Existence of a Militant School of Thought

By the dawn of the twentieth century, a band of nationalist thinkers had emerged who advocated a more militant approach to political work. These included Raj Narain Bose, Ashwini Kumar Datta, Aurobindo Ghosh and Bipin Chandra Pal in Bengal; Vishnu Shastri Chiplunkar and Bal Gangadhar Tilak in Maharashtra; and Lala Lajpat Rai in Punjab. Tilak emerged as the most outstanding representative of this school of thought.

The basic tenets of this school of thought were:

● hatred for foreign rule; since no hope could be derived from it, Indians should work out their own salvation;

● swaraj to be the goal of national movement;

● direct political action required;

● belief in capacity of the masses to challenge the authority;

● personal sacrifices required and a true nationalist to be always ready for it.