The philosophy of nonviolent protest Term Paper

The philosophy of nonviolent protest - Term Paper Example This was substituted with active voices and progressive actions that led to change against injustices. The basis of nonviolent protest came from the philosophies of Henry David Thoreau. This followed with several political and cultural leaders that followed the main philosophies of Thoreau and which focused on creating higher levels of equality and freedom for the cultural and social aspects of society. More importantly, each of these leaders was able to create a voice that was based outside of violence and which instead gained prestige from the use of actions and alternative forces to change the current political environment. The basis of the philosophy of non – violent protest was known to come from Thoreau’s book, Civil Disobedience, which was written in 1848. The main concept that is pointed out in this book is based on the current government and the injustices and lack of freedom that came from policies of the government. Thoreau points out that any violent protests are an arm of the government and represent a sense of injustice that is associated with politics. Thoreau believes that the use of violence and the army is one that creates a lack of integrity from the government. More importantly, Thoreau points out that the army alone is one that eventually leads to the inability for a country to be free or to function through the democratic ideals in which it is founded on. The challenge that Thoreau places is to create a better environment, which is specifically based on adding in integrity and an initiation to end violence through the country. The first ideology that Thoreau gives with the basic concept of the government and using non – violent protest is based on the moral obligations that are in the government. Thoreau believes that the use of violence is one that initiates a lack of integrity and the inability to have responsibility to humans and life. More importantly, the use of violent force doesn’t allow men to act with

Race and Ethnicity Essay Example for Free

Race and Ethnicity Essay The ongoing struggle to fight the skin color prejudice in the contemporary American society is portrayed in Michael Jackson’s song â€Å"Black or White. † Whereas the racism is defined as a superior behavior against other race-thus making it inferior, the singer refers to this term as â€Å"See, it’s not about races, just places, faces, where your blood comes from is where your space is. † Michael Jackson, one of the most influential artists in the music industry, calls for equality in how people view and behave towards each other. The question, which this master thesis investigates, does it matter if you’re black or white, is clearly answered by the singer: â€Å"It don’t matter if you’re black or white. † Jackson was trying to influence his society to act in a similar way and he calls for them to live their lives by Dr. Luther’s dream â€Å"†¦. judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. † However, almost thirty years later, it still seemed only as a dream because he sang: â€Å"I’m tired of this Devil†, where the bad is being represented by the prejudice. At the same time, he clearly states: â€Å"I’m not gonna spend my life being a color† – this is where he makes his conclusion. This can imply that even though he doesn’t discriminate and would like to see color prejudice gone, he is still being discriminated against. While being the most prominent artist in the music industry, he still calls himself â€Å"a color† and he rebuts against it and wants to be seen for the person he is and not the pigmentation of his skin. It is widely known that Michael Jackson had many facial plastic surgeries and it is controversial whether or not he altered his skin color by chemical peels or was it the disease called vitiligio that changed his face color to white. Therefore, it can be speculated that he modified skin to appear white, which ultimately is his vision. It can be further questioned – since Michael Jackon can’t win his struggle for racial equality, did he give up and go white – just to end his inner battle? Will all his suffering come to closure since now he looks white? Is this the true answer? It may be deemed as so since the skin color is the guide of one’s position in the society where being white claims supremacy-control and power. It should be noted that Michael Jackson is one of the greatest musicians of all times, having sold over 750 million records worldwide. He has accomplished so much in his life, yet still feels inferior and calls for racial equality in the world. His vision for a better world to live in, free of racism, ends on a sad note: â€Å"It’s black, it’s white†. To summarize, through decades, the blacks have fought to be equal, as the American nation shall guarantee those rights, yet, the society is still divided into the superior, the whites, and inferior- the blacks (and other people of color). Blacks have always been portrayed as the dirty, the poor, the lesser-of-a human type whereas the whites are seen as the dominant, the good type. Again, Jackson does not agree with this stereotype in saying: â€Å"I ain’t second to none. † Moreover, he claims that he will no longer be scared and mentions historical symbol of a KKK group: â€Å"I ain’t scared of your brother, I ain’t scared of no sheets. † With his passing in 2009, many of his inner struggles come to the end, but will the next generation start working on being color-free as the king of pop envisioned? America has always struggled with racial issues, especially those of black and white. Some them included racial segregation, education, workforce, banking and even seating on the bus. Black people continuously tried to â€Å"break thru† into community, but were always pushed aside as dirty, poor and unwelcome. We, in modern times, see the United States of America as a country that treats everyone equal. Americans should all be all equal, no matter what race, color, religion or any other characteristics they have. After all, we all remember year 2009, which is when Americans elected their first African American President. Question that comes to mind – why â€Å"first African American President,† not just simply their 44th President? So – the race and color of your skin does matter in modern times. My analyses of selected books, academic journals, films and music video will concentrate and argue if Americans indeed discriminate against race or if it is history and no longer exists in American life. First, I would like to take into consideration the iconic Michael Jackson, one of the greatest, perhaps the greatest singer and performer of the 21st century. Not only his songs deserve a closer look, but also his lifestyle – ideas, fears and the public opinion. â€Å"Black or White† by Michael Jackson and Bill Bottrell is a one of the greatest singles in Michael’s career. It was released on November 11, 1991. What inspired Michael to particularly select these two topics? Black or white – as implied in the song, he sings about skin color. Songs starts in Africa, possibly showing Jackson’s â€Å"beginning† – he is black. In one of the scenes, Michael sings â€Å"I ain’t scared of no sheets; I ain’t scared of nobody† while he is walking through fire images – which is being compared to KKK and its torch ceremonies. Here, he is portraying his painful vision of KKK and its vision. Later, the performers sing â€Å"I’m not gonna spend my life being a color. † What a great statement. Michael, throughout his whole life and his career, shows us his inner and constant fight for a non-racial America. Being black himself, he had struggled and finally came to the top, but still did not achieve the level of happiness – which is â€Å"no color† in his country. Later, Jackson sings on Statue of Liberty’s torch, again possibly reminding us about the KKK, and at the same time – the Statue symbolizes liberty, which for him will be color-free, no discrimination America. We shouldn’t forget about Michael’s actions in this video. In the original version, he is smashing the car, windows and the inn exploded. However, later he had to edit this version to minimize his violent behavior, however. He altered it by adding four racial graffiti messages onto the windows that he was smashing. As I suggested earlier, Michael Jackson is portrayed as an angry black man who simply hates the discrimination against black people and shows his feelings by destroyed his surroundings, as he was being destroyed himself –just for being of black color. In is interesting to observe, the Jackson, when asked to change his destructive aggressive music video, he indeed did change it, but didn’t forget about this hostility towards discrimination. He had just portrayed it differently (graffiti). First message reads: â€Å"Hitler Lives,† then â€Å"Nigger Go Home,† â€Å"No More Wetbacks,† and finally â€Å"KKK Rules. † It can be argued if Michael Jackson is simply smashing windows with those painful ideas – is destroying them – to make a better world? Finally, the song comes from the album â€Å"Dangerous. † What did the author have in mind? Are all of those issues, painful experiences and the fight for non-colored America dangerous? It can be argued that yes. Jackson showed us the dangerous side of being black, where he was always forced to fight and that causes different sorts of trouble. In â€Å"Black or White,† Michael brilliantly portrayed two core problems people were facing daily: black or white. As we look at his lifestyle and constant metamorphoses, Michael Jackson had numerous surgeries that altered the color of his skin and make him â€Å"white. † It is very controversial as many sources quote that Jackson had a condition where one looses a pigment of his skin, called vitiligo. However, Michael Jackson public image is seen as a person who constantly tried to be white, therefore, sought surgeries to help him attain this goal. Michael Jackson shows us that it could have probably been easier to make himself white and not struggle for color-free America, where everyone is equal, no matter of who there are or what they look like. It would also be important to analyze some of the lyrics from Jackson’s music video. He sings: â€Å"I had to tell them I ain’t second to none. † It can be understood that he no longer is accepting the fact that black is â€Å"second,† which is worse, just because of the color. He continues: â€Å"And I told about equality† – he tells us he wants to be considered equal, despite his skin color. Next verse, he has really had enough of being pushed around because he is black â€Å"I am tired of this devil, I am tired of this stuff, I am tired of this business. † Finally, he talks about racism in: â€Å"See, it’s not about races, Just places, Faces, Where your blood, Comes from, Is where your space is, I’ve seen the bright, Get duller, I’m not going to spend, My life being a color. † Here Michael Jackson compares himself to simply being a â€Å"color. † He is less than a human being only because he is not white. He is â€Å"black. † Again, he accents his refusal of living his life being black. He wants to be equal, equal to white. It should be also noted that throughout video, Michael Jackson is wearing black and white clothing (white shirt, black blazer, white accents on his right arm and nails, black shoes, white socks). He seems to be a person caught in a black-and-white world and struggles to change it, showing his pain. However, at the very end, he turns into a black panther. This transformation may symbolize him as a black man who will fight for his rights, yet, still remain black. In book â€Å"The Color of Credit: Mortgage Discrimination, Research Methodology, and Fair-Lending Enforcement† Stephen L. Ross and John Yinger present racial issues and argue the importance of skin color in banking. It should be noted that this book was published in 2002, year where we all think that American people are equal, especially on racial basis. Therefore, why and how does the skin color come into play in banking? First, the American lenders take many factors into consideration when disbursing the mortgage. Such factors include many details such as the creditor’s ability to repay the loan – where the lender accesses the potential risk of losing the loan. There are many different lenders and they base their information on statistics, demographics and make final decision based on the risk factors. Research showed that mainly blacks would seek loans, which are not favorable to all lenders. Therefore such bank does take race into consideration when reviewing for application for credit. It is also shown that blacks will most likely work with subprime lenders (44%) with comparison to whites (only 4%). Blacks generally cannot use the prime mortgage market due to their poor qualifications, thus creating the black to white ratio of getting the mortgage with figures of 2. 28 denial for prime market and 1. 27 for subprime. At the same time, limited research shows that blacks-even though have some qualifications as white – would remain in the subprime market and thus be charged higher fees. Equal Credit Opportunity Act says: It shall be unlawful for any creditor to discriminate against any applicant, with respect to any aspect of a credit transaction—on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex or marital status, or age (provided the applicant has the capacity to contract). (U. S. Code Title 15, Chapter 41, Section 1691) This would mean that all people should be treated equally in banks, when doing business in banks, no discrimination in credit transaction. However, authors argue that the bank may take a different look at the person and who they are in â€Å"business necessity† can be proved. Therefore, even while it is regulated by law, certain discriminatory practices can and do exist. Later, it would be rather hard to prove that the lender discriminated based for example on race. All regulations are not very clear and courts find it hard to find such a connection of discrimination. It is implied that blacks, with poorer ability to repay, living in lower income communities, must face subprime, expensive mortgages – to possibly make as much money as possible in the shortest time-so if the black borrower defaults on his payments, the lender wouldn’t lose its investment. This is to compare with the white borrower who lives in the richer-type setting, is more likely to meet his payments, therefore, he is offered a prime mortgage rate, without the necessity to further secure the loan. It can be argued if blacks and whites are treated equally, despite many regulations. On one hand, the lender must adhere to all necessary regulations, but on the other hand, such institution can make necessary decisions to make that mortgage profitable – thus, taking all factors into consideration in the application process. We can further analyze that race and color of skin does matter when one is being evaluated for such an application. It is believed that whites pose a lower risk to a financial institution than blacks. This also means, as authors point out, that black are less likely to be approved for a higher-priced home than a white person, which causes the real estate agents to discriminate and not show the more expensive houses to blacks. Maybe they don’t discriminate, they just know that lender is not likely to approve a black person in comparison to the same application of a white person? It is particularly important to note that authors point out that ‘‘on average, black mortgage applications have higher loan-to value and debt-to-income ratios than do white applications. ’’ In closing, it should be noted that while many regulations exist, there is no proof that racial discrimination has gone away and some research suggests that blacks still have lower approval rate in comparison to the whites. It is said that race does play a key role when the lender looks at your mortgage application.

