But throughout this ordeal Tilak never relaxed his political activity either in the Press or in the manifold organizations which he controlled.
His influence, moreover, was rapidly extending far beyond, Poona and the Deccan.

He had at an early date associated himself with, the Indian National Congress, and he was secretary of the Standing Committee for the Deccan.

His Congress work had brought him into contact with the politicians of other provinces, and upon none did his teachings and his example produce so deep an impression as upon the emotional Bengalees.
He had not the gift of sonorous eloquence which they possess, and he never figured conspicuously as an orator at the annual sessions of Congress.

But his calculating resourcefulness and his indomitable energy, even his masterfulness, impressed them all the more, and in the two memorable sessions held at Benares in 1905 and at Calcutta in 1906, when the agitation over the Partition of Bengal was at its height, his was the dominant personality, not at the tribune, but in the lobbies.

He had been one of the first champions of _Swadeshi_ as an economic weapon in the struggle against British rule, and he saw in the adoption of the boycott, with all the lawlessness which it involved, an unprecedented opportunity of stimulating the active forces of disaffection.