Sawraj is my birthright and i shall have it what does freedom meant to
you?
Answers
Balwant Gangahar Tilak or Lokmanya Tilak as we called fondly, was one of the first to advocate more stringent and aggressive methods to deal with British imperialism.
Born into a middle class Brahmin family in a village near Ratnagiri in Maharashtra, Tilak was among India’s first generation youth to receive a modern. College education. After graduation, Tilak went on to teach mathematics in a private school in Pune and thereafter became a journalist. Lokmanya Tilak strongly criticized the western education system blaming it for demeaning the Indian students and disrespecting India’s heritage. To improve the quality of education of Indian youth, Tilak organized his own education society called the Deccan Education Society.
Tilak was one of the first and strongest proponent for Swaraj (complete independence) in the Indian consciousness, and is considered the father of Hindu nationalism. Tilak’s famous quote “Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have it” is well-remembered in India even today. Known as the father of the Indian unrest, Tilak was the first popular leader of the Indian Independence Movement.
Reverently addressed as Lokmanya,(beloved of the people), Tilak was a scholar if Indian history, Sanskrit, Hinduism, Mathematics and Astronomy. He founded the Marathi daily Kesari (Lion), which became very popular reading of the common people of India. Tilak strongly criticized the government for its brutality in suppression of free expression, especially in face of protests against the division of Bengal in 1905.
In the 1890’s Tilak joined the Indian National Congress, but soon fell into opposition of its liberal-moderate attitude towards the fight for self-government. In 1891, he opposed the Age of Consent bill introduced after the death of a child bride from sexual injuries. This raised the marriageable age of a child bride from 10 to 12.The Congress and other liberals whole-heartedly supported this and since then Tilak was seen as a hard-core Hindu nationalist. Tilak opposed the moderate views of Gopal Krishna Gokhale, and was supported by fellow Indian nationalists Bipin Chandra Pal in Bengal and Lala Lajpat Rai in Punjab.Thet were referred to as the Lal-Bal-Pal triumvirate.
In 1907, at the annual session of the Congress Party, in Surat, trouble broke out and the Congress was divided between the moderates and the extremists. Till the end, Tilak remained committed to the cause of complete Swaraj