Commodity Price Movements in the Twenty first Century

Commodity Price Movements in the Twenty first Century Commodity Super Cycles and Bubbles Sharp movement in commodity prices, especially of oil, and some base metals like copper, since the turn of the century, have attracted enormous international attention and debate. The price of oil, which shot up from the sedate levels of approximately twenty-eight USD per barrel, a few years ago, to the high seventies, in 2006, sent ripples through the economies of advanced nations, even as it added billions to the current account surpluses of oil rich nations, like Kuwait. While the movement in oil attracted international attention because of its universal usage, prices of items like copper, steel, cement and uranium also soared to new heights. These developments led to intense discussion among economic experts and business thinkers, who were divided in their opinion about the causes of commodity behaviour, as well as its future movement. While a large number of scholars feel that the recent movement in commodity prices is no more than the initial movement of a wave that will last for many more years, if not decades, others put it down to wrong economic policies and the work of market speculators. This research assignment aims to study and explore the various aspects of this extremely intriguing and globally significant development, and thus arrive at findings and conclusions that are able to illuminate the complex topic. Executive Summary This research assignment attempts to delve deeply into the causal factors behind the sharp upward movement in prices of commodities during the last six years. The assignment is structured into sections that describe the situation in totality, and then take up the many theories that have gained ground in recent years on the issue. While many people believe that a commodity super cycle is under way, powered by the demand for materials from an enormously fast growing China, others feel that these movements, like the one in the price of oil, is a twenty-first century reminder of the commodity bubble that took the price of tulips to astronomical heights in seventeenth century Holland. The study includes an analysis of the commodity super cycle, the roles played by the growth of China and India in increasing commodity demand, the effect of liberal monetary policies, and that of speculative activity, in the price movement process. Detailed analyses of the thoughts and writings of experts on the subject, including thinkers like Jim Rogers and financial professionals like Stephen Roach, along with the study of texts and journals available on the subject, have led to findings that have lent themselves to some interesting analyses and conclusions. These will hopefully prove to be relevant in providing fresh perspectives, and increase available knowledge on the issue. 1. Introduction a. Overview Recent years have witnessed enormous changes in the global economic scenario. Much of what is happening in the cross continental market place owes its origin to the vision and determination of a slightly built and thrice married octogenarian, Deng Xiao Ping. Deng, the Chairman of the People’s Republic in the 1980s, introduced broad and sweeping changes in the Chinese economy under the name of the four modernisations. His reforms, which covered agriculture, industry, science and technology, and the military, opened up the Chinese economy, and were instrumental in transforming it into one of the largest and fastest growing economies of the world. (Deng Xiao Ping, 2007) Years of double-digit economic and infrastructural growth in China profoundly affected the economies of other countries, and, in the process, set off a huge tide of economic movement that encompassed the whole world. In the mid nineties, the socialist government of India, threatened by international debts, shrinki ng foreign exchange reserves, and an exasperated population, decided to catch up with its larger neighbour, and initiated a series of economic reforms that led to sharp increases in economic development, and catapulted the country into the ranks of the fastest growing world economies. The unharnessing of these two countries, which together account for a third of global population, from the shackles of state economic control, has created an unprecedented demand for commodities. As China and India rush to make up for decades of low growth, poor living standards, and abysmal poverty, their booming economies are hungrily devouring ever-increasing quantities of metals, agricultural produce and oil products. This insatiable hunger, in the opinion of economists and market analysts, has led to the development of a sustained increase in prices of commodities, known in economic parlance as a commodity super cycle. Other thinkers and columnists have expressed dissenting views, blaming market speculators for building up prices to unrealistic levels and creating artificial bubbles; which were bound to burst, and cover all connected with a good amount of unpleasant and possibly disastrous debris. b. Definition of problem The current upward movement of commodity prices has assumed worrying overtones. The escalating prices of crude oil, which moved up, in a period of a few years, from the regions of the mid twenties per barrel, to that of the high seventies, perplexed and worried governments, and economic thinkers all over the world. Apart from oil, prices of many commodities, particularly metals and agricultural produce, have escalated to unprecedented levels, impacting price indices, affecting buying power, and unsettling economies on a cross continental basis. Price behaviours of different commodities are under detailed scrutiny, with experts trying to pin down their reasons. While the sharp increase in the price of maize is attributed to the diversion of corn for production of bioethanol for the US and Brazilian markets, (Trade aspects of Biofuels, 2007) the increase in prices of oil is thought to be due to its increased consumption in China and India. The huge boom in the Indian stock market, on t he other hand, appears to be due to the large influx of foreign institutional investors, who have taken indices in the last two years to more than twice that of 2005. While the enormous increase in economic activity has resulted in increased profitability for business corporations, and has presumably contributed towards reduction of poverty and want, the accompanying inflation has also brought with it enormous worries, particularly for governments of developing countries. Recent months have seen governments, (under tremendous pressure from angry citizens) and central banks raise prime lending rates, and use other economic tools to suck extra money out of the system, in futile attempts to contain runaway inflation. In the midst of numerous theories, the only constant appears to be in the movements of commodity prices, which continue to climb, of course with periodic pauses, and occasional corrections. The development of a long lasting commodity super cycle, in the opinion of many experts, appears to be the major causal factor behind the present circumstances. In this scenario, it becomes important for economic thinkers to focus on the actual reason s for this phenomenon, and its likely consequences, in order to take corrective action. c. Objective This assignment delves deeply into the issues related to commodity life cycles, and commodity bubbles, from economic, political and social perspectives, and with particular reference to the current global economic scenario. The subject matter is enormous and covers local and international developments in politics, society and economics. The assignment involves examination of primary and secondary information sources, and the study of available literature and research. It makes substantial use of secondary material in the form of texts, journals and magazine articles as well as internet sources for purposes of data availability, analysis and investigation. A good amount of thinking on the subject has occurred in the past few years with numerous experts expressing frequently contradictory and quite confusing views in their syndicated and one-off columns. Despite serious and sincere effort, some important information regarding the topic may well have not found place in the assignment, a deficiency that could limit the validity of its conclusions. The bibliography provides complete details of the accessed information. The order of issues taken up for discussion is sequential, for the sake of logical progression of ideas and thought. 2. Literature Review a. The Commodity Super Cycle Economists have, for decades, believed in the theory of cyclical growth, characterised by periods of growth, followed by years of depression or slump. Events, economies, and political systems move through cycles similar to the natural life cycles of living beings. These cycles, while observable, have no obvious reason and involve changes between periods of comparatively swift increase of production, income and prosperity and periods of relative stagnation. (Business Cycle, 2007) These periodic movements do not follow an established or expected pattern and behave randomly, with extended, or short, growth or slump years. In the stock and commodity markets, these boom and bust periods have been famous for causing widespread prosperity or destruction. Cycles generally comprise of four distinct phases namely contraction, trough, expansion, and peak. Whereas expansions and contractions account for the major portion of the cycle, the troughs and peaks denote the lower and upper turning poin ts where contractions change into expansions and vice versa. These cycles have been the focus of detailed economic study for ages with governments trying, mostly without success, to smoothen slumps, periods that have historically caused widespread unemployment, losses and suffering. Business cycles are as applicable to commodities as to other elements of the economy and are generally measurable in movement of national or regional GDP. Occasionally, commodities move into a phase of upward movement in prices for extended periods, which continue for many years, sometimes even many decades. They mainly occur because of major economic developments that are significant enough to drive demand and consumption on a global basis for long periods. Super cycles form because of the industrialisation or urbanisation of a major economy, (Heap, 2005) a process that normally occurs over decades, and leads to situations wherein increases in supplies of commodities are unable to catch up with increases in their demand. These imbalances, while originating in particular geographical areas, occur for years and result in substantial price increases of commodities, and that too on a global basis, for extended periods. What we can say is that there clearly are long-term cycles and that they are driven by fundamental changes in the world around us. Global wars, the industrial revolution, major innovations in transport and communications are just some of the factors that can instigate long-lasting shifts in economic growth, that in turn stimulate demand for commodities. Increased demand drives prices higher while producers struggle to increase the capacity to meet that demand. Ultimately, prices peak when excess capacity has been developed – the cycle is then completed when demand abates and general surpluses force prices lower. (Guthrie, 2007) Two discernible super cycles have occurred during the last 150 years. (Heap, 2005) Huge economic and infrastructural growth in the USA, during the turn of the nineteenth century, created a super cycle in commodities. Later, commodity super cycles developed during the post war reconstruction of Europe followed by enormous economic activity in Japan. If you look at history, there have always been super cycles in demand for commodities. There was a super- cycle during the British industrial revolution, during America’s huge period of growth before and after the second world war and during Japan’s industrialisation in the 1970s.