ABSTRACT
“Swaraj is birthright, and will have it”—this ringing pronouncement of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, which echoed and re-echoed through the length and breadth of the country, galvanised the suppressed masses of India and roused them to a new national consciousness. It was Tilak who first drew the people into the struggle for liberation. The ruling passion in India then was urge for freedom, and a blow struck for emancipation in any part of the world was bound to inspire patriots. The Russian Revolution had inscribed on its banner the slogan of self-determination of nationalities. India had been demanding the same right from the imperialists, demand which was met by bullets and persecution. The British, however, strained every nerve to suppress the facts of this contrast and to spread malicious lies about the Revolution. The mouthpieces of the imperialists, in particular, the Pioneer, the Civil and Military Gazette and the Statesman, carried on a virulent campaign against the socialist regime.
