
Pal in Bengal and Lala Lajpat Rai in Punjab. They were
referred to as the Lal-Bal-Pal, the Extremist triumvirate of
INC. In 1907, the annual session of the Congress Party
was held at Surat, Gujarat.

Again, in 1908, Tilak was sent to Mandalay, Burma to

serve six years' transportation and a fine of Rs
1,000 from 1908 to 1914, in connection with his defence
of two Bengali revolutionaries, Khudiram Bose and
Prafulla Chaki, in his paper, Keshari. While imprisoned,
he continued to read and write, further developing his
ideas on the Indian nationalist movement. While in the
prison he wrote the most-famous Gita Rahasya. Many
copies of which were sold, and the money was donated
for the freedom fighting.

After this term, Tilak re-united with his fellow nationalists

and re-joined the Indian National Congress in 1916 and
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signed the historic Lucknow Pact, a Hindu-Muslim accord,

with Mohammed Ali Jinnah. He also helped found the All
India Home Rule League in 1916–18, with G. S.
Khaparde and Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Annie Besant.
Tilak travelled from village to village trying to conjure up
support from farmers and locals to join the movement
towards self-rule. Tilak was impressed by the Russian
Revolution, and expressed his admiration for Vladimir
Lenin.

Tilak visited England in 1918 as president of the Indian

Home Rule League. He realized that the Labour Party was
a growing force in British politics, and he established firm
relationships with its leaders. He came back in 1919,
advocated in favour of participation of elections to
legislative councils as part of the Montagu-Chelmsford
reforms. But he could not do much in this direction, since
he died in 1920.

Swarajya/Swaraj
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Lokmanya Tilak popularized four concepts: Swaraj,

Swadeshi, national education, and boycott. Swaraj for
him was self-government. He claimed that with Swaraj
everybody would be free and have a right to participate in
the government of the country. He demanded national
self-determination for all colonized countries and argued
that India’s freedom would usher in the freedom of other
subject countries. He declared that Swaraj was his
birthright and he would secure it.

However, it would be simplistic to equate Swaraj with

‘autonomy’ only. Tilak’s concept of Swaraj needs to be
analysed carefully. Since he was primarily an activist and
leader to organise people for Swaraj, it is very difficult to
get a full-fledged and coherent philosophy of the concept
from him. The scholars have to depend on his writings in
Kesari and his speeches to understand the contours of
the concept. Yet, on many occasions, these writings and
speeches contain contradictory notions of Swaraj.

At the outset it must be made clear that Tilak used the

word Swarajya and Swaraj interchangeably. For Tilak,
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Swaraj does not only stand for external/political freedom

but also for internal freedom or freedom of the inner-self.
According to him, both have a complimentary
relationship: one cannot survive without the other.
Ethically speaking, by Swaraj, Tilak meant Dharma Rajya.
It was not simply a question of transfer of power but
beyond that.

In order to search for the origin of Swaraj, Tilak referred

to ancient Indian philosophical and religious texts. In his
words, ‘Religion and practical life are not different. To
take sanyas (renunciation) is not to abandon life. The real
spirit is to make the country, your family work together
instead of working only for your own. The step beyond is
to serve humanity and the next step is to serve God.’ He
further said, ‘I regard India as my Motherland and my
Goddess, the people in India my kith and kin, and loyal
and steadfast work for their political and social
emancipation my highest religion and duty.’

He was overwhelmingly influenced by the teachings of

Bhagawad Gita. According to him, by understanding the
POLITICAL SCIENCE 8

basics of the Karmayoga principles, enshrined in Gita,

one can realise the fullest meaning of the word Swarajya
and act upon it. He wrote: ‘[O]ur Gita religion is a
permanent, undauntable religion and the blessed Lord
has not felt the necessity for Hindus to rely on any other
book or religion.’

According to him, Gita teaches us that man can and must

achieve the self-fulfilment (oneness with the Paramatman
or the Absolute Self) through karmayoga, i.e. through a
life of selfless and disinterested performances of duties.
In his words: ‘The most practical teaching of the Gita,
and one for which it is of abiding interest and value to the
men of the world with whom life is a series of struggles,
is not to give way to any morbid sentimentality when
duty demands sternness and the boldness to face terrible
things.’ The karmayoga ethics, he argued, is superior to
materialistic or hedonistic ethics.

Critique of Hedonism and Utilitarianism

Tilak made a strong critique against the materialistic
hedonism. He found the instances of hedonism in ancient
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India as well as in the modern west. He divided

hedonistic philosophies into three categories: 1) the
advocates of self-interest; 2) the advocates of
enlightened self-interest; and 3) the proponents of the
compatibility of self interest with common interests.
Despite their differences, these philosophies maintained
that one’s own material pleasures ought to be the
objective of one’s morality. Tilak rejected such an ethical
position since they stand against social harmony and
spiritual salvation.

