Bal Gangadhar Tilak

{image} Bal Gangadhar Tilak is considered as Father of Indian National Movement.The Father of Indian Unrest Bal Gangadhar Tilak

was a multifaceted personality. He was a social reformer, freedom fighter, national leader, and a scholar of Indian history, sanskrit, hinduism, mathematics and astronomy. Bal Gangadhar Tilak was popularly called as Lokmanya (Beloved of the people). During freedom struggle, his slogan “Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it” inspired millions of Indians.

How much the British feared Tilak, can be gauged from the letter the Governor of Bombay wrote in 1908 to the Secretary of State for India in England: 'He is one of the chief conspirators opposed to the British rule in India. He may even be the Chief con spirator. He has planned the Ganesha Festival, the Shivaji Festival, the Paisa Fund and the National Schools, with the sole aim of destroying British rule in India.'When Tilak passed away, Mahatma Gandhi said: "He used his steel-like will power for the country. His life is an open book. The Lokamanya is the Architect of New India. Future generations will remember Tilak with reverence, as the man who lived and died for their sake."