Ratnagiri, the birthplace of the man whom Mahatma Gandhi posthumously called the architect of modern India, needs development even after a century of time has passed. This city is far away from the acceptance of modernity. I am talking about Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak original name Keshav Gangadhar Tilak and his birthplace Ratnagiri.
Ratnagiri, a town built in Konkan culture and rites, is a hallmark of how many times we take the names of our national heroes and how many times we take care of them. Coming here, it is evident that today’s leaders take Tilak’s name repeatedly for the sake of votes from the forums, but only rituals are performed to save his heritage.
Its reality is found only at Ratnagiri station. I get down on the platform around 3:30 in the morning. 10-12 people in the count are walking or lying on the floor waiting for a train. The tea seller outside the station is trying to pacify the morning demands of the people. It seems from his gesture that the business will start, he is waiting for this. The retiring room at the station is closed… It was argued that it is closed due to corona infection.
10-12 rickshaws are parked outside the station. Obviously there is a search for work, because there are only two-three people going out at that time. There is only one lodge just opposite the station. Apart from this, there is no option, as the rest of the lodges are in the city, which is about 10 km from there. Somewhere along the way, streetlights are giving evidence of lights, which are insufficient.
However, after spending the night in the lodge opposite the station, I go out in the morning to visit the Tilak memorial. There is a lot of enthusiasm in the mind that what will be the birthplace of the national hero who proclaims ‘Swaraj is my birthright and I will have it’… in which environment he will be playing. He made this immortal announcement during a rally in Lucknow. I was in auto, but eyes were peeping out every moment to know the city of that great fighter.
The rickshaw puller, about 9 km away from the station, said – Now we are near the memorial. This is Jhargaon area. A few steps before the turn of the main road, Tilak Aali. Other than that there is no sign anywhere. Half a furlong from the beginning of the street comes the house, which is the Tilak memorial. It is a residential and commercial mix of typical Marathi-Konkani environment.
Around 11:00 am I was alone there… I take a picture of the big gate, there it is written on the board – Tilak’s birthplace. Inside there is a life-size statue of Tilak on a platform in the left side. In front is the Konkani style house where Tilak was born. This house with thatched roof is in a large complex. After a few stairs there is a small verandah. To its right, a woman is sitting on a table on a chair. In front of it is the visitor register.
The woman only knows Marathi… in the midst of trying to understand her, three-four visitors come. They were from Mumbai and Kolhapur. With the help of these people, I am able to talk to the woman. It is learned that her husband Ravindra Sawant is the watchman here. She sits here in his absence. These people live behind the memorial complex. After a while, the watchman Ravindra comes. They don’t know much about the monument. He is working here for 10 years.
Ravindra explains that the memorial opens from 10:00 am to 5:30 pm and Monday is a holiday. In the verandah Tilak’s success story is pasted in black and white and some color paintings. Tilak was born in a hollow on the left of the verandah. Tilak’s turban, shoulder strap and some items are saved in a transparent glass cupboard in the room. To its right is another room. Descending two stairs from it, there is a room below.
From whose design it seems that the kitchen must have been there. A copper pot has been saved in this room. Similarly, in one of the back rooms, the life story of Tilak has been decorated with paintings. Ruchi Shete Khandari, who is working in the State Archeology Department, tells that earlier the floor of the house was raw. It was smeared with cow dung. Acquired by the State Archaeological Department in 1976. After that it was fixed.
Watchman Ravindra Sawant explains that this is a two storey house i.e. first floor and first floor. There are 9 rooms in the ground floor below and three rooms in the first floor above. However the upper part is closed. There is a balcony in front. There are stairs to go up from the left. There is an open space behind the house, at the end of which there is a place of convenience etc., which are very dirty at the moment. There was no special cleanliness even in the back compound.
One thing stands out the most here is that all the information and information here is in Marathi only. It is astonishing that a big national hero like Tilak has been confined to just one language. Tilak, who was described by the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru as the father of the Indian Revolution. Ravindra tells about this that most of the people come here from Pune, Mumbai or Kolhapur. On normal days, 50 to 100 visitors come here, while on holidays this figure reaches 300 to 400.
Occasionally someone comes from outside the state. A visitor from Mumbai says in Marathi that Tilak was anti-British and anti-English. I correct him and tell him that he was against the British, but he himself brought out the newspaper Maratha Darpan in English. In this regard, the interest of the Archaeological Department says that your suggestion is good that apart from Marathi, there should be information in Hindi and English so that more and more people can reach Tilak and know him.
Vilas Wahane, assistant director of the Archaeological Department, says that after a long wait, the state government has approved an amount of two crore rupees. They express hope that the face of Tilak’s birthplace will change in the next two years. From this amount, the work of maintenance of the birthplace and memorial will be done.
…then great people will be insulted
Exemplary initiative…No banner-poster in the entire city showed Tilak’s name or picture. No seal of Tilak’s name was found even on government or non-government institutions. It is astonishing here in this tumultuous era of changing cities and institutions. Lodge operator Rajiv explains that people here do not like that the names of their heroes are misused. They come to the feet later by printing names and photos in posters, banners. It is an insult to great people. Here I did not even find the name of any school or college on Tilak. This is a truly exemplary initiative.
Tilak Literary on Memorial
Tilak was an intense nationalist, eminent lawyer, teacher, social reformer and freedom fighter as well as a revolutionary writer. In 1908, Lokmanya Tilak supported the bomb attack of revolutionary Prafulla Chaki and revolutionary Khudiram Bose. Because of this, Tilak was sent to Mandalay, Burma (Myanmar) to serve a six-year prison sentence on charges of sedition and abetting terrorism. In Mandalay prison, Tilak composed his magnum opus Shrimad Bhagavadgita Rahasya (“The Secret of the Bhagavad Gita”).
Earlier, in 1893, he had published works The Orion and The Arctic Home in Vedaj. The aim of both the works was to promote Hindu culture as the successor of Vedic religion. The absence of such great works on Tilak’s memorial shows that the effort to save his creativity and personality is incomplete. Vilas Wahane, Assistant Director of the Department of Archeology, says that there is no official reading room or reference house for Tilak literature. Although they believe that it should be.