Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Also: Lokmanya Tilak
Background and evolution
Tilak was born into a Chitpavan Brahmin family in Ratnagiri and studied mathematics and law in Poona and Bombay. With friends such as Vishnushastri Chiplunkar and Gopal Ganesh Agarkar he set up the New English School and then the Deccan Education Society, believing that education in Indian hands was the basis of national revival. He left the society later over differences on its direction.
He soon became the most forceful critic of the colonial government in western India. He used Kesari to attack official policies during the famine and plague of 1896–97, and was jailed for sedition in 1897 after articles that the government linked to the assassination of the plague commissioner Rand. Within the Congress he stood against the moderate approach of petitions and appeals, arguing that self-reliance, boycott and mass action were needed. After the 1905 partition of Bengal, along with Lala Lajpat Rai and Bipin Chandra Pal, he formed the "Lal-Bal-Pal" trio of extremist leaders.
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Last reviewed: 23 October 2026 · Original UPSCPrep.in content.