† (Cooper, 2005) Many economists feel that the movement of commodity prices since the turn of the millennium indicates that the global economy is in the midst of a strong commodity super cycle, a phase that has just about started and still has a long way to go. Gary Dorsch, writing for SafeHaven (2006) states that the Reuters Jefferies Commodity Price Index (CRB), which comprises of futures in â€Å"live cattle, cotton, soybeans, sugar, frozen concentrated orange juice, wheat, cocoa, corn, gold, aluminium, nickel, unleaded gasoline, crude oil, natural gas, heating oil, coffee, silver, copper and lean hogs† has reached levels 91 % higher than what it was four years ago, its highest level in 26 years. Apart from the behaviour of the CRB index, prices of oil have increased seven times from its 1999 levels. Demand for oil is about 85m barrels a day at the moment and most people forecast that it will hit 125m barrels a day in the next 15 to 20 years. I see no way in which this will be met, so oil prices will stay high.† Goldman Sachs, the investment bank, has even forecast that the oil price could hit $100 a barrel in the event of a â€Å"supply shock† — a disruption to the supply of oil as a result of natural disaster, sabotage, war or political upheaval. (Cooper, 2005) Copper has also behaved in virtually the same manner from the lows it saw in 2001. â€Å"Now it’s the turn of the grains, where wheat and particularly corn have exploded higher on the US futures exchanges.† (Guthrie, 2007) A number of other experts are reinforcing this phenomenon. While metals, led by base metals such as copper, aluminium and zinc, as well as precious metals like gold, silver and platinum have, until now, along with oil, led the price charge, prices of agricultural produce are also beginning to rocket. â€Å"Recently however, commodity traders have doubled sugar prices to 24-year highs, and are moving into coffee and soybeans.† (Dorsch, 2006) Prices of iron ore have risen to dizzying heights, practically 72 % in 2005. While tracking of commodity prices is an ongoing activity, the frenetic movement of prices during the last seven years has added another dimension to the issue. Numerous articles, either prophesying its continuation for many more years or predicting a roll back in the near future, pack the pages of financial journals and magazines. Each minute movement in commodity prices is subjected to detailed scrutiny, compared with trends and used as a base for future forecasts. The majority however appears to be in consensus that the current trend of increasing prices, across a cross section of fuel, metal and agricultural commodities should remain in place for quite some time. b. Main Causes behind Current and Expected Price Behaviour in Commodities While numerous major and minor reasons affect commodity price behaviour, this discussion focuses on a few major reasons, widely accepted to be the primary causal factors behind the constant and significant price increases of the past few years. The liberalisation process kick started by Deng Xiao Ping, in China, in the early eighties, led to developments that were possibly beyond his wildest expectations, and catapulted him into the ranks of those whose actions changed today’s world. The implementation of economic reforms accompanied with the opening of the Chinese economy resulted in unprecedented and unimaginable growth rates. During the last twenty-five years, the country’s economy changed from a centrally administered system, largely closed to international trade, to a market oriented economy with a rapidly growing private sector. Reforms, which commenced with the phasing out of collective farming, expanded to incorporate freedom from price control, fiscal decentralization, increased autonomy for state controlled enterprises, a large and diverse banking infrastructure, vibrant stock markets, the growth of privately owned and controlled enterprise and the opening of the economy to trade and investment. As C hina implemented the reforms in a phased manner, the restructuring and consequent efficiencies led to a year on year GDP growth well in excess of 10 % and a tenfold increase in GDP since 1978. The country, in recent years, has overtaken the most advanced nations of the world, and in terms of purchasing power parity, stands second only to the United States. Exports are a key driver behind the Chinese economic miracle, with Chinas currency exchange controls and trade surplus with the US topping $204 billion in 2005, a 25% increase on the previous year and nearly 30% of the total US deficit. The lynchpin of Chinese exports is the low Yuan /dollar exchange rate pegged at 8.11 per dollar, undervalued by 30% to 40% on a trade-weighted basis. (Dorsch, 2006) Growth has also driven enormous spending on infrastructure and urbanisation, with millions of Chinese relocating from villages to urban centres. Foreign investors, from the west, as well as from East Asian economies like Japan and South Korea have invested significantly in the PRC, making it, in many ways, the world’s factory. The country has the largest current account surplus, nearly 180 billion USD, in the world. (CIA Factbook, 2007) This phenomenal economic and industrial growth, involving a ten-fold increase in GDP, has made the country a huge commodity consumer. â€Å"In China, intensity of use is now three times that of the USA, with demand driven by urbanisation, industrialisation and fixed capital formation.† (Heap, 2005) The Chinese miracle, with its huge demand for commodities has affected commodity prices profoundly in the past few years. â€Å"As China’s economy expands, it is sucking in raw materials to build up its infrastructure, including roads, power stations and factories.† (Cooper, 2005) This demand led to the country picking up a huge share of the overall growth in global consumption with growth in internal consumption. â€Å"The International Monetary Fund reports that its share of the overall growth in global consumption of industrial commodities between 2002 and 2005 was massive – 51% for copper, 48% for aluminium, 110% for lead, 87% for nickel, 54% for steel, 86% for tin, 113% for zinc, and 30% for crude oil.† (Guthrie, 2007) The country now accounts 12 % of global industrial production, compared to 6 % in 1995, 4 % of GDP on an exchange rate basis and 13 % on a purchasing power parity basis. Appendix A provides details about China’s demand for various metals. The constantly increasing demand from China, despite regular predictions of slowdown, has served to propel commodity prices year after year. While these price surges have had their periods of relative stagnation, as well as corrections, the demand shows no sign of abating and should grow for many more years. The per capita consumption of beef, for example, in China is 12 pounds per person, compared to 100 pounds per person, in western countries. As perceptions change and the possibility of the country catching up in the prosperity scales with advanced nations becomes a reality, the projected increase in demand assumes overwhelming proportions. While China has been and should continue to be a major driver of commodity prices for many more years to come, other factors have also contributed towards price movement and their effect may well increase in future. India, the world’s second largest country and its’ largest democracy started opening up its economy from the mid nineties. Shackled for years under a bureaucratic mixed economy regime that favoured the public sector, the country suffered from an abysmally slow growth rate for practically fifty years since it achieved independence in 1947. The opening up of the economy, and the introduction of economic reforms, while slower in implementation than China’s, (due primarily to the democratic and debate oriented nature of Indian society), nevertheless picked up steam by the end of the millennium, and entered an era of high growth in the early years of the present decade. The country is today, after China, the second fastest growing economy in the world, and is achieving growth rates of nearly 9 %. While both industry and services are growing at rates much faster than 10 %, agricultural growth has been comparatively slower. Indias Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, wants his country to achieve 10% economic growth in the next two to three years, to create more jobs and help lift a third of the countrys 1.1 billion people out of poverty. Asias fourth-biggest economy expanded 8% in the second and third quarters of 2005. Singhs government wants industrial production, which makes up a quarter of Indias economy, to grow 10% annually to boost the incomes of Indians, one in three of whom live on less than $1 a day. Indias industrial production grew at an annualized 8.3% rate between April and November 2005, faster than major economies like US, UK, the Euro zone, Japan, Brazil, Indonesia and Russia. Only China and Argentina recorded faster industrial production rates of 16.6%, and 9.6% respectively. (Dorsch, 2006) In India, domestic demand makes up practically 70 % of the national GDP and dominates the economy, as opposed to exports, in many other nations. Indian imports, though lesser than that of China, doubled in the last three years, adding to commodity demand and strengthening the consumer super cycle. Terming Indias economic growth since 1991 phenomenal, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz on Saturday said its GDP (gross domestic product) growth could be pushed up by one to two per cent with speedy reforms. He said: The dynamism shown by India in the last 15 years is phenomenal. India can do better A couple of percentage more growth can be possible. But it needs sound fiscal and monetary policies. Continuity of reforms was important for the high growth, evident in the last 15 years. Indias incredible growth story was a policy model to the world. It showed continued development in democracy and open society. (India’s growth story, 2005) Apart from India, the two other BRIC countries, Brazil and Russia, are also growing strongly, strengthening the demand for major commodities. While the sharp spurt in growth shown by Japan in recent years has also fuelled demand, the growth generated by the BRIC countries, as well as economies of countries like Argentina and South Africa should continue for many years, even for some decades, as these countries try to achieve parity with the advanced nations. Monetary policies followed by the central banks of most countries have also played a significant role in fuelling commodity price increases. Central banks of most countries, Japan, Europe, China and India have followed super easy money policies from the beginning of the millennium right upto the last quarter of 2006 and this along with the demand from the Chinese and Indian economies have worked towards pushing prices up to record levels. The Peoples Bank of China increased its M2 money supply by 18.3% last year, issuing more Yuan to soak up foreign currency earned through foreign trade and direct investment into Chinese factories from abroad. Explosive money supply growth, in turn, boosted domestic retail sales by 13% last year, and industrial production was 16.6% higher in November from a year earlier. Chinas central bank raised its M2 money supply target to 17% in the third quarter from 15% earlier, to offset stronger demand for the Yuan, and maintain the peg at 8.11 per US dollar. (Guthrie, 2007) In Japan, money markets have received trillions of yen, more than required by local Japanese banks, pushing interest rates on deposits to levels even below zero. This enormous amount of excess and free liquidity has enabled both Japanese and hedge fund traders to take up large speculative positions in global commodity markets. While conservative counsel advocates a stricter monetary policy, authorities are reluctant to make changes in a policy that has seen overnight lending rates staying at zero for nearly five years. In Europe, loose money availability has also helped in fuelling inflation and price instability. The growth rate of M3 Money supply in Europe in Europe has become considerably higher than the previous year, and helped in lifting stock markets to higher levels. All over the world, bankers have seen commodity indices running away but refrained from taking action lest growth rates get hurt. Another factor that hinders bureaucrats from taking action after inflation starts hitting significantly high levels is the underlying fear of small course-corrective measures not working and the risk of dampening growth.† If a central bank stops excess liquidity too late it has to raise rates much more strongly and that causes turbulence on the markets.