Tilak, Bal Gangadhar (bäl gŭng`gədär tē`läk), 1856–1920, Indian nationalist leader. He was a journalist in Pune, and in his newspapers, the Marathi-language Kesari [lion] and the English-language Mahratta, he set forth his nationalist ideals. He sought a Hindu revival based on Maratha traditions and independence [swaraj] from Britain. After the Indian National Congress Indian National Congress, Indian political party, founded in 1885. Its founding members proposed economic reforms and wanted a larger role in the making of British policy for India.
..... Click the link for more information. was founded (1885), Tilak became the acknowledged leader of the extreme wing. He fought the moderate measures of Gopal Krishna Gokhale Gokhale, Gopal Krishna (gōpäl krĭsh`nə gōkä`lā), 1866–1915, Indian nationalist leader.
..... Click the link for more information. and advocated resistance to British rule; he was arrested (1897) by the British and imprisoned for 18 months. In 1907 a split took place in the Congress, and Tilak led his extremist wing out of the party. The next year he was again imprisoned, this time for six years. Unlike Mohandas Gandhi Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand (mōhän`dəs kŭ'rəmchŭnd` gän`dē)
..... Click the link for more information. , he welcomed the Montagu-Chelmsford Report (1918), which conceded a substantial measure of self-rule.

Bibliography

See biographies by T. V. Parvate (1959) and R. Gopal (1965); S. A. Wolpert, Tilak and Gokhale (1962); G. V. Saroja, Tilak and Sankara on Bhagvad Gita (1985).

Tilak, Bal Gangadhar

(born July 23, 1856, Ratnagiri, India—died Aug. 1, 1920, Bombay) Indian scholar and nationalist. Born to a middle-class Brahman family, Tilak taught mathematics and in 1884 founded the Deccan Education Society to help educate the masses. Through two weekly newspapers, he voiced his criticisms of British rule in India, hoping to widen the popularity of the nationalist movement beyond the upper classes. In response to the Partition of Bengal (1905) he initiated a boycott of British goods and passive resistance, two forms of protest later adopted by Mohandas K. Gandhi. He left the Indian National Congress in 1907 when he was deported for sedition but rejoined in 1916, in time to sign a Hindu-Muslim accord with Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Though militant in his opposition to foreign rule, late in life Tilak advocated a measure of cooperation with the British in order to achieve reforms.