Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak: The First Leader Of The Indian Independence Movement

Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak belongs to the state of Maharashtra. He was born on the twenty-third of July eighteen hundred fifty-six. He belongs to the Brahmin family, his father Gangadhar Pant was a learned scholar. Balgagnadhar’s childhood had been devoted to Sanskrit verses. He was the only son of his father, his father worked in the government education department. Within a few days, Tilak’s mother died, and later on, his aunty look after the baby. Tilak from his childhood was inspired greatly by the heroics of Shivaji and his love for the motherland from the clutches of invaders. He finished his primary education at Ratnagiri, then his father transferred to Pune, and he continued his education there. He married at the age of fifteen, these were the tradition these days, but sadly after his marriage, his father died. His father had made proper arrangements for his lively hood and for this, his brought up never been hindered. Tilak’s uncle Govindrao looked after him, Tilak completed his matriculation and joined the Deccan College at Pune. He was exceptional in mathematics and passed the first class in graduation.

Bal’s close friend is Agarkar, who belongs to a poor family, but they had one thing in common, which is the love for their motherland. Bal wanted to liberate India from the clutches of on the other hand Agarkar wanted to reform the society through modern viewpoints. They spent time reading, walking, and discussing. They had their differences towards society but it never comes in the blockage to their friendship. They were influenced by their teacher Ranade and two English authors Mill and Spencer. Ranade wanted to spread literacy and he found two able disciples like Bal and Agarkar.

Tilak’s intelligence has the brilliance of the sun. After teaching almost five years at Pune English School, then both joined Fergusson College. They created awareness in their students and the general public. In the meantime Tilak passed the law examination a started his career as a lawyer. He became successful within a limited time. Tilak was very sad that Indians are accepting rules and no one is opposing them. His paper Kesari became a powerful tool, to motivate people. Tilak searched for a sense of pride among the fellow Indians and for this, he worked a day in and out to install the confidence among them. He organized the Ganesh festival to make the base of social issues. He restored Shivaji Samadhi at Raigarh fort where he was crowned. From 1893 to 1895 he was elected as the leader of Pune Municipality and then subsequently to Bombay Municipality and then legislative council. In 1895 he became the secretary of Gokhale by gaining control over Sarvajanik Sabha. Tilak has a charismatic personality, people are attracted to his speech and belief what he intended to say to them.

In 1897 when the epidemic plague broke out Tilak conveyed this to the people about this dreaded disease and spread awareness among them. He wrote about the cause of the disease and the effect and spread awareness of how to treat this disease without pressing the panic button through other basic and useful information. Tilak’s pen was his might and it is like a rod for him. His words angered and their army even during the epidemic stormed into the houses of the people show rude behavior to ladies, throws Lord’s idol, and this created anger among the citizens. Tilak boldly and fearlessly criticized the atrocities done by during these difficult times. Tilak’s patriotism, courage, boldness, fearlessness, upright character made them lovable to the people and became a popular leader among the Indians.

Tilak was an orthodox Hindu, studied Veda deeply, and wrote The” Arctic home of Vedas” are very popular. He also wrote beautiful summaries of Ramayan and the Mahabharat epics, he believed in the caste systems and orthodox rituals. He was not the supporter to wipe out the unsociability and the prevalent century’s long cast system. In 1897 his beloved son Vishwanath who was 21 died of the plague. Tilak believed that a nation fighting for its freedom had the moral right to use all its means and methods in its struggle. He was supported by some of the extreme measures which can be an eye-opener for the ruling. He considers them arrogant and a national boycott is one of the best tools to delete their arrogance. He stressed the need and the significance of boycotting foreign goods in its entire means. He supported the four-point program for the boycott and to reach swaraj. Swadeshi, Boycott, National education, and swaraj are the prime pillars to attain the status of swaraj and he tried his best to attain these through various means and achievements. These four-point programs became extremely popular and it was being populated by Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and Bipin Bihari Pal the trio popularly known as the Lal, Bal, and Pal and has been immensely popular and followed by many Indians. They considered Swadeshi as the road to freedom. In Bengal, people collected the clothes manufactured by Manchester and started to be born at the mass fire and that symbolizes the sense of Swadeshi among the Indians. They encouraged industrialists to build their own and indigenous industries and people to wear desi clothes Tilak started the Swadeshi cooperative stores ltd and started collecting funds from the people to support this huge movement. He established with the funds collected a glass factory at the Talegaon in Poona. Tilak started the Banaras Hindu University in 1905 and supported the use of Devanagari scripts and which created the Hindi language script which is prevalent today all over Indian and is proud among all the Indians living here and abroad. Tilak said through education one can feel the love for its motherland and for this he announced and appealed to every Indian to read the mother tongue and love your language to its fullest extent.

The Arctic home of Vedas is very popular. He also wrote beautiful summaries of Ramayan and the Mahabharat epics, he believed in the caste systems and orthodox rituals. He was not the supporter to wipe out the unsociability and the prevalent century’s long cast system. In 1897 his beloved son Vishwanath who was 21 died of the plague. Tilak believed that a nation fighting for its freedom had the moral right to use all its means and methods in its struggle. He was supported by some of the extreme measures which can be an eye-opener for the ruling. He considers them arrogant and a national boycott is one of the best tools to delete their arrogance. He stressed the need and the significance of boycotting foreign goods in its entire means. He supported the four-point program for the boycott and to reach swaraj. Swadeshi, Boycott, National education, and swaraj are the prime pillars to attain the status of swaraj and he tried his best to attain these through various means and achievements. This four-point program became extremely popular and it was being populated by Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and Bipin Bihari Pal the trio popularly known as the Lal, Bal, and Pal and has been immensely popular and followed by many Indians. They considered Swadeshi as the road to freedom. In Bengal, people collected the clothes manufactured by Manchester and started to be born at the mass fire and that symbolizes the sense of Swadeshi among the Indians. They encouraged industrialists to build their own and indigenous industries and people to wear desi clothes Tilak started the Swadeshi cooperative stores ltd and started collecting funds from the people to support this huge movement. He established with the funds collected a glass factory at the Talegaon in Poona. Tilak started the Banaras Hindu University in 1905 and supported the use of Devanagari scripts and which created the Hindi language script which is prevalent today all over Indian and proud among all the Indians living here and abroad. Tilak said through education one can feel the love for its motherland and for this he announced and appealed to every Indian to read the mother tongue and love your language to its fullest extent.

Tilak firmly believed that the removal of poverty would help immensely in building modern India and for this, he supported the use of the cotton yarn industry and he frankly did not believe what said to Congress at those time and this led to the division of Congress among the moderates and the radicals. Tilak and Bipin Bihari Pal are radicals and the moderate groups are that of Gokhale and Mehta who believed there are should be continuous talk with to resolve all the outstanding issues. Tilak always believed that self-government is his goal and it can be achieved through boycotting. He said freedom is ours, if the law is unjust then defy it. Gandhiji later supported the boy cot rule of Tilak and it was immensely popular in the non-cooperation movement. In Bengal Bnakim Chandra Chatterjee created the famous Bande Mataram the patriotic song and this has become the national song and it inspired many to fight for the motherland to save from the clutches of. Tilak was arrested on 24th July 1908 and put the laughable charges of seditions and being kept in the Dongri jail due to two of his wonderful writings These remedies not lasting and the countries misfortune and slapped a fine of one thousand rupees and six years of prison and deported to Burma in the Mandalay prison.