He also could not accept the utilitarian ethics as

formulated in Bentham’s principle of ‘Greatest Good of
the Greatest Number’. He questioned: How is the
‘greatest’ happiness to be determined? Is the quantity of
happiness to be preferred to its quality or vice versa?
Which should be prevailed in case of a conflict between
quantity and quality? Therefore, Tilak favoured the ‘Good
of All’ principle as laid down by Vedas and Bhagawad
Gita.
POLITICAL SCIENCE 10

According to him, the dichotomy between the interest of

the self and those of others have to be overcome by
subordinating former to the latter. This can be done by
inculcating in the individual the virtues of kindness,
prudence, foresight, bravery, fortitude, forbearance, self-
control etc. Tilak held that bodily pleasures are fleeting,
while spiritual happiness is ever lasing.

Swaraj: Tradition and Modernity

He emphasised the spiritual freedom of the individual
during the Home Rule movement. In Gitarahasya, he
wrote: ‘Freedom was the soul of the Home Rule
Movement.’ Like Swami Dayananda, he searched for his
political ideals in ancient Indian texts like Vedas, Gita,
Kautilya’s Arthashastra etc and held that the king must
promote people’s welfare and be accountable to the
people. After tracing the term ‘Swarajyam’ in Vedas, Tilak
pointed out that since the people have the essence of
God in them, they have the right to remove the
oppressive rulers.
POLITICAL SCIENCE 11

Like Dayananda, Tilak also argued that Swaraj is an

ancient concept. ‘The idea of Swaraja is an old one’, he
held. In ancient India too, the states enjoyed political,
economic and moral autonomy. However, he differed with
Dayananda in infusing the element of democratic election
into it. In his words: ‘Swaraj is possessing these [ancient]
rights which native princes had in Indian states with the
difference that instead of hereditary chiefs under Swaraja
there would be an elected President.’

Thus, Tilak was not simply a revivalist of old traditions.

Like other major modern Indian political thinkers, he too
sought to keep the ideational autonomy in the modern
world. As Bankim Chandra Chatterjee sought to keep
cultural autonomy and blend with the modern rational
institutions, similarly, Tilak emphasised that in political
realm too, ancient India enjoyed autonomy, however,
introduction of modern democracy would widen the scope
of such autonomy.

Different Connotations of Swaraj

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Swarajya, for Tilak, had not only political connotation (i.e.

Home Rule) but also a moral connotation (i.e. self control
and inner freedom). He described swarajya in these
words: ‘It is a life centred in self and dependent upon
self. There is swarajya in this world as well as in the
world hereafter... It is my conviction, it is my thesis that
swarajya in the life to come cannot be the reward of a
people who have not enjoyed it in this world.’ Thus, to
enjoy self-rule in the ‘other’ world, one must earn
swarajya in this mortal world.

Tilak recognised four connotations of the term swarajya.

First, it means that the ruler and the ruled belong to the
same country, religion or race. Second, it refers to a well-
governed state or a system of rule law. Third, it means a
government promoting well-being of the people. Fourth,
it stands for a government elected by and responsible to
the people. Tilak had the strongest preference for the last
connotation.

In this context, let us recall that Tilak endorsed the

slogan that Dadabhai Naoroji gave at the Calcutta
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Congress in 1906 that ‘Swaraj’ cannot be assuaged by

‘Suraj’ (good government). According to him, a
democratic government is bound to promote people’s
welfare. He opined that the ideal of democratic polity
would be better served if political science were to be re-
designated rajnitishastra, i.e. theory of political morality.
He maintained that Indians oppressed by British rule
were aware of the advantages of democracy, thus, the
time was ripe for Indian Swaraj/Swarajya.

But for Tilak, Swaraj had not only a political connotation

(i.e. Home Rule) but also a moral/spiritual meaning (i.e.
self-control and inner freedom). He described Swarajya in
these words: ‘It is a life centred in self and dependent
upon self. There is swarajya in this world as well in the
world hereafter... It is my conviction, it is my thesis, that
swarajya in life to come cannot be the reward of a people
who have not enjoyed it in this world.’

Influence of Gita
The Gita made a profound influence on the nationalist
leadership. It influenced Lokmanya Tilak , Mahatama
POLITICAL SCIENCE 14

Gandhi (1869-1948), and Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950), all

as they struggled for india’s independence. Introduced to
it at an early age, each one of them had an occasion to
deepen their understanding of it in prison. Of them Tilak
was the oldest and he wrote his magnum opus, the Gita
Rahasya in 1907 while he was serving a six year prison
term in Mandalay. It is interesting that each one of them
arrived at different interpretations of karma yoga, the
yoga of action.

