Lokamanya Tilak was the head of the Indian independence movement before Mahatma Gandhi. Tilak had a special interest in the Vedas and in the ancient history of India and wrote two important books on the subjects, the Orion, and the Arctic Home in the Vedas. I found Tilak’s work on astronomical references in the Vedas via his Orion to be very crucial information for accurately dating the Vedas. However, I found his Arctic home theory to be farfetched, a product of the incomplete scientific information of his era.

I discovered that Tilak was closely connected with Aurobindo, who was his follower, and wanted Aurobindo to take over the independence movement after him. But Aurobindo had already retired from the world to do his yoga practice and decided against it. Both Tilak and Aurobindo found Mahatma Gandhi’s insistence on non-violence to be excessive and wanted a more active campaign to oust the British.