- Lived:
- 23 July 1856, Ratnagiri, on the Konkan coast → Poona (Pune), with six years in a Mandalay prison and his death in Bombay (Mumbai), 1 August 1920
- Field:
- nationalism — journalist, agitator, and the inventor of Indian mass politics; also a self-taught Vedic scholar and philosopher of the Gītā
- The Big Idea:
- Freedom would not be granted to petitions; it would be taken by crowds. So he built the crowds — a cheap Marathi newspaper, public festivals, Home Rule leagues — and gave them one sentence to march behind.
- In their words:
- "Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have it." (the slogan of his 1916–17 Home Rule speeches; see the chapter for its provenance)
- If you remember one thing:
- Two generations of educated Indians had asked the British for reforms in polished English. Tilak turned around, faced his own people in their own language, and asked them for the nation — and was twice sent to prison for the asking.