Is Bal Gangadhar Tilak the original Hindutva icon?

livemint.com:

Tilak: The Empire’s Biggest Enemy, in a sense, completes the triumvirate of the three interrelated historical legacies that have shaped modern Maharashtra and dramatically impacted national life. As Tilak’s last major biography in English appeared perhaps half a century ago, this fresh evaluation of his political career is timely given the tectonic shifts that have since taken place in India’s pollical culture.

At least part of the impulse for these changes can be traced back to Tilak’s own innovations. Purandare’s early chapters ably embed Tilak in colonial Pune in the second half of the 19th century, a milieu in which the shadow of 1857 and the earlier vanquishing of the Peshwas lay long, and public opinion instinctively shrank from any criticism, however minor, of the colonial state.

Completing his under-graduation and a law degree and consciously eschewing the conventional middle-class pursuit of a government job or a legal career, the young Tilak, along with like-minded colleagues, set up a school, a college and a newspaper each in English and Marathi. Somewhat surprisingly, each of these ventures was successful.

Both the school and the college were premised on a good relationship with the colonial authorities and the college was in fact named after the then governor of Bombay James Ferguson. Tilak’s association with these educational ventures would, however, end in acrimony with the founding members falling out, largely on account of ego clashes and personality differences.