Bal Gangadhar Tilak Birth Anniversary: Man who transformed Ganesh Chaturthi into symbol of nationalism

Today, the nation observes the 163rd birth anniversary of freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Born on July 23, 1856 in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri, Bal Gangadhar Tilak is famously known as ‘Father of Indian unrest’. After graduating in 1877, Tilak completed his LLB from Government Law College, Bombay. Taking to Twitter, PM Modi extended his tributes to ‘Lokmanya’ Tilak.

लोकमान्य तिलक को उनकी जयंती पर कोटि-कोटि नमन। देशभक्ति की भावना से ओतप्रोत वे एक ऐसे स्वतंत्रता सेनानी थे, जिन्होंने पूर्ण स्वराज के लिए अपना जीवन समर्पित कर दिया। कृतज्ञ राष्ट्र उनके योगदान को सदैव स्मरण करता रहेगा। pic.twitter.com/1YJYz0tNbH

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 23, 2019

Born on July 23, 1856 in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri, Bal Gangadhar Tilak is famously known as ‘Father of Indian unrest’. After graduating in 1877, Tilak completed his LLB from Government Law College, Bombay. He finally decided to take up journalism as his career and founded two newspapers namely- Kesari and Mahratta in English and Marathi respectively. His articles in these newspapers were blended with a couple of purposes and these were to oppose the policies of oppression adopted by the British rule and to encourage his fellow Indians through his writing.

Tilak who is known as the propagator of Indian Nationalism joined the Indian National Congress in the year 1890 when Mahatma Gandhi had returned from South Africa.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak, who was stalwart of ‘swarajya’ which means self-rule, gave the call, “Swarajya is my birth right and I shall have it.” And we this, he initiated a protest against the foreign products. The movement was supported by two other leaders-Lala Lajpat Rai and Bipin Chandra Pal. The trio is famously known as Lal, Bal and Pal.

Tilak’s political life witnessed many ups and downs as in Congress’ annual meeting of 1907, the party bifurcated forcing Tilak to leave the membership.

Interestingly, it was Tilak who transformed the way Ganesh Chaturthi had been celebrated in the country. The seasoned thinker in Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak epitomised the festival as a display of nationalism.

Here are few famous quotes by him about nationalism and life.

• The geologist takes up the history of the earth at the point where the archaeologist leaves it and carries it further back into remote antiquity.
• Progress is implied in independence. Without self-government neither industrial progress is possible, nor will the educational scheme be useful to the nation.
• If god is put up with untouchability, I will not call him god.
• If we trace the history of any nation backward 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.
• Life is all about a card game. Choosing the right cards is not in our hand. But playing well with the cards in hand determines our success.
• Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have it
• To be successful, you need family and friends but, to be very successful, you need enemies and competitors.
• The problem is not the lack of resources or capability, but the lack of will.