Editing Bal Gangadhar Tilak (section)

===Indian National Congress===
Tilak joined the [[Indian National Congress]] in 1890.{{sfn|Singh|Dhillon|Shanmugavel|Basu|2011|p=43}} He opposed its moderate attitude, especially towards the fight for self-government. He was one of the most-eminent radicals at the time.{{sfn|Brown|1970|p=34}} In fact, it was the Swadeshi movement of 1905–1907 that resulted in the split within the [[Indian National Congress]] into the Moderates and the Extremists.{{sfn|Guha|2011|p=112}}

During late 1896, a bubonic [[Mumbai plague epidemic|plague]] spread from [[Bombay]] to [[Pune]], and by January 1897, it reached epidemic proportions. The [[British Indian Army]] was brought in to deal with the emergency and strict measures were employed to curb the plague, including the allowance of forced entry into private houses, the examination of the house's occupants, evacuation to hospitals and quarantine camps, removing and destroying personal possessions, and preventing patients from entering or leaving the city. By the end of May, the epidemic was under control. The measures used to curb the [[pandemic]] caused widespread resentment among the Indian public. Tilak took up this issue by publishing inflammatory articles in his paper [[Kesari (Marathi newspaper)|Kesari]] (Kesari was written in [[Marathi language|Marathi]], and "[[Maratha (caste)|Maratha]]" was written in English), quoting the Hindu scripture, the [[Bhagavad Gita]], to say that no blame could be attached to anyone who killed an oppressor without any thought of reward. Following this, on 22 June 1897, Commissioner Rand and another British officer, Lt. Ayerst were shot and killed by the [[Chapekar brothers]] and their other associates. According to [[Barbara Metcalf|Barbara]] and [[Thomas R. Metcalf]], Tilak "almost surely concealed the identities of the perpetrators".{{sfn|Metcalf|Metcalf|2006|p=154}} Tilak was charged with incitement to murder and sentenced to 18 months imprisonment. When he emerged from prison in present-day Mumbai, he was revered as a martyr and a national hero.{{sfn|Popplewell|2018|p=34}} He adopted a new slogan coined by his associate [[Joseph Baptista|Kaka Baptista]]: "[[Swaraj]] (self-rule) is my birthright and I shall have it."<ref>{{cite book|title=The Book I Won't be Writing and Other Essays|page=22|publisher=Orient Blackswan|author=HY Sharada Prasad|isbn=978-8180280023|year=2003}}</ref>

Following the [[Partition of Bengal (1905)|Partition of Bengal]], which was a strategy set out by [[Lord Curzon]] to weaken the nationalist movement, Tilak encouraged the [[Swadeshi movement]] and the Boycott movement.{{sfn|Vohra|1997|p=120}} The movement consisted of the boycott of foreign goods and also the social boycott of any Indian who used foreign goods. The Swadeshi movement consisted of the usage of natively produced goods. Once foreign goods were boycotted, there was a gap which had to be filled by the production of those goods in India itself. Tilak said that the [[Swadeshi movement|Swadeshi]] and Boycott movements are two sides of the same coin.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Lokmanya Tilak, his social and political thoughts|page=49|publisher=Ajanta|year=1994|author=Shanta Sathe}}</ref>

[[File:Lal Bal Pal.jpg|thumb|[[Lala Lajpat Rai]] of [[Punjab Province (British India)|Punjab]], Bal Gangadhar Tilak (middle) of [[Maharashtra]], and [[Bipin Chandra Pal]] of [[Bengal]], the triumvirate were popularly known as [[Lal Bal Pal]], changed the political discourse of the [[Indian independence movement]].]]
Tilak opposed the moderate views of [[Gopal Krishna Gokhale]], and was supported by fellow Indian nationalists [[Bipin Chandra Pal]] in [[Bengal]] and [[Lala Lajpat Rai]] in [[Punjab, India|Punjab]]. They were referred to as the "[[Lal Bal Pal|Lal-Bal-Pal]] [[triumvirate]]". In 1907, the annual session of the Congress Party was held at [[Surat]], Gujarat. Trouble broke out over the selection of the new president of the Congress between the moderate and the radical sections of the party. The party split into the radicals faction, led by Tilak, Pal and Lajpat Rai, and the moderate faction. Nationalists like [[Aurobindo Ghose]], [[V. O. Chidambaram Pillai]] were Tilak supporters.{{sfn|Brown|1970|p=34}}{{sfn|Wolpert|1962|p=67}}

When asked in [[Kolkata|Calcutta]] whether he envisioned a Maratha-type of government for independent India, Tilak answered that the Maratha-dominated governments of 17th and 18th centuries were outmoded in the 20th century, and he wanted a genuine federal system for Free India where everyone was an equal partner.<ref name="Singh2009">{{cite book|author=Mahesh Kumar Singh|title=Encyclopaedia on Tilak|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OD4wAQAAIAAJ|year= 2009|publisher=Anmol Publications|isbn=978-81-261-3778-7|page=3}}</ref> He added that only such a form of government would be able to safeguard India's freedom. He was the first Congress leader to suggest that Hindi written in the [[Devanagari]] script be accepted as the sole [[national language of India]].{{sfn|Chaturvedi|p=144}}