Saturday Special
23 July- Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Called as 'Maker of Modern India', Tilak was a force to reckon with.
Titled Lokmanya by the public, Keshav Gangadhar Tilak or Bal Gangadhar Tilak was nationalist, teacher and a freedom fighter.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal, and Lala Lajpat Rai are together known as 'Lal-Bal-Pal. He was one of the primary leaders of the Indian Independence movement. Staunch advocate of 'swarajya' (Self-rule), he had for long agitated against the British rule in India.
It was because of him, that we celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi on a big scale. To strengthen the unity amongst Indians and mobilize people for swaraj movement, from all walks of life, he had proposed this idea of grand celebrations consisting of several days of processions, music and food. He also initiated fund to celebrated Shivaji Jayanti.
Called as ‘the father of Indian unrest’ by British officials that time, he also set up Deccan Education Society to improve the quality of education in India. Deccan Education Society was established to build a new system of education that is based on Indian tradition and culture and taught nationalist ideas. It runs over 40 institutions presently.
He started awakening common people through newspapers like ‘Kesari’ ("The Lion") in Marathi and in English ‘The Mahratta’. From these papers, he advocated social and political reforms along with swaraj movement and opposing British rule.
He also started the Swadeshi movement. Along with Jamshed Tata, he established Bombay Swadeshi Stores to promote the national movement.
Recalling Lokmanya Tilak on his Birth Jayanti from Mumbai Multimedia Studio www.multimediastudio.net