Tilak created a revolution in the world of ethics with his

Gitarahasya. It had far reaching consequences in the field
of religion, politics, relationship with religious minorities
and national struggle for independence. His nationalism
was highly influenced by the teachings of Bhagavad Gita.
He gave his own interpretation of karmayoga
(work/action/ performance of duty as worship) in his
Gitarahasya. He wrote: ‘[O]ur Gita religion is a
permanent, undauntable religion and the blessed Lord
has not felt the necessity for Hindus to rely on any other
book or religion.’ Gita teaches us that man can and must
achieve the self-fulfilment (oneness with the Paramatman
POLITICAL SCIENCE 15

or the Absolute Self) through karmayoga, i.e. through a

life of selfless and disinterested performances of duties.
In his words: ‘The most practical teaching of the Gita,
and one for which it is of abiding interest and value to the
men of the world with whom life is a series of struggles,
is not to give way to any morbid sentimentality when
duty demands sternness and the boldness to face terrible
things.’

The above interpretation inspired thousands of radical

youth to stand fearlessly against the colonial rule. He also
reflected this view, when he was arrested, sentenced to
six years’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 1000/, in the
wake of ‘terrorist’ acts by the national revolutionaries in
Bengal. After hearing the jury’s verdict, he declared in
the court: ‘All I wish to say is that in spite of the verdict
of the jury, I maintain that I am innocent. There are
higher powers that rule the destiny of things and it may
be the will of Providence that the cause that I represent
may prosper more by my suffering than by remaining
free.’
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Gita and the Idea of Swaraj

Tilak’s idea of Swaraj is based on his firebrand
nationalism, centred on the ethics of performance of duty
without caring for the fallout. The Gita is a sacred text for
Hindus but for Justice S.A.T. Rowlett, who was the
President of the Sedition Committee (1908), it was an
instrument of subversion and sedition. According to him,
the Bengal revolutionaries used the teachings of the
Bhagawad Gita, as also the teachings of Vivekanand “to
create an atmosphere suitable for the execution of their
projects”. The time was also ripe for it as Justice Rowlett
says, “But neither the religious teachings of Bhagavad
Gita would have afforded so moving a text to preach from
had not the whole world, and especially the Asiatic world,
been electrified and amazed by the victories of Japan
over Russia…”

At another place, the report states: For their own initiates

the conspirators devised a remarkable series of
textbooks. The Bhagavad Gita, the writings of
Vivekanand, the lives of Mazzini and Garibaldi, were part
of the course; and in the words of Mr. Justice Mukharji:
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‘such principles as the religious principal of absolute

surrender to the Divine Will were employed by designing
ad unscrupulous men as potent means to influence and
unbalance weak-minded persons and thus ultimately
bend to become instruments in the commission of
nefarious crimes from which they might otherwise recoil
with horror.’

Hence, as Michel Danino has pointed out, the

revolutionaries of Bengal and Maharashtra drew such
inspiration from the Gita that the colonial authorities
came to regard it as the ‘gospel of terrorism’ and it
became one of the most sought after evidence in police
raids. Sri Aurobindo himself is said to have initiated
several revolutionaries by making them swear on the Gita
that they would do everything to liberate India from
foreign yoke. However, in Karmayogin, he took strong
exception to the Gita being regarded as a seditious book:
‘We strongly protest against the brand of suspicion that
has been sought to be placed in many quarters on the
teaching and possession of the Gita – our chief national
heritage, our hope for the future, our great force for the
POLITICAL SCIENCE 18

purification of the moral weaknesses that stain and

hamper our people.’

Evaluation
Tilak’s concept of Swaraj has a deep link with his ethics,
evolved in his Gitarahasya. He created a revolution in the
world of ethics with this book. K.M.Panikkar observes
that it is Tilak’s Gitarahasya which marked the change in
Indian political scenario. He showed for the first time that
the message of the Gita was not renunciation as others
had thought before, but it was essentially a scripture
preaching a doctrine of social activism where action for
human good without personal attachment is preached as
the first imperative.

Aurobindo Ghose, one time colleague of Tilak, assessed

the latter’s contribution towards development of the idea
of Swaraj as a definite and realisable concept. According
to him, ‘Swaraj, complete and early self-government in
whatever form, had the merit in the eyes of making
definite and near to the national vision, the one thing
needful, the one aim mattered, the one essential change
POLITICAL SCIENCE 19

that includes all the others. No nation can develop a living

enthusiasm or accept great action or great sacrifices for a
goal that is lost to its eyes in the mist of far off centuries;
it must see it near and distinct before it, magnified by a
present hope, looming largely and actualised as a living
aim whose early realisation only depends on a great,
sustained and sincere effort.’ Tilak’s notion of
Swaraj/Swarajya acted as a concrete and realisable goal
before the radical nationalist youth of India.