† (Guthrie, 2007) Indian policy makers, found to their chagrin, that inflation growth rates that had crossed 6.5 % (and were threatening to destabilize the government) proved immune to three doses of interest rate hikes, by 50 basis points each time. A sharp hike in borrowing and lending rates took place in recent weeks. With inflation up at 6.4 per cent and the RBI saying it will take â€Å"all the necessary monetary measures†, further hikes in interest rates could come. But will raising interest rates bring inflation under control? Does India have the markets and institutional framework in which raising interest rates is an effective instrument for inflation control? Does India have a central bank that has learned how to conduct monetary policy in an open market economy? The answer to these questions is: No. In this sphere, India lags behind modern practices. (Patnaik, 2007) While lack of faith in the measures taken by one’s own government appears to be a generic trait with analysts all over the world, sustained increases in commodity prices have led to a consensus that economic and monetary policies, followed all over the world, have been unbalanced in their blind preference towards growth, to the exclusion of inflation. The unbridled use of liberal monetary policies has contributed towards this present climate of inflation, and in strengthening the commodity super cycle. The creation of shortages because of rapid and unexpected growth in consumption is a fait accompli, and a short-term discomfort economists are ready to bear, (in the interest of growth), until increased supply stabilizes the situation. In the absence of measured intervention, unbridled increase in prices, apart from inducing speculative activity, also attracts hordes of genuine investors, big-ticket investment funds, pension funds, and even individual retail investors. Pension funds, as well as small, retail investors are looking to commodities as a crucial part of diversification of any investment portfolio. Although schizophrenic commodity day traders could decide to turn massive paper profits into hard cash at a moments notice, causing a 5% shakeout, the longer-term odds still favor a continuation of the Commodity Super (Guthrie, 2007) c. The Future of the Present Inflationary Movement Commodity super cycles, by their nature and their reasons of origin, run for extended periods, for many years and some times for decades. Modern day literature refers to just two or three super cycle in the last two centuries, one caused by American industrial growth at the beginning of the twentieth century, and the other caused by post war reconstruction in Europe, followed by intense Japanese economic activity. The second super cycle lasted for nearly three decades from the late forties until the depression of the eighties. The current super cycle, if at all it is one, has gained momentum only during the last six years, and prima facie still has a long way to go. While monetary policies of powerful and rich individual nations, like the USA and Japan, as well as regional groupings, like Europe, will be able to influence commodity prices through tightening or loosening money supply, the extent of the commodity super cycle will depend primarily upon the growth stories being played ou t in China and India, and to some extent in the other two countries, Brazil and Russia. While China and India are both on the fast track to economic prosperity, they remain countries with low per capita incomes and consumption. The desire to achieve economic prosperity, in these economies, will not be satisfied with achievement of national GDP targets but will continue until individual aspirations of people are met in these two countries. We have China embracing capitalism. We have India embracing capitalism. That’s brought 2.2 billion people into play as very ambitious earners, who aspire to middle class status. If we take Asia, there are 3.5 billion people who aspire to the same middle class lifestyle many of us in the West take for granted. If we look further beyond Asia, this same phenomenon is evident with many other developing countries. We see it in parts of the Middle East with the Dubai city-state as an example. (Finch, 2006) Two simple examples will serve to elaborate this argument. As stated earlier, per capita consumption of beef in China is 12 pounds per person whereas it is more than 100 pounds per person in the advanced countries. Similarly, in India, where the majority of the people do not eat beef, and around fifty percent are vegetarian, the per capita consumption of chicken is around 12 pounds compared to more than 200 pounds in the west. A recent report by Goldman Sachs states that even if, as predicted, both these countries reach the GDP levels of the USA by 2050, their per capita income will not exceed half that of the USA. This gives rise to two inferences, (a) the huge amount of latent demand in these countries and (b) the extended period over which these growth stories will possibly play out. Indias Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, wants his country to achieve 10% economic growth in the next two to three years, to create more jobs and help lift a third of the countrys 1.1 billion people out of poverty. Singhs government wants industrial production, which makes up a quarter of Indias economy, to grow 10% annually to boost the incomes of Indians, one in three of whom live on less than $1 a day. (Dorsch, 2006) Apart from the enormous potential for prolonged economic and industrial growth that can occur because of progress in these two countries, the fact that India is moving roughly ten years behind China, could lead to a situation where India’s growth rates start improving further when China’s starts tapering off; thus extending the period of the cycle. Climbing markets are prone to periods of lulls, stagnation and even correction. Experts feel that these phenomena are bound to continue to happen, but the demand for commodities will grow at such an overwhelming pace, not just in China and India, but also in other countries of the developing world that it will soon reassert itself and bring back bullish behaviour. While there is intense speculation in academic circles about the probable period of the inflationary run, very few people are ready to take a bet on its probable date of demise. Economists are quite sure of phases of economic activity where waves of activity and growth follow periods of slowdown and even stagnation. The problem arises when quantification is called for. In the past Dewey and Dakin in their book â€Å"Cycles: The Science of Prediction† (1947) that a super cycle that moves from trough to peak to trough can last for as long as fifty to sixty years. Obviously, these longer waves comprise of a number of sm aller waves, where activity increases and decreases in finite periods Even as convinced a believer in the commodity bull cycle as Jim Rogers points out that the shortest boom lasted 15 years, while the longest lasted 23 years. His conclusion is that we have much further to go, but don’t expect a great deal more precision than that. Oh, and don’t forget that we’ll endure some huge corrections along the way. (Guthrie, 2007) Much of the current discussion on commodity super cycles owes its initiation to

purpose :: essays research papers fc

ABSTRACT The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether seedlings of the same kind will sprout faster under different controlled temperatures. The three controlled temperatures were 32Â °, 20Â ° , and 5Â ° degrees Celsius. The hypothesis will prove that the plant in the normal temperature range will sprout faster than the plants in the higher or lower temperatures. The procedure that was followed to support my hypothesis was to observe six germinating seeds in six separate pots. Two pots each were placed in three controlled temperature conditions. The seeds were of the same type. The same size pot was used, along with the same soil. A big hole was punched in each pot to allow for proper drainage. A measured amount of soil was put in the pots, and then one seed was placed in each pot and covered with soil. Each pot was saturated with water. An equal amount of sun, and water was provided daily over a twenty-day period. Two pots were put under a heating source to create a temperature higher than room temperature. These pots were labeled A and B. Two other pots were placed at the current room temperature of my house during winter months. These pots were labeled C and D. The last set of pots were labeled E and F and were placed in a cooler environment. The pots were observed and the data was recorded daily. The end result of this experiment was that the two plants that were placed under a heating source produced sprouts faster than the plants with no heating source. This proved my hypothesis to be false. The heating source provided a better growing environment than the normal and lower temperatures. BACKGROUND Most gardeners know not to plant seedlings until after the last winter frost. Some gardeners start planting early by starting their crop inside where the temperature doesn’t reach freezing. Is the best growing environment at room temperature? Would the seedling be affected if the temperature is a little colder or warmer. I always thought that normal temperatures produce normal healthy plants. A normal environment seems more stable and therefore the plant is more likely to grow quicker. If the environment is normal then the plant does not have the added stress of adapting to it’s environment. I think it would be helpful for gardeners to know which temperature a plant grows best in. A superior seedling will produce a superior crop.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak Essay

Born in a well-cultured Brahim family on July 23, 1856 in Ratangari, Maharashtra, Bal Gangadhar Tilak was a multifacet personality. He is considered to be the ‘Father of Indian Unrest’. He was a scholar of Indian history, Sanskrit, mathematics, astronomy and Hinduism. He had imbibed values, cultures and intelligence from his father Gangadhar Ramchandra Tilak who was a Sanskrit scholar and a famous teacher. At the age of 10, Bal Gangadhar went to Pune with his family as his father was transferred. In Pune, he was educated in an Anglo-Vernacular school. After some years he lost his mother and at the age of 16 his father too he got married to a 10-year-old girl named Satyabhama while he was studying in Matriculation. In 1877, Tilak completed his studies and continued with studying Law. With an aim to impart teachings about Indian culture and national ideals to India’s youth, Tilak along with Agarkar and Vishnushstry founded the ‘Deccan Education Society’. Soon after that Tilak started two weeklies, ‘Kesari’ and ‘Marathi’ to highlight plight of Indians. He also started the celebrations of Ganapati Festival and Shivaji Jayanti to bring people close together and join the nationalist movement against British. In fighting for people’s cause, twice he was sentenced to imprisonment. He launched Swadeshi Movenment and believed that ‘Swaraj is my birth right and I shall have it’. This quote inspired millions of Indians to join the freedom struggle. With the goal of Swaraj, he also built ‘Home Rule League’. Tilak constantly traveled across the country to inspire and convince people to believe in Swaraj and fight for freedom. He was constantly fighting against injustice and one sad day on August 1, 1920, he died. Bal Gangadhar Tilak was one of the prime architects of modern India and is still living in the hearts of millions of India. Bal Gangadhar Tilak, a man of an indomitable energy and a new vision, was born in Maharashtra in 1856, of the caste of Chitpavan Brahmins, who had ruled over Shivaji’s empire. He was born thirty-eight years after the final British conquest of Maratha power. He was a scholar of the first rank, educator, journalist and first among the leaders of new India. Tilak learned of the values of Bharatdharma as a child in his home at Ratnagiri. His father was an educator and he carefully tutored the boy in Sanskrit and Mathematics, and his mother helped to mould his firm character and to teach him the values of his classical heritage. From both parents he learned a healthy veneration for spiritual values, and he learned that he shared the history of the Marathas, that he was heir to a glorious martial tradition. His religious or spiritual orientation, the product of his family’s devoutness, was apparent in his later writings, as when he wrote, ‘The greatest virtue of man is to be filled with wonder and devotion by anything in the animate and inanimate creation that suggests inherent divinity.1 He also made continuous reference to the great Shivaji and the history of his Maratha people, the fiery tradition of their independence, their war against the Mogul Empire to restore Swaraj and to save the Dharma. The Maratha people had not forgotten that they had been