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Bal Gangadhar Tilak was a social reformer, Indian nationalist, and freedom fighter. He was a follower of Swaraj and died on 1 August 1920. His speeches in Marathi and Hindi were popular. He helped in laying the foundation for India's independence against Britishers and converted it into a national movement.
He is credited as the first leader of the Indian Independence Movement. He was lovingly called ‘Lokmanya’ which means ‘accepted by people’. Bal Gangadhar Tilak was the foremost and most active leader of the Indian freedom struggle and is known for paving the way for subsequent leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhai Patel.
The British called him the ‘Father of Indian Unrest’. Let's go through amazing facts and slogans of Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
“Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have it!”
“Freedom is my birthright. I must have it.”
“Progress is implied in independence. Without self-government neither industrial progress is possible, nor the educational scheme will be useful to the nation…To make efforts for India’s freedom is more important than social reforms.”
“If God is put up with untouchability, I will not call him God.”
“It may be providence’s will that the cause I represent may prosper more by my suffering than by my remaining free.”
“If we trace the history of any nation backwards into the past, we come at last to a period of myths and traditions which eventually fade away into impenetrable darkness.”
“Our nation is like a tree of which the original trunk is swarajya and the branches are swadeshi and boycott.”
The British authorities called Bal Gangadhar Tilak “The father of the Indian unrest.” He was also called by the title of “Lokmanya”, which means “accepted by the people as their leader”.
He was born on 23rd July 1856 in a middle-class Marathi Hindu Chitpavan Brahmin family in Ratnagiri, the headquarters of the Ratnagiri district.
He founded the Deccan Education Society in 1884. the main aim was to educate people in the English language since he considered the language a powerful force for liberal and democratic ideals.
He started newspapers like ‘Kesari’ (“The Lion”) in Marathi and in English ‘The Mahratta’. He became famous and criticized Britishers and the methods of moderates who advocate social reforms along Western lines and political reforms along constitutional lines.
He also organized two important festivals namely Ganesh in 1893 and Shivaji in 1895. Ganesh 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.
He opposed the moderate attitude of the Indian National Congress, especially towards the fight for self-government. He was one of the most-eminent radicals at the time. In fact, it was the Swadeshi movement of 1905–1907 that resulted in the split within the Indian National Congress into the Moderates and the Extremists.
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