Previous Year Question

Sir Valentine Chirol was the person who described Bal Gangadhar Tilak as the “Father of Indian Unrest.”

Valentine Chirol was a British journalist and writer. While analysing the growth of nationalist political activity in India, he discussed the role of Bal Gangadhar Tilak extensively in his work Indian Unrest.

It was in this work that Chirol used the famous expression “Father of Indian Unrest” for Tilak. In his assessment, Tilak's activities had played an important role in stimulating political discontent and nationalist consciousness against British rule beyond Maharashtra as well.

During the early phase of his public life, Tilak used education and journalism as instruments of political awakening. He was associated with the establishment of the New English School and used the Marathi weekly Kesari and the English weekly Mahratta to propagate his political and social ideas.

He also used the public Ganapati Festival and Shivaji Festival as means of wider popular participation and political consciousness. Later, Swadeshi, boycott, national education and Swaraj became important components of his political programme.

Tilak supported more active political methods compared with the constitutional politics of the Moderates. His objective was to take political questions beyond the educated classes and bring them before the wider population.

Because of this influence, Tilak became, in the eyes of British writers and officials, one of the major symbols of growing Indian opposition to colonial rule. Modern official Government of India references also record that the British described him as the “Father of Indian Unrest.”