free, that Swaraj had been their birth-right. From his childhood, he inherited a vision of a new India arising, firmly based on the spirit and traditions of her civilization and her past. Tilak had an English education, but he was far less denationalised than most students of his generation, for he specialized in Mathematics and Sanskrit, and, if anything, his education brought him closer to the sources of his heritage. When he studied law, he concentrated on classical Indian Law, reading nearly all the great books of law and legal commentaries in Sanskrit. His study of Sanskrit was a life-long occupation and he was recognised as one of India’s leading Sanskrit scholars. Relying upon his knowledge of this ancient language and his mathematical training, he wrote Orion, Studies in the Antiquity of the Vedas, in which he explored the thesis that the Rig Veda was composed as early as 4500 B. C., basing his evidence on astronomical calculations from the Sanskrit texts. This work  gained him recognition in the Western world for his scholarship in Oriental studies. His second great book was again on the Vedas, The Arctic Home of the Vedas, in which, relying upon astronomical and geological data, he argued that the Aryans probably originally lived in the far northern reaches of the Asiatic continent. This book is credited as being one of the most original and unusual works in Sanskrit scholarship. The Vedic Chronology was a posthumously published volume of his notes and further researches. His greatest work was the Gita-Rahasya, a philosophical inquiry into the secret of the teaching of the Gita, the holiest book of Aryadharma. In this volume he reinterpreted the Gita in its classical sense, restoring the proper emphasis to the philosophy of action, Karma-Yoga, and his is considered one of the outstanding studies of the Gita in modern Indian literature. The Gita-Rahasya assured Tilak’s place among the greatest of India’s scholars and philosophers. His classical studies enabled him to recapture the spirit of India’s classical philosophy of life. In his heart of hearts he always remained a humble student of India’s greatness. Even after he had become the foremost political leader of India, he often said that he wished he could devote his life to teaching Mathematics, and pursuing his scholarly researches into the wisdom of India’s ancient civilization. Soon after the completion of his university education, Tilak embarked upon his mission in life. As he was deeply interested in education and public service from his young age, he resolved to dedicate his life to the cause of reorientation of Indian education and drastic social and political reforms. In these ventures he was joined by his best friends, G. G. Agarkar and Chiplunkar. All of them wanted, as N. C. Kelkar has written, ‘the nation to know itself and its past glories, so that it may have†¦.confidence in its own strength, and capacity to adapt itself wisely and well to the new surroundings, without losing its individuality’. 2 Hence, Tilak, assisted by his friends, started the New English School in 1880. The institution was such an immediate success that they founded the Deccan Education Society in Poona, and the next year started the famous Fergusson College. Simultaneously, they began editing and publishing two newspapers, the Kesari, a Marathi-language Weekly, and The Mahratta, its English-language counterpart. All these young men dedicated themselves, their lives and their  fortunes to popular education through their schools and through their newspapers. But soon a sharp difference arose between Tilak and his friends over the question of social reform. As a result, Tilak could not remain for long associated with the Deccan Education Society, and he, ultimately parted with his co-workers. It was finally decided at the end of 1890 that Tilak should purchase the Kesari and The Mahratta and devote himself to journalism, while Agarkar and other social workers would have a free hand in the Deccan Education Society. As an editor, Tilak was unsurpassed. The Kesari and The Mahratta, under his guidance, were always tremendously influential and came to be financially successful. His sincerity and unflinching sense of dedication led him to champion the causes of his people against any and all who would be unjust, autocratic or opportunistic. As editor of the Kesari, Tilak became the awakener of India, the Lion of Maharashtra, the most influential Indian newspaper editor of his day. It was as editor that Tilak began his three great battles–against the Westernizing social reformers, against the inert spirit of orthodoxy, and against the British Raj. It was as editor that he became a leader of the new forces in the Indian National Congress and the Indian nation. Tilak’s first reaction was to the Western civilization’s system of values. He rejected the ideology of those intellectuals who based their programme of social and political action almost entirely on the philosophy of life of nineteenth century Europe. These intellectuals were truly more the products of Western civilization than Indian. Tilak, unlike them, was not prepared to reject India’s own philosophy of life in order to imitate the philosophy of the British. He recognised that the social order in India needed a drastic reform, but instead of judging Indian social practices by the standards of the West, he interpreted them and looked for their reform from Indian standards. Aurobindo Ghose exemplified this new approach in writing, ‘Change of forms there may and will be, but the novel formation must be a new self-expression, a self-creation developed from within; it must be  characteristic of the spirit and not servilely borrowed from the embodiments of an alien nature’. 3 Tilak knew that there must be change, but also he knew that a philosophy must guide the remaking of India, and that the crucial question for India’s future was whether that guide, that philosophy, would be Western or Indian in inspiration, He wrote, ‘It is difficult to see the way in darkness without light or in a thick jungle without a guide’. And he rejected the rationalism and scepticism of Western philosophy, when he remarked that ‘mere common sense without faith in religion is of no avail in searching for the truth’. In the era of the religious and philosophical renaissance of Bharatdharma, Tilak sought the guidance of India’s own philosophy. Undoubtedly, his initial motive was not to rediscover a theory of social and political action but rather to find a satisfying personal philosophy of life. In his private life, he attempted to rediscover and reapply the Indian philosophy of life. And his achievements in private and public life gave h im a basis for building up a new theory of political action, obligation and ordering. His first task was to look behind the atrophied forms of religious orthodoxy and custom, to find the values that had built the Indian civilization. Tilak recognised that ‘the edifice of Hindu religion was not based on a fragile ground like custom. Had it been so, it would have been levelled to the ground very long ago. It has lasted so long because it is founded on everlasting Truth, and eternal and pure doctrines relating to the Supreme Being’. 4 This truth was not recognised by the Westernized intellectuals, in their obsession with the remaking of India according to their own image. But, on the contrary, Tilak started with a faith in the spiritual purpose of human life, which the ancient Indian philosophy taught. And he regarded spiritual good as the basis of social good. He wrote: ‘The structure of faith collapses with and the collapse of faith in the existence of the soul. The doctrine of soul-lessness removed the need for faith. But when faith thus ceased to be an organic force binding society together, society was bound to be disrupted and individuals living in a community were sure to find their own different paths to happiness. The ties which bind society in one harmonious organization would be snapped, and no other binding principle would take their place. Moral ties would loosen, and people would fall from  good moral standards.5 His personal life was based on this ‘structure of faith’ and the moral purposefulness provided by this foundation remained with him throughout his life. No creed that doubted the existence of the soul or the spiritual purpose of human life could inspire Tilak or his people; thus the rediscovery of faith as the ‘organic binding force’ was the first principle in his emerging philosophy. From the idea of spiritual rediscovery Tilak, like Aurobindo Ghose and others, developed a personal philosophy of life, firmly based on the knowledge that ‘the individual and the Supreme Soul are one’, and that the ‘ultimate goal of the soul is liberation’. He explored the wisdom of the Real and the relative worlds, the meaning of creation, and the moral working out of the cosmic evolution towards liberation. From this foundation he understood the purpose of life, to live in accord with dharma, the integrating principle of the cosmic order. As Aurobindo Ghose wrote of the Indian philosophy of life, ‘The idea of dharma is, next to the idea of the Infinite, its major chord; dharma, next to spirit, is its foundation of life’. 6 Once these principles were accepted, Western rationalism and scepticism, materialism and utilitarianism could hold little appeal. It was from this basic understanding that he began his criticism of the Westernizers who would destroy this wisdom and these values. It taught them to love and respect, not the forms of atrophied orthodoxy, but rather the spirit of the total Indian philosophy, the way of life and wisdom of life of the Indian civilization. India’s civilization and her history provided Tilak the new insight for his theory of social and political action. He felt that there was no reason for India to feel ashamed of her civilization when campared with the West. On the contrary, India should feel great pride. Indian values were different from but not inferior to Western values. The Westernized intellectuals, who abhorred India’s value system and who wanted to change and remake India in an alien faith, were quite wrong, for as Tilak reminded them, ‘How can a man be proud of the greatness of his own nation if he feels no pride in his own religion?’ It was Bharatdharma that provided an understanding of the moral purposefulness of the universe, which is the necessary basis of a philosophy  of life, and it provided them with a guide to concrete action in personal, social and political matters. It was with this perspective and this inspiration that Tilak and other genuine nationalists began their battles for the creation of a new India. Relying on a realistic appraisal of the world as Tilak found it, he set about not to remake India in the image of an alien system of values, but to recreate India on the foundations of her own greatness. From an Indian philosophy of life he began to construct an Indian philosophy of social reform and of politics that was to become the political theory of the Indian Independence Movement. Tilak believed in Aryadharma, but he was never a blind follower of orthodoxy. He did not ignore the obvious evils of the atrophied social system which were repellent to the social reformers and instigated them to take action. But he became the foremost of those in India who opposed the extremist measures of these social reformers. But the very fact that he was educated and that he refrained from joining the reformers indicted him as a defender of orthodoxy in the eyes of the extremists. He was condemned by the extremists as a reactionary, as the spokesman for backwardness. Nothing could be farther from the truth. He earnestly hoped to see of the evils of the Indian social system removed, the entire system reformed, and to this end he brought forward his own concrete proposals for improving social conditions. He was a staunch advocate of progress. At the same time, he relentlessly fought against the grandiose schemes of the Westernizing reformers. Instead of schemes he wanted concrete programmes for the he alleviation of real and pressing needs of the people. His reform work was direct, as in the case of the famine relief programme, the textile workers’ assistance, the plague prevention work. Tilak was not an arm-chair reformer; he was a worker with and for the people. His objection to the social reformism of men like Mr. Justice Ranade and his disciple, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Professor Bhandarkar, Byramji Malbari, Agarkar and the others, was two fold. First, without a full appreciation of the values that had been preserved and transmitted by the social system,  these men were willing to discard virtually everything, to remake India almost totally in the image of the West, and to base Indian social forms on the values they had learned from their Western education. To Tilak, it was folly, it was criminal, to banish everything created by India’s civilization because Indian values and Indian religion did not coincide with the nineteenth century European notions of materialism, rationalism and utilitarianism. He knew their obsession was contrary to common sense and good practice. He once wrote: ‘†¦.a number of our educated men began to accept uncritically the materialistic doctrines of the Westerners. Thus we have the pathetic situa tion of the new generation making on their minds a carbon copy of the gross materialism of the West’. 