TILAK
TILAK
..From the available evidence it seems safe to establish the
proposition that the credit of introducing Marx and his doctrine of
class conftlict to India for the first time goes to Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
That Tilak had a genuine interest in socialist thought is evident from
the kind of 'selections' he reproduced from foreign journals in the
issues of the English weekly, The Mahratta, which he edited from its
start in January 1881, and also from the articles he intermittently
wrote championing the cause of agricultural labourers and industrial
workers in the Kesari from the time he took over its editorship from
G.G. Agarkar in 1886 to his last days in 1920.
An article on nihilism' was reproduced by Tilak in The Mahratta of 17 April 1881.This article, reproduced from the English
journal Leisure Hour, noted that nihilism 'manifests itself as radicalism
in politics,
as communism in its social aspect,
as theism in its religious
tendencies'.
Here, then, perhaps for the first time, the term communism' (as ideology) appeared in the Indian press. Tracing the
'communism' (as ideology) appeared in the Indian press. Tracing the
origin and development of nihilism, the author of this article noted
that 'from the first it has been a fierce protest against the existing
society, and the fearful abuses of power under Nicholas, the timid
reformatory measures of his successor and the chaos and contradiction
of autocratic rule (in Russia) generally have been its most potent
support.. . it postulated the entire subversion of existing societies....
No more monarchy; no more established religions;
no more property in land, which is to be free for all as the air, since all have an equal claim to bodily sustenance..
. The article noted that Alexander
Herzen (1812-70) and Michael Bakunin (1816-76) were its first
representatives (The Mahratta, 17 April 1881). Bakunin joined the
First International (a coordinating socialist body) in 1869, but after
storny debates with Karl Marx, was expelled in 1872.
The clinching evidence in support of our proposition comes
from an article which Tilak reproduced in The Mahratta from the
support.. . it postulated the entire subversion of existing societies....
No more monarchy; no more established religions; no more property in land, which is to be free for all as the air, since all have an equal
claim to bodily sustenance... The article noted that Alexander
Herzen (1812-70) and Michael Bakunin (1816-76) were its first
representatives (The Mahratta, 17 April 1881). Bakunin joined the
First International (a coordinating socialist body) in 1869, but after
storny debates with Karl Marx, was expelled in 1872.
The clinching evidence in support of our proposition comes
from an article which Tilak reproduced in The Mahratta from the
4
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4
Lokımanya Tilak on Karl Marx and Class Conflit
English journal Radical. The article, which Tilak described as'a prized
essay' on the best means of utilizing trade unions, focused on Karl
Marx's definition of labour as wealth and on class contlict. Tilak's
genuine concern for the working class is attested by the significant
preamble he prefixed to the reproduced article. It said:
However highly we may boast of progressive civilisation amongst us, there
is still much that renmains to be undone. We extract below from the columns
of the Radical a prized essay on the best means of utilizing trade unions.
The essay is very valuable and we are sure perusal of this essay will produce
a revolution of opinion of a very useful and desirable description (The
Mahratta, 1 May 1881).
Here was a penetrative analysis of the ruthless exploitation of
the working class by capitalists, and of the class confict emerging
thereof. It begins with Charles Darwin's description in his Origin of
Species and discusses 'how certain species of ants steal the eggs of
other species and rear their progeny as their slaves. These little
creatures, when they come into this world, find themselves born into
.
a state of slavery and the whole of their lives through they have to
labour and toil for their captors! This description, the essay argues,
portrays in miniature' the condition of workmen in England. It asks
exploited labourers if they were not
-they and their children-reared
from childhood 'in a state of social slavery'. 'Are you not placed
without your consent in a condition of subversion to other classes?
Are you not, your whole lives through, toiling and labouring and
heaping wealth upon and procuring comfort for another class? Is it
not a fact that you never enjoy the wealth you create?' (The Mahratta,
1 May 1881).
The working clases', the essay further asserts, 'as in the case
of the ants Darwin speaks of, are reared from their birth in this state
of abasenent to another class. Here, then, is the damaged part of our
social system. This is where all the mischief begins.This is the point
to which the trade unions should turn their attention. This
...
