The ongoing negotiations between the U.S. and Bharat, interspersed with President Trump posting a running commentary on social media, are keeping memesters busy. Trump has earned the title of ‘President of Content’ among podcasters in the U.S. Trump has an unlikely ally in opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, who has echoed propaganda posted by the President. Rahul Gandhi has likely forgotten the legacy of the Congress. It was a Congress leader who made the first demand for Swadeshi, and it was not Gandhi. It took a century for Bharat to finally realise the dream of Bal Gangadhar Tilak to ‘Make in India’ and have an ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’.
Every year on the 1st of August, children brought fresh flowers to the school assembly and offered Shraddhanjali to Lokmanya Tilak’s lifesize photograph, and a diya would be lit as a sankalp—a vow to make the Swadeshi movement a mission for a lifetime. Not sure if our schools honour Tilak’s legacy as the original campaigner for ‘Make in India’.
This year, Bharat completes 120 years of the Lokmanya Tilak’s Swadeshi movement. He recognised the power of self-reliance and the economic potential that was intrinsic to the Swadeshi andolan to harbinger political freedom through economic reform and independence. Bharat was in the middle of social turmoil, political turmoil, and colonial brutality when Lokmanya led Congress and Bharat to recognise the significance of Swadeshi. Lokmanya invited people to support local artisans, handmade crafts and skills and buy products that were made by the natives. The idea was to refuse cheaper, poor-quality dumping in Bharat’s markets and ensure a self-reliant, self-sustaining economy that optimised traditional skills and ensured sustainable income for all.
Lokmanya decided to generate awareness through his editorials in a Marathi daily newspaper, titled ‘Kesari’ (Lion in Sanskrit), which was a cultural and academic revolution to achieve the Swadeshi goal, guarantee livelihood and equanimity among all classes. His call from the humble Kesari wada in old Pune became a roar to warn the colonisers and to educate the masses to dislodge control of colonial power that was manipulating both prices and supply.
A resistance against control on prices of cotton harvest had soon become a policy to guarantee livelihood for weavers who were crushed by the flood of mechanised weaves flooding markets. Lokmanya Tilak reminded the masses about how the merchant East India Company came to trade, but soon established a military front to invade Bharat, and in the year 1905, he laid the fundamentals for what we know as Make in India or Atmanirbhar Bharat.
Revive and promote culture through the traditional skills, crafts, help sustain livelihoods of artisans by keeping them gainfully employed, ensure that raw materials are bought at the right price, make goods that suit the local consumers’ demand, expectations and offer good quality and right price.
This year is the 120th year of Swadeshi since Lokmanya Tilak launched the movement, and Bharat today, as an independent nation, the principles of Swadeshi are as relevant as they were back then. It has been a decade since ‘Make in India’ was launched—as a mission for our research capabilities, as a mascot for Bharat’s trade and manifestation of marvellous infrastructure projects that Atmanirbhar Bharat has fructified.
This is the outcome of our manufacturing and service industry genius. Expanding financial inclusivity through the payment gateways, delivering vaccines for the global south, developing light arms such as pistols, rifles and grenade launchers or making artillery systems like Dhanush, Pinaka, Akash that transformed a resilient response of Bharat into a thundering roar and shut down terror camps—while defending civilians during Operation Sindoor.
Akash, Swathi, and Kavach are among the sophisticated defence systems that rose as defending sentinels through the ‘Operation Sindoor’ to defend Bharat’s five border states. Advancements in managing responses to climate and natural disasters, such as evacuation during cyclones and floods. Special mention for our scientists ISRO for Mangalyaan, Chandrayaan, and the next being Gaganyaan. This week, NASA-ISRO collaborated to launch a humongous observatory, NISAR, for studying Earth’s dynamic surface.
Today is Lokmanya Tilak’s punya tithi. He left this world after long physical endurance, as he was incarcerated by the colonial British, who banished him for 6 years to a dark cell of Mandalay in Burma. He never recovered from the physical toll. Lokmanya Tilak’s fight for self-rule, self-esteem, as a freedom fighter, and his principles for economic self-reliance will continue to be the guiding force in making Bharat a force to reckon with.
Today, Bharat has resolved to equip the youth and create the right opportunities that ensure a smoother business environment, embrace technology, smart governance, and is ready to adapt to meet new opportunities and challenges. Taking a huge step towards making Make In India not only a slogan but a reality.
As Bharat continues to be targeted for resilience, rising confidence and self-assured conduct, we revisit the words of Lokmanya’s ‘Swarajya is my birth right and I shall have it’, thus fulfilling the dream of an Atmanirbhar, resilient Bharat.
Maya Rane is an expert in strategic communications, specialising in documenting and conveying sustainability-ESG initiatives. As a key player in the development sector, she’s dedicated to building human-centric brand identities.