7 And he went on to remind the social reformers that ‘our present downfall is due not to Hindu religion but to the fact that we have absolutely forsaken religion.’ Second, since the reformers could not inspire mass popular support for their imitative social reform programme, they sought to enforce reform through administrative fiat, to rely upon the coercive power of the state, the alien state of the British rule, to effect social change. From Tilak’s viewpoint, to remake India in the image of the West would mean to destroy her greatness; and to use the force of an alien rule to impose any kind of reform would be to make that reform itself immoral. Reforms, to Tilak’s mind, must grow from within the people. Since he accepted this proposition as true, it logically followed that attempts to coerce the community to accept them were absurd. Reform, according to him, would have to be based upon the value system of the people and not on the values taught to the Westernized few in an alien system of education. The answer lay, he believed, in popular education which must be initiated with an understanding of the classical values and must proceed to recreate the vitality of those values in the forms of social order. Since the classical values were thoroughly intermixed with popular religion, he believed that ‘religious education will first and foremost engage our attention.’ In this way a new spirit will be born in India. India need not copy from some other civilization when the can rely on the spirit of her past greatness. As D. V. Athalye has written ‘The difference was this, that while Ranade was  prepared, if convenient, to coquette with religious sanction to social order, Tilak insisted that there should be no divorce between the two’. 8 proceeded to take action in accordance with his conviction. Because he wanted genuine reform and not simple imitation of Western life and manners, and because he believed that such reform must come from the people themselves and not from a foreign government, Tilak was led to advocate two causes which were to become his life’s work. First, he fought to reawaken India to her past and to base her future greatness on her past glories. Second, knowing well that real progress can only be made by a self-governing people, knowing that moral progress can only be made through moral and democratic decisions, knowing, therefore, that Swaraj or self-rule was the prerequisite of real social, political, economic, cultural and spiritual progress, Tilak began to think in terms of the restoration of Swaraj. The social reformers were prepared to criticise almost everything Indian, to imitate the West in the name of improvement, and to rely upon the power of a foreign government to bring about this improvement. They were convinced that only by social reform would they earn political reform; that, therefore, social reform must precede political reform. Tilak argued just the contrary way, that political reform must precede social reform; for it is only popular self-government that is moral government, that it is only moral government that can create moral social change; and, therefore, self-rule is necessary, and the first object which must be pursued is the awakening of the people to their heritage of self-rule. Tilak’s approach being more realistic and founded on solid moral values, he could perceive more clearly the root causes of the Indian social evils than did his social reform opponents. He felt that it was not simply the forms and practices of Indian society which had to be changed if meaningful social reforms were to be brought about. He sensed that abusive social practices were the direct outgrowth of the ‘spirit of orthodoxy’ which filled the forms of social order and inertly resisted change. This spirit had resulted from a thousand years of instability, defeat, foreign overlordship, defensiveness and inflexibility. Therefore, effective reform, Tilak believed, must ultimately depend upon a reawakening of the true, vital,  life-affirming spirit of the Indian people and civilization. Instead of criticising social form as the great evil, he began his battle with the atrophied spirit of orthodoxy while still engaged in his battle with the Westernized reformers. He wrote: ‘†¦..just as old and orthodox opinions (and their holders the Pandits etc.,) are one-sided, so the new English educated reformers’ are also and dogmatic. The old Sastries and Pandits do not know the new circumstances whereas the newly educated class of reformers are ignorant of the traditions and the traditional philosophy of Hinduism. Therefore, a proper knowledge of the old traditions and philosophies must be imparted to the newly educated classes, and the Pandits and Sastries must be given information about the newly changed and changing circumstances.’ 9 His battle was not characterized by abhorrence for the old spirit because he understood it and the role it had played. The spirit was locked up in forms, rituals, and customs, that had become virtually dead things. The orthodox spirit had served its purpose because it has transmitted classical values to a new generation who could understand them and bring about the necessary rebirth and reapplication of those values. The degraded aspects of the spirit of orthodoxy were lethargy, indolence, exclusiveness and inaction. They had fed on disunity and divisiveness, born of defensiveness and rigidity, and from this had arisen casteism in all its worst manifestations, defeatism and fatalism, the loss of the ideal of harmonious social cooperation, of courage and of self-respect–in a word, the dynamics of the classical philosophy of life had been perverted into negation and passivity. This spirit, Tilak believed, was harmful to India’s progress, and it was with this spirit that he did battle. Atrophied orthodoxy had no religious justification. Its spirit was in part the perversion and negation of the world and of the classical concept of the fulfilment of the purpose of life, the union of man with his Creator. But Tilak also realized that mere philosophical disputation was not enough for the re-awakening of India, and it required change in the hearts of people and not, as the reformers believed, change in the forms of institutions. As an editor who had always dedicated himself to popular  education, he first reached the people. As his chief colleague, N. C. Kelkar, wrote, ‘Through his paper, the Kesari, he exercised an immense influence over the masses, and it is this influence that is mainly responsible for the infusion of a new spirit among the people’. 10 He was a sincere, forceful speaker, and he taught from both the classroom and the public platform his new message of awakening India. Perhaps, the most effective way in which he reached the people was through the celebration of national festivals. He was instrumental in popularizing two great festivals, one to Ganapati, the Hindu deity of learning and propitiousness, and the other, a festival to revive the memory and glo ry of Shivaji, the liberator of Maharashtra, and the restorer of Swaraj through his fight with the Mogul Empire. He especially emphasised the dynamic spirit of Shivaji. He wrote, ‘It is the spirit which actuated Shivaji in his doings that is held forth as the proper ideal to be kept constantly in the view of the rising generation’. To keep this spirit in constant view, Tilak worked ceaselessly to reach the people and to educate them through the festivals. Throughout Maharashtra, he carried his doctrine, he waged his battle. Education through religion and history, through the association in the popular mind with gods and heroes, through recreating an appreciation of the heritage of the past as a guide to the future–this was the way he conducted his battle. He soon became the first articulate spokesman for the no-longer silent, tradition-directed, masses of India. He became the defender and the awakener of India’s philosophy of life. He taught first the dharma of action. This philosophy of action he drew from the Gita. He reminded the people that India had not become a great nation through negativism and indolence, but rather through a dynamic willingness to meet the problems of the day and to solve them morally. This was the greatest need of the present day. He often said such things as, ‘No one can expect Providence to protect one who sits with folded arms and throws his burden on others. God does not help the indolent. You must be doing all that you can to lift yourself up, and then only you may rely on the Almighty to help you’. 11 Along with the dharma of action, Tilak taught the dharma of unity to the  people of India. The unity of India, the unity of the Indian civilization, is Bharatdharma, the spiritually-based and spiritually-dedicated way of life. The spirit of orthodoxy had done injustice to that way of life. It had compartmentalised society, it had placed men in segregated and exclusive caste communities that were inimical to the feeling of common heritage and common cause. The true spirit of Varnashrama-dharma was harmony and cooperation and unity, and this spirit Tilak sought to reawaken through religious education. He wrote, ‘It is possible to unite the followers of Hinduism by the revival and growth of the Hindu religion’, for ‘the Hindu religion does not lie in caste, eating and drinking’. The Ganapati and Shivaji festivals served the purpose of bringing people together. People who worship a common deity, people who recognise a common historical tradition will, in his mind, be able to stand together, to overcome the disunity of social form and to work together for the common good. Tilak envisaged a unity of all the people of India, united among themselves and united with their traditions, united to face the future by the common ideals they held. In this way, through common, united effort, social evils could be corrected by the people themselves, and, moreover, the spirit of national revival, the restoration of national self-respect, essential for gaining self-rule, depended upon the restoration of national unity and mutual respect. Thus through his messages of action and unity and as editor of the Kesari and The Mahratta, Tilak became the acknowledged ‘awakener of India’. As editor of his newspapers, he also became active in political affairs. After he left the Deccan Education Society in 1889, he joined the Indian National Congress, hoping that it would be instrumental in further uniting the nation and in securing political reforms. He held a post in the Congress as early as 1892, as secretary of the Bombay Provincial Conference. At the same time, he actively participated in public affairs, holding public office on several occasions. In 1894, he was elected a Fellow of the Bombay University, and next year he held a post in the Poona Municipality. For two years he was a member of the Bombay Legislative Council, but, he called the completely circumscribed powers and the work of this body a ‘huge joke’. He did not  seek public office because he desired a political or governmental career but rather because it was one means, among several, which he chose to utilize to further the causes in which he strongly believed. But he soon realized that holding public office was one of the least effective ways of promoting his ends, and, more important, he Soon realized public office under the alien raj was self-defeating. About this time he also began to become disillusioned with the programme and policies of the Moderate-dominated Congress. His fighting spirit was antagonised by the predominant Congress attitude of pleading for reform and passing mild resolutions of protest against the abuses of the administration. The Congress was not coming to grips with the real problems of the people. In 1896, he publicly announced his disagreement with the policies of the Congress in writing, ‘For the last twelve years we have been shouting hoarse, desiring that the government should hear us. But our shouting has no more affected the government than the sound of a gnat. Our rulers disbelieve our statements, or profess to do so. Let us now try to force our grievances into their ears by strong constitutional means. We must give the best political education possible to the ignorant villagers. We must meet them on terms of equality, teach them their rights and show how to fight constitutionally. Then only will the government realize that to despise the Congress is to despise the Indian Nation. Then only will the efforts of the Congress leaders be crowned with success. Such a work will require a large body of able and single-minded workers, to whom politics would not mean some holiday recreation but an every-day duty to be performed with the strictest regularity and utmost capacity.’ 