TILAK, BAL GANGADHAR (1856–1920), was an Indian political leader. Known by his followers as Lokamanya, "revered by the people, " but as the "father of Indian unrest" by the British authorities in India, Tilak had a crucial role in defining Indian nationalism by an appeal to Hindu religious and cultural symbols. He was born on July 23, 1856, in the Ratnagiri district of the Bombay Presidency. His family belonged to the Citpāvan subcaste of Brahmans, members of which had been influential as both religious and secular functionaries under the Marathas, the last indigenous rulers of the region, and Tilak had a proud consciousness of the greatness of Hindu civilization. He began his career in the recently established Fergusson College in Poona, where in 1881 he and his friend G. G. Agarkar established two newspapers: Kesari, in Marathi, and Maratha, in English. The papers criticized many aspects of British...