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Thinkers and political figures

Photographic portrait of Bal Gangadhar Tilak wearing a turban.

Portrait: Via Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new tab) · Public domain

Bal Gangadhar Tilak

Country
India
Era
1856–1920
Tradition
Radical nationalism

The first mass leader of the Indian independence movement, who declared that self-rule was a birthright, and who built popular nationalism through public religious festivals.

01

Documented positions

Documented positions come from the sources listed. Similarity is this project’s inference from those positions, and is a much weaker claim.

  • "Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have it" — independence as an entitlement, not a concession
  • Led the "extremist" wing of Congress against the moderates’ petitioning strategy
  • Turned Ganesh and Shivaji festivals into vehicles for mass political organisation
  • Advocated swadeshi: boycott of British goods and promotion of Indian manufacture
  • Opposed the Age of Consent Bill of 1891 as colonial interference in Hindu custom
02

Where it sits on each dimension

Personal liberty

46

Evidence: Documented

Tradition and change

26

Evidence: Well documented

Nation and the world

92

Evidence: Well documented

Religion and the state

74

Evidence: Well documented

Dimensions left unscored, for want of evidence: Wealth and inequality, The state in the economy, Environment and growth, Crime and punishment, Power and its limits

Sources

  • Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Shrimad Bhagavad Gita Rahasya · 1915
  • Stanley Wolpert, Tilak and Gokhale: Revolution and Reform in the Making of Modern India · 1962

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