12 As he had relied on democratic social action through religious education, Tilak now relied on political education to rally the people behind the cause of political reform. He, therefore, began, through the pages of the Kesari and through an organisation of volunteer famine relief workers, to inform the poverty stricken peasants of their legal rights. He urged the people to protest against govern ­mental inaction. He sent out volunteers to collect detailed informa ­tion on the devastation in rural areas which he then forwarded to the government to support his case. He printed and distributed a leaflet explaining the provisions of the Famine Relief Code to the people  and urged them to take their case to the government. His efforts informed and aroused the people and alienated the bure ­aucracy. On the heels of the famine Poona was stricken by an epidemic of plague. The city was in a panic. Tragically, many of the educated, many of the leading social reformers, fled the city; T ilak did not. He offered his services to the government and went through the plague infested districts of the city with the Government Sanitation Teams. He opened and managed a hospital for plague victims when government facilities proved inadequate. He established a free kitchen, and did everything within his power to alleviate the tragic condition of the people. If social reform meant anything, it meant tireless work on behalf of the people in the time of their greatest need. His famine and plague work marked Tilak as the greatest social reformer and national hero of the country. He was acclaimed the Lokmanya, the honoured and respected of the people. The British bureaucracy and the Anglo-Indian press recognised that Tilak was an emerging leader of the people and of a new spirit in India. Those who lacked foresight began to fear him. When, in the tense atmosphere of famine and plague-racked Poona, a young man assassinated Rand, the British official in charge of plague relief, many of those who feared him were quick to blame Tilak for the death, although he had no knowledge of the incident. Nevertheless, he was convicted and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. This was not to be Tilak’s last imprisonment. For two decades he was persecuted by the British Indian Government because they saw in him the greatest challenge to their rule over the Indian Empire. But Tilak was not an ordinary man who could be cowed down by such threats and persecutions. He remained undaunted throughout. He had fought against injustice, he had argued against the placating policies of the Moderates, and he now began to put forward a positive political programme centred round the concept of Swaraj, self-rule for India. As early as 1895, he had begun to preach the necessity for Swaraj. He came to realize that self-rule must precede meaningful social reform, that the only enduring basis for national unity and national self-respect must be national self-rule, In 1895, he had reminded the people that Shivaji had recreated Swaraj as the necessary  foundation of social and political freedom and progress and morality. His historical and philosophic frame of reference is clearly set out in his writing, ‘One who is a wee bit introduced to history knows what is Swarajya (people’s own government) and Swadharma (people’s own religion), knows the extraordinary qualities that are needed for the founder to establish Swarajya and Swadharma when both of them are in a state of ruin for hundreds of years, knows the valour, courage, guts and brains of Shivaji Maharaj by the dint of which he saved the whole nation from bitter ruin’. 13 His insistence on Swaraj was completely consistent with his personal, social and political philosophy. He approached all issues as a realist. He had the example of his own Maharashtrian history and the categorical imperative of his nation’s philosophy. As Aurobindo Ghose has written, ‘To found the greatness of the future on the greatness of the past, to infuse Indian politics with Indian religious fervour and spirituality, are the indispensable conditions for a great and powerful political awakening in India. Others, writers, thinkers, spiritual leaders, had seen this truth. Mr. Tilak was the first to bring it into the actual field of practical politics’.14 Tilak examined the political problems of his day in the light of ‘the God-given Inspiration’ of India’s civilization. And with the urgency of the situation arising out of the partition of Bengal and the need for an effective programme of political action, he joined the group of the Nationalists and presented a programme and a line of action to the nation. The Nationalists initiated mass political education in terms understandable to the people. Tilak sounded the keynote in saying, ‘To spread our dharma in our people is one of the aspects of the national form of our religion’, because, in his opinion, ‘Politics cannot be separated from religion’. Exactly the same opinion was expressed later on by Mahatma Gandhi. The reason for political education and political action was not merely the injustice of foreign rule, not merely the arbitrary partitioning of Bengal. Self-rule was a moral necessity, the achievement of self-rule was the dharma of all self-respecting men. As he later wrote in the Gita-rahasya, ‘The  blessed Lord had to show the importance and the necessity of performing at all costs the duties enjoined by one’s dharma while life lasts’. And, for Tilak and the Nationalists, ‘Swaraj is our dharma’. Political action would alone accomplish the national dharma. In order that India solve her own destiny, the first essential, as in the case of the awakening of India, was the call for action, for a new spirit of courage and self-sacrifice. Only a pride in history and the values of India’s own civilization could inspire men to the task ahead. Tilak movingly wrote, ‘To succeed in any business with full self-control and determination, does not generally happen in spite of our valour, unless a firm conviction is engendered in our minds, that we are doing good work and God is helping us and that the religious instinct and the blessings of the saints are at our back’.15 It was with this firm conviction that Tilak and the Nationalists set out to arouse the nation to political action for the creation of its own destiny. Tilak and the Nationalists presented the nation with a three-fold programme for effective, practical, political action. The three principles were boycott, Swadeshi and national education. Originally, they were designed for use in Bengal, as the most effective way to bring the British administrators to their senses over the issue of the partition. But it was soon decided, however, that the entire nation could well cooperate with Bengal in following this threefold programme and thus increase tremendously the pressure on the British. And it was further taught that the great wrong, the significant evil, was not alone that an alien raj had partitioned the province of Bengal, but actually that Bengal was only a symbol, that an alien raj ruled autocratically over the whole nation of India, and that it was to alleviate this wrong that the programme was to be employed. Boycott initially involved the refusal of the people to purchase British-manufactured goods. It was started as a measure designed to bring economic pressure on the British business interests both in India and abroad. If British business could be moved, then the business could be counted on to move the British raj. But soon the boycott movement took on far more significant aspects than merely economic pressure. The Nationalists saw that the whole superstructure of the British Indian administration, that  the British system of rule over India, was based upon the willing, or at least unthinking, cooperation of the Indian people. Tilak was one of the first to discern this, and he realized that boycott could be expanded to the point of jeopardizing the foundation of the whole British administrative machinery in India. In a speech at Poona, as early as 1902, he urged, ‘You must realize that you are a great factor in the power with which the administration in India is conducted. You are yourselves the useful lubricants which enable the gigantic machinery to work so smoothly. Though downtrodden and neglected, you must be conscious of your power of making the administration impossible if you but choose to make it so. It is you who manage the railroad and the telegraph, it is you who make settlements and collect revenues, it is in fact you who do everything for the administration though in a subordinate capacity. You must consider whether you cannot turn your hand to better use for your nation than drudging on in this fashion. Boycott gradually moved from the economic into the political sphere; it moved from the arena of Bengal to all-India. Boycott as an all-India political weapon was the first principle of the programme of Tilak and the Nationalist leaders. Boycott fore-shadowed non-cooperation. Swadeshi initially began as a primary economic counterpart to the programme of economic boycott. Swadeshi meant self-help, to rely upon Indian-made goods rather than to patronize the retail outlets of the manufactured produce of Birmingham and Manchester. Beginning in Bengal, bonfires of European clothing lit the night sky, and the people turned to local Indian production of Swadeshi goods. Swadeshi was the first great impetus to industrial development in India. Local Indian production was given the stimulus for its natural growth. But like boycott, Swadeshi soon came to mean a great deal more than simple economic self-sufficiency. If there could be self-help in the economic sphere, then there most certainly could be self-help in all spheres of life. The dharma of action had taught self-respect and self-reliance, and Swadeshi extended self-reliance to self-help in all things. Swadeshi was a tangible way in which to demonstrate the new spirit, Tilak and the Nationalists had been teaching the people. The Swadeshi movement quickly became a movement of national regeneration. Swadeshi was a practical application of love of country. As Tilak said, ‘To recognise the land of the Aryans as mother-earth is the Swadeshi movement’. It was an economic, political and spiritual weapon. Swadeshi was Vande Mataram in action. The third element in the threefold programme for effective political action was national education. Tilak had long before realized that the Western education started by Lord Macaulay and pursued in all the Government-supported schools was ruinous to the future health and well-being of the nation. The younger generations were being educated away from not only their families and the great majority of the Indian people, but also away from the value system of India’s civilization. Government-supported Western education uprooted the youths from their ties to the past and made them Indians in name only. Hence such a system of Western education was repulsive to Tilak and the Nationalists. They pleaded for the establishment of national schools and colleges throughout the country to provide inexpensive and wholesome education emphasising the new spirit of self-help and self-reliance which young people could not expect to receive in the Government-supported institutions. And national education became an integral part of the nationalist programme for the India of the twentieth century. This threefold programme of boycott, Swadehsi and national education was presented to the country by Tilak and the Nationalists and was also presented to the Indian National Congress for its