Kesari (Marathi: केसरी Sanskrit for Lion) is a Marathi newspaper which was founded in 1881 by Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, a prominent leader of the Indian Independence movement. The newspaper was used as a spokes piece for the Indian national freedom movement, and continues to be published by the Kesari Mahratta Trust and Tilak’s descendants.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak used to run his two newspapers, Kesari, in Marathi and Mahratta[4] in English from Kesari Wada, Narayan Peth, Pune. The newspapers were originally started as a co-operative by Chiplunkar, Agarkar and Tilak. The Wada (Marathi for courtyard / building) 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 editors of Kesari included a number of freedom fighters and social activists / reformers, including Agarkar (its first editor), Chiplunkar and Tilak.Agarkar left Kesari in 1887 to start his own news paper, Sudharak (the reformer) after which Tilak continued to run the paper on his own.