In the Congress of the late nineteenth century, the dominant method was petition and constitutional appeal. Tilak rejected that patience. He argued that freedom could not be requested but had to be claimed, and he set out to widen the movement beyond an educated elite. His instruments were journalism, education and culture: Kesari carried hard-hitting editorials that repeatedly drew sedition charges and imprisonment; the New English School, Deccan Education Society and Fergusson College were built on the belief that national education must precede political independence; and public celebrations of Ganeshotsav and Shiv Jayanti turned religious and historical memory into occasions for mass political assembly at a time when open political gatherings were difficult.