approval and adoption. The programme began primarily as an economic weapon but quickly its political importance was realized and became predominant. The impetus behind the programme was initially a reaction to the partitioning of Bengal, but it soon developed an all-India momentum. The first reason for its use was to induce the government to reunify Bengal, but it soon became a programme for national reawakening and national liberation–Swaraj. Thus, an economic programme became a political programme; a locally centred agitation became a national issue; the cause of altering a specific British policy evolved into the cause of gaining India’s self-determination. Swaraj became the reason and justification for the entire programme and movement led by Tilak and the Nationalists. Tilak realized that Swaraj, the goal of all efforts, was a moral national necessity. He held that the attainment of Swaraj would be a great victory for Indian nationalism. He gave to Indians the mantra: Swaraj is the birth-right of Indians (at the Lucknow Congress of 1916). He defined Swaraj as ‘people’s rule instead of that of bureaucracy’. This was the essence of Tilak’s argument with the social reformers when they sought to have the British Government legislate and enforce social reform measures. Tilak held that unless the people supported the reforms, in effect, unless the people exercised self-rule to legislate and enforce the reforms, the reforms were not only meaningless but also undemocratic and without moral significance. And for pushing his ideal of Swaraj forward, he started Home Rule Leagues in 1916 with the cooperation of Mrs. Annie Besant, which soon became so popular that the Government had to adopt severe repressive measures. But he went on undeterred with the propaganda of Home Rule throughout the country. He intended that a bill should be introduced in the British Parliament for Indian Home Rule, by the good offices of the Labour leaders, although he could not be successful in the attempt. However, the fact that Tilak began his Home Rule agitation in the year 1916 is an eloquent testimony to his keen perception of political realities. Tilak contemplated a federal type of political structure under Swaraj. He referred to the example of the American Congress and said that the Government of India should keep in its hands similar powers to exercise them through an impartial council. Although in his speeches and writings Tilak mostly stated that Swaraj did not imply the negation and severance of ultimate British sovereignty, we have every reason to believe that in his heart of hearts he always wanted complete independence. He once said that ‘there could be no such thing as partial Swaraj’. Self-rule under Dharmarajya either existed fully or did not exist at all. Partial Swaraj was a contradiction in terms. Only the Westernized few who could not understand this could talk in such contradictory terms, could agree to settle for administrative reforms, could not see that ‘Swaraj is India’s birth-right’. Through Swaraj, the revolutionary change in the theory of government, and  through Swaraj; alone, could the destiny of India be fulfilled! This is Tilak’s real meaning when he wrote, ‘Swaraj is our dharma’. Before the people of the nation he set this goal. Next he set about to make it a political reality, to implement the programme to bring about the goal. For the correct implementation of his programme, Tilak urged the method of non-violent passive resistance. Here it must be made clear that many foreign critics regard Tilak as a revolutionary. Chirol, 16 John S. Hoyland17, and several others, think that Tilak believed in armed revolution, that he was responsible for many political murders and that his speeches and articles contained â€Å"a covert threat of mutiny.† But it is not true. Undoubtedly, he supported the action of Shivaji in killing Afzal Khan. He appreciated the daring and skill of Chafekar, as also the patriotic fervour of the Bengal revolutionaries. But, as a moralist he put the highest premium on the purification of intentions. The external action could never be regarded as the criterion of moral worth. Hence if Arjuna or Shivaji or any other ardent patriot did commit or would commit some violent action, being impelled by higher altruistic motives, Tilak would not condemn such persons. But in spite of his metaph ysical defence of altruistic violence, Tilak never preached political murder; nor did he ever incite anybody to commit murder as a political means. A realist in politics though he was, he never taught the omnicompetence of force as Machiavelli or Treitschke did. His realism taught him to act in the political universe in such a way, that his opponents could not take advantage of him. Only by passive resistance and democratic means, he taught, could the united action of the people prove powerful enough to bring about the non-violent revolution that was Swaraj. Boycott and Swadeshi were, in effect, the precursors of the later non-cooperation movement. The passive resistance taught by him and the Nationalists was the precursor to non-violent civil disobedience. Tilak clearly foresaw that violence would be wasteful, and that it would ultimately be ineffectual. Being a realist, he recognised that ‘the military strength of the Government is enormous and a single machinegun showering hundreds of bullets per minute will quite suffice for our largest public meetings’.18 Action must be direct, but, realistically appraising the power of the Government, he urged that it be passive as well. He continually  taught, ‘As our fight is going to be constitutional and legal, our death also must, as of necessity, be constitutional and legal. We have not to use any violence’. 19 Thus Tilak’s method of action was democratic and constitutional. He had stirred the popular imagination and taught the people the necessity for united action. He had constructed a practical programme for the achievement of his political objective. He had defined for all time the purpose of the Indian movement for self-rule–Swaraj–and he had begun to develop the techniques that would be used in the popular movement to realize that goal effectively. Tilak left a monumental legacy to the independence movement. Gandhiji and those who came after Tilak could build upon the work and the victories which he had won. In his battles against orthodoxy, lethargy and bureaucracy he was largely successful. The independence movement, largely through his work, had been victorious, over stagnation, the spirit of orthodoxy that was negative, that compartmentalised rather than unified, and that could not rise to accept the challenges of the twentieth century. Tilak freed the nation from lethargy and stagnation, and in awakening the people, inspired them with a promise of awakening India, an India united, strong and capable of action, self-reliant and on the road to victory. 1 Kesari, june 1, 1897. 2 N. C. Kelkar, Pleasures and Privileges of the Pen, BK. I, p. 121. 3 A. Ghose, The Foundations of Indian Culture, pp. 8–9. 4 S. V. Bapat (ed.), Gleanings from Tilak’s Writings and Speeches, p. 346. 5 Kesari, Spt. 19, 1905. 6 A. Ghose, The foundations of Indian Culture, p 63. 7 Kesari, September 19,1905. 8 D. V. Athalye, The Life of Lokamanya Tilak, p. 54. 9 Kesari, Jan 21, 1904. 10 N. C. Kelkar, Landmarks in Lokamanya Life, p. 10. 11 B. G. Tilak, His Writings and Speeches, p. 277. 12 Kesari, January 12, 1896. 13 Kesari, July 2, 1895. 14 A. Ghose, in Introductory Appreciation to Bal Gangadhar Tilak, His Writings and Speeches, p. 7. 15 Gleanings from Tilak’s Writings and Speeches, p. 121. 16 V. Chirol, India, pp. 121-22. 17 John S. Hoyland, Gokhale, pp. 24-25. 18 B. G. Tilak, His Writings and Speeches, p. 64 and 69. 19 Ibid., p. 229-30. Back Independence Day Speech in English | Essay A very happy Independence day to my honorable Chief Guest, my respectable teachers & parents and all my lovely brothers and sisters. As You all Know Today we have gathered here for celebrating the 68th Independence day of our country. The day when India got freedom against the British Rule after so many years of struggle. On this day we pay tribute to our great freedom fighters like Mahatma Gandhi, Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Sarojini Naidu and many others who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of our country. It is on this day in 1947 that Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru addressed the constituent assembly at the Parliament, delivering his famed, eloquent speech, Tryst with Destiny announcing India’s freedom at midnight. This announcement brought about a rise in spirits all over the country, for India was finally realizing a dream to be a free nation, free from oppression and domination under the British rule. It was a historic day as India finally shook off the shack les of British Rule and became free. It was a night of celebration all over the country. This year in 2014, India will complete 67 years of Independence from the colonial Rule and will celebrate it’s 68th Independence day. This day is started with Flag Hoisting ceremonies, Parades and whole day different types of cultural programs & events are organized in India in schools, colleges and offices. The President and PM of India give ‘messages to the country’ . After hoisti the National Flag at the Red fort, the PM give a speech on some past achievements, some moral issues of present time and calls for the  further developments. The PM also salutes and remember to the oblation of the legender patriots of our country in his speech. Despite these the people of India celebrate this day through display the flag at shop, accessories, Car/bicycle and they also watching patriot movies and listening patriot songs and many other things. Every Indians ‘s important duty is that to give full respect the Independence day & National Flag and also understand the importance of this day. But in this modern age, the peoples are enjoying their life as much that they are not giving so importance of this day. We request to that people that at list one time remember to our legender patriot on this day. In this present time in our country there increases a lots of evils issues like Terrorism, Corruption, Women oppression etc All these evils really destroy our culture very badly. We shoul all take pledge to make our country safe and worth living for each and every individual of the society. So, I request all of you to sing with me national anthem ‘Jan-Gan-Man†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ . Vande Mataram. Bharat Mata Ki Jai. Thank you everyone & JAI HIND. – See more at: http://www.happyindependenceday2014x.com/2014/07/Independence-Day-Speech.html#sthash.K4Di3xtF.dpuf SPEECH FOR INDEPENDENCE DAY 13/8/2014 A very happy Independence day to my honorable Chief Guest, Head Mistress and my respectable teachers & parents and all my lovely brothers and sisters As You all Know Today we have gathered here for celebrating the 68th Independence day of our country. The day when India got freedom against the British Rule after so many years of struggle. On this day we pay tribute to our great freedom fighters like Mahatma Gandhi, Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Sarojini Naidu and many others who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of our country. Today I am going to tell you few words about Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Bal Gangadhar Tilak, a man of an spirited energy and a new vision, was born in Maharashtra in 1856. He is considered to be the ‘Father of Indian Unrest’  He was a scholar of Indian history, Sanskrit, mathematics, astronomy and Hinduism With an aim to impart teachings about Indian culture and national ideals to India’s youth, Tilak along with Agarkar and Vishnushstry founded the ‘Deccan Education Society’. Soon after that Tilak started two weeklies, ‘Kesari’ and ‘Marathi’ to highlight plight of Indians. He also started the celebrations of Ganapati Festival and Shivaji Jayanti to bring people close together and join the nationalist movement against British. In fighting for people’s cause, twice he was sentenced to imprisonment. He launched Swadeshi Movement and believed that ‘Swaraj is my birth right and I shall have it’. This quote inspired millions of Indians to join the freedom struggle. With the goal of Swaraj, he also built ‘Home Rule League’. Tilak constantly traveled across the country to inspire and convince people to believe in Swaraj and fight for freedom. He was constantly fighting against injustice and one sad day on August 1, 1920, he died.