If amongst many Brahmans of Maharashtra hatred of the British is the dominant passion, amongst the Mahratta population at large whatever there is of racial and religious jealousy is mainly directed against the Mahomedans.  This is partly, no doubt, a legacy of the old days of Mahomedan supremacy.  In 1893 some riots in Bombay of a more severe character than usual gave Tilak an opportunity of broadening the new movement by enlisting in its support the old anti-Mahomedan feeling of the people.  He not only convoked popular meetings in which his fiery eloquence denounced the Mahomedans as the sworn foes of Hinduism, but he started an organization known as the “Anti-Cow-Killing Society,” which was intended and regarded as a direct provocation to the Mahomedans, who, like ourselves, think it no sacrilege to eat beef.  In vain did liberal Hindus appeal to him to desist from these inflammatory methods.  Their appeals had no effect upon him, and merely served his purpose by undermining the little authority they still possessed.  Government had forbidden Hindu processions to play music whilst passing in front of Mahomedan mosques, as this was a fertile cause of riotous affrays.  Tilak not only himself protested against this “interference with the liberties of the people,” but insisted that the Sarvajanik Sabha should identify itself with the “national” cause and memorialize Government for the removal of a prohibition so offensive to Hindu sentiment.  The Moderates hesitated, but were overawed by popular clamour and the threats of the Tilak Press.  The Mahomedans and a few other members repudiated the memorial and resigned.  Tilak, though not yet in absolute control of the Sabha, became already practically its master.  No one knew better than he how to compel submission by packed meetings and organized rowdyism.

Tilak’s propaganda had at the same time steadily assumed a more and more anti-British character, and it was always as the allies and the tools of Government, in its machinations against Hinduism, that the Hindu reformers and the Mahomedans had in turn been denounced.  In order to invest it with a more definitely religious sanction, Tilak placed it under the special patronage of the most popular deity in India.  Though Ganesh, the elephant-headed god, is the god of learning whom Hindu writers delight to invoke on the title-page of their books, there is scarcely a village or a frequented roadside in India that does not show some rude presentment of his familiar features, usually smeared over with red ochre, Tilak could not have devised a more popular move than when he set himself to organize annual festivals in honour of Ganesh, known as Ganpati celebrations, and to found in all the chief centres of the Deccan Ganpati societies, each with its mela or choir recruited among his youthful bands of gymnasts.  These festivals gave occasion for theatrical performances[3] and religious songs in which the legends of Hindu mythology were skilfully exploited to stir up hatred