Kesari
Encyclopedia
This article is about the Marathi newspaper. For other uses of the word, see Kesari (disambiguation)
Kesari (disambiguation)
Kesari means "lion" in Sanskrit and may refer to :*Kesari , a newspaper started by Bal Gangadhar Tilak*A. Balakrishna Pillai, a critic in Malayalam who wrote under the pseudonym Kesari. It was the also the name of a Malayalam newspaper that he started.*Vengayil Kunhiraman Nayanar, another Malayalam...



Kesari is a newspaper founded by Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Lokmanya Tilak –, was an Indian nationalist, teacher, social reformer and independence fighter who was the first popular leader of the Indian Independence Movement. The British colonial authorities derogatorily called the great leader "Father of the Indian unrest"...

, a prominent leader of the Indian Independence movement.

Established in 1881 with the aim of national wakening, it is celebrating its 129th anniversary in 2010.

It is located at your home in Pune, Maharashtra. Gaikwads built the monument. It is very significant in terms of history. Prince of Baroda, Sayajirao Gaikwad used to live in this palace. Now the structure of the palace had been pulled down to renovate. Nightlong discussions were going in this building to overthrow colonial rule during the freedom struggle.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Lokmanya Tilak –, was an Indian nationalist, teacher, social reformer and independence fighter who was the first popular leader of the Indian Independence Movement. The British colonial authorities derogatorily called the great leader "Father of the Indian unrest"...

 used to run his two newspapers, the Kesari, in Marathi and Maratha in English from Kesari Wada. The Wada still has the offices of Kesari, and mementos of Tilak, including his writing desk original letters and documents, and the first India national flag unfurled by Madame Cama. During Ganapati festival, the Wada is visited by a large number of people.

The Kesari and the Kolhapur Affair

This was a particular controversy regarding the ‘madness’ of Shivaji IV, the minor Maharaja of Kolhapur (Chhatrapati), a princely state in the southern part of Bombay Presidency , which took place in early 1880s. The British officials and doctors were of the opinion that Shivaji IV was suffering from an incurable ‘madness’. This official version received support from English newspapers like the Times of India and the Bombay Gazette.

However, some Indian owned newspapers like Induprakash, Mahratta and Kesari disputed this. In the Kesari there was a public questioning of the diagnosis, treatment and mental state of the Chhatrapati. The Kesari, then under the editorship of Agarkar, and the Mahratta under Tilak, argued that Shivaji IV was not ‘mad’ and the little instability in his mental state was caused by the maltreatment given to him by the servants and officials appointed to take care of him. They especially accused Mahadev Barve, the British appointed Karbhari (Chief Administrator) of Kolhapur for complicity in a conspiracy to make Shivaji IV mad. They published letters allegedly written by Mahadev Barve to his subordinate officials in the Kesari and Mahratta which indicated his involvement along with some British officials and native servants in a plot to poison Shivaji IV.

To clear himself of the charges, Mahadev Barve filed a defamation case against Tilak and Agarkar.
The trial which followed brought the private life of Shivaji IV and illtreatment meted out to him by British officials in the public sphere.

The Kesari published the verbatim account of the High Court drama of the trial which exposed the barbarous attitude of the British officers towards Shivaji IV to public scrutiny. The jury found Tilak and Agarkar guilty on the charge of slander against Mahadev Barve and sentenced them to four months’ imprisonment on 16th July 1882 at the Dongri jail in Bombay. Even during the trial, Kesari wrote articles which questioned the physical control of British officers over the body of
Shivaji IV and expressed fears regarding danger to Shivaji IV’s life from officers appointed to protect him. In spite of such accusations the British Government did not remove Shivaji IV from the custody of these officers. Eventually, Shivaji IV died on December 25th 1883 in a scuffle with a British soldier appointed to take care of him. The whole episode became famous as the Kolhapur Prakaran (affair).

See also

List of newspapers in India
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