SEDITION IN INDIA

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 308, 22 September 1908, Page 7

SEDITION IN INDIA

TILAK'S SENTENCE. (BT TELEGRAPH—PKESS ASSOCIATION—COrTBIGHT.) (Rec. September 21, 10.13 p.m.) Galcutta, September 21. The newspaper "Pioneer," published at Allahabad, understands that the sentence (six years' transportation and a fine of ono thousand rupees) passed on' tho Nationalist leader B. G. Tilak, for publishing seditious articles, has been commuted. Tilak will bo interned outside tho Bombay Presidency. \ SCHOLAR AND JOURNALIST. In sentencing Tilak, Judge Davar said that the articles seethed with sedition, approved murdors, and approved the employment of bombs. "Bal Gangadhar Tilak (writes "Anglo-In-dian" in a contemporary) is a Mahratta, a member of the brilliant race which was the last to hold extended sway in India before the advent of the British. By caste lie is a Brahmin, by education a scholar, by profession a lawyer, by naturo a leader of men, a master of situations and wilos. He is not Anglicised. He has never been out of India. He has not broken caste. Those who say that the politicians of the National Congress do not represent their people make an exception in the ease of Mr. Tilak. Ho is personally known far and wide in Western India. He heads the multitude on every festival day, whether the celebration be in honour of Sivajo, the national hero of the Mahrattas, or of a Hindu divinity beloved of the common folk. To the educated classos ho makes his appeal from the political platform and through the columns of his two newspapers—the 'Mahratta,' published in English, and _ the ' Kesari' (' Lion'), which has brought him within the range of tho criminal law. Such leisure as ho spares ,from these varied activities he has devoted mainly to Sanksrit scholarship. His book on the Arctic origin of tho Yedas is known to evory competent student of the Indian sacred books. "Mr.Tilak is 52 years old; he has been a popular leader for olose upon 80 years. Tho wholo of his mature life has been a troubled time. In early manhood he was imprisoned for defaming the Minister of a native State. In 1897, during the fury of opposition aroused by tho anti-plague measures of Lord Elgin's Government, ho was condemned for making and printing a seditious speech—a speech which was followed by the murder in Poona of two British officers. The jury hold that tho connection between tho two events was established, and Tilak was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment. At tho end of a year he was released, but soon afterwards was involved in a prosecution, instituted by tho Bombay Government, for alleged criminal maladministration of an estate. The lower Court convicted him, but on appeal. to tho High. Court the' sentence was quashed and the fine romittod.. Sinco then Mr. Tilak has pursuod his courso untroubled by the authorities; but with tho growth of the oxtreme Nationalist party, of which he is the undisputed head, it was obvious to everybody that sooner or later the Government would be driven to try conclusions with him.' It is a significant point that tho judge chosen to try him, a Parsee who before his elevation to the Bench held a prominent position at the Bombay bar, was Mr. Tilak's own counsel in the sedition trial eleven years ago." After Mr. Tilak was sentenced there wore riots in Bombay and a general stoppajjo of