Remembering Bal Gangadhar Tilak on his birth anniversary

 Remembering Bal Gangadhar Tilak on his birth anniversary

• Bal Gangadhar Tilak was a social reformer, Indian nationalist and freedom fighter. 

• He was an ardent follower of Swaraj and was famous with the name Lokmanya Tilak. 

Some facts:

• He was born into a middle class-Brahman family. In 1876, he earned a bachelor's degree from Deccan College in Poona in Mathematics and Sanskrit. In 1879, he completed law from the University of Bombay (now Mumbai). Further, he decided to teach mathematics in a private school in Poona from where his political career began.

• He founded the Deccan Education Society in 1884, to educate people especially in the English language because at that time he and his associates believed that English is a powerful force for liberal and democratic ideals.

• He started awakening people through newspapers like ‘Kesari’ ("The Lion") in Marathi and in English ‘The Mahratta’. From these papers, he became famous and criticise Britishers and methods of moderates who advocate social reforms along Western lines and political reforms along constitutional lines. 

• Two important festivals were also organised by Bal Gangadhar Tilak namely Ganesh in 1893 and Shivaji in 1895. Ganesha because the God is headed by the elephant and worshipped by all Hindus and Shivaji because he was the first Hindu ruler who fought against Muslim power in India and established the Maratha Empire in the 17th century.

• Bal Gangadhar Tilak joined the Indian National Congress (INC) in 1890 and started self-rule. He was the first nationalist freedom fighter who brought the concept of 'Swaraj'.

• In India, he started the Swadeshi movement. Jamshed Tata and Tilak together established Bombay Swadeshi Stores to promote the national movement.

• Bal Gangadhar Tilak,  Bipin Chandra Pal and Lala Lajpat Rai are known as 'Lal-Bal-Pal'. Bal Gangadhar Tilak was against the Age of Consent Act of 1891.

• To achieve the political aim, Bal Gangadhar Tilak wanted to generate a mass movement which is different from the opinion of moderates and so, in 1907 there was a split in moderates and extremist in Surat Session. British took the benefit of the situation and send Bal Gangadhar Tilak to the Mandalay jail in Burma (Myanmar) to serve a six-year prison sentence.

• He published The Arctic Home in the Vedas which represents the origin of Aryans and Srimad Bhagvat Gita Rahasya (1915).

• In April 1916, Bal Gangadhar Tilak launched the Indian Home Rule League with the rousing slogan “Swarajya is my birthright and I shall have it.” 

• In September 1916, Annie Besant launched the Home Rule League at Madras (now Chennai, Tamil Nadu). 

• Bal Gangadhar Tilak died on 1 August, 1920.