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Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Photo unattributed –

Top 10 Remarquable Facts about Bal Gangadhar Tilak

Bal Gangadhar Tilak was one third of the Lal Bal Pal triumvirate. Tilak was the first leader of the Indian independence movement.

 The British colonial authorities called him “The father of the Indian unrest.” He was also conferred with the title of “Lokmanya”, which means “accepted by the people as their leader”.

1. Bal was born into a middle-class-Brahman family.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Indian revolutionary. Photo unattributed –

He was born on 23^rd July 1856 in a Marathi Hindu Chitpavan Brahmin family in Ratnagiri, the headquarters of the Ratnagiri district. It was a middle-class-Brahman family.

 His ancestral village was Chikhali. His father, Gangadhar Tilak was a school teacher and a Sanskrit scholar who died when Tilak was sixteen. In 1871, Tilak was married to Tapibai (N茅e Bal) when he was sixteen, a few months before his father’s death. After marriage, her name was changed to Satyabhamabai.

 In 1876, he earned a bachelor’s degree from Deccan College in Poona in Mathematics and Sanskrit. In 1879, he completed law at the University of Bombay (now Mumbai). Further, he decided to teach mathematics in a private school in Poona from where his political career began.

Later, due to ideological differences with his colleagues in the new school, he withdrew and became a journalist. Tilak actively participated in public affairs. He stated: “Religion and practical life are not different. The real spirit is to make the country your family instead of working only for your own. The step beyond is to serve humanity and the next step is to serve God

2. Tilak founded the Deccan Education Society

Tilak Photo from Baroda art gallery museum video screenshots. Photo by Anant Shivaji Desai, Ravi Varma Press –

He founded the Deccan Education Society in 1884, to educate people, especially in the English language because at that time he and his associates believed that English is a powerful force for liberal and democratic ideals.

3. Bal became famous through his newspaper – Kesari

PM Modi offers floral tributes to Bal Gangadhar Tilak. The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, the Speaker, Lok Sabha, Smt. Sumitra Mahajan, the Union Minister for External Affairs and Overseas Indian Affairs, Smt. Sushma Swaraj, the Union Minister for Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and Parliamentary Affairs, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, the Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting (Independent Charge), Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Independent Charge), and Parliamentary Affairs, Shri Prakash Javadekar and other dignitaries paid tributes to Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak on his birth anniversary, at Parliament House, in New Delhi on July 23, 2014. Photo from Prime Minister’s Office, Government of India –

He started awakening people through newspapers like 鈥楰esari鈥� (“The Lion”) in Marathi and in English 鈥楾he Mahratta鈥�. From these papers, he became famous and criticize Britishers and the methods of moderates who advocate social reforms along Western lines and political reforms along constitutional lines. 

4. Tilak organized two important festivals in India

“”Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak” (1856-1920). Photo source: eBay, Jan. 2007 ” (1856-1920) a print made from a photo –

 Two important festivals were also organized by Bal Gangadhar Tilak namely Ganesh in 1893 and Shivaji in 1895. Ganesha because the God is headed by the elephant and worshipped by all Hindus and Shivaji because he was the first Hindu ruler who fought against Muslim power in India and established the Maratha Empire in the 17th century.

5. Bal Gangadhar Tilak embarked on his political career

Bal Gangadhar Tilak In Study Room. Photo unattributed –

Tilak had a long political career agitating for Indian autonomy from British colonial rule. Before Gandhi, he was the most widely known Indian political leader. Unlike his fellow Maharashtrian contemporary, Gokhale, Tilak was considered a radical nationalist but a social conservative.

He was imprisoned on a number of occasions that including a long stint at Mandalay. At one stage in his political life, he was called “the father of Indian unrest” by British author Sir. Valentine Chirol.

He joined the Indian National Congress (INC) in 1890 and started self-rule. He was the first nationalist freedom fighter who brought the concept of ‘Swaraj’.

6. Bal Gangadhar started the Swadeshi movement in India.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak with Family. Photo unattributed –

He opposed its moderate attitude, especially towards the fight for self-government. He was one of the most-eminent radicals at the time. In fact, it was the Swadeshi movement of 1905鈥�1907 that resulted in the split within the Indian National Congress into the Moderates and the Extremists.

Jamshed Tata and Tilak together established Bombay Swadeshi Stores to promote the national movement.

7. Tilak was against the Age of Consent Act of 1891

Bal Tilak. The Phototype Co.  Mumbai Bombay c. 1905 
Also known as Lokmanya (“accepted by the people as their leader”) Tilak, this Maharashtran was one of the first leaders of the Independence Movement, and someone who used the plague and other injustices of British rule to rally people around the cry for Independence, especially in his hometown of Bombay. The Raj referred to him as “the father of Indian unrest.” Born in 1856, he died in 1920, and afterward, wider leadership of the Independence Movement passed to Gandhi. A founder of schools and Fergusson College in Pune, he also taught mathematics there before becoming immersed in political activities. He spent six years in prison in Mandalay, Burma. Photo by Paper Jewels –

Tilak joined the Indian National Congress in 1890. He opposed its moderate attitude, especially towards the fight for self-government. He was one of the most-eminent radicals at the time.

Tilak was against the Age of Consent Act of 1891.

8. Tilak took up this issue by publishing inflammatory articles in his paper – Kesari

Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai and Bipinchandra Pal. Photo unattributed –

In late 1896, the bubonic plague spread from Bombay to Pune, and by January 1897, it reached epidemic proportions.

The British Indian Army was brought in to deal with the emergency and strict measures were employed to curb the plague, including the allowance of forced entry into private houses, the examination of the house’s occupants, evacuation to hospitals and quarantine camps, removing and destroying personal possessions, and preventing patients from entering or leaving the city.

By the end of May, the epidemic was under control. The measures used to curb the pandemic caused widespread resentment among the Indian public.

Tilak took up this issue by publishing inflammatory articles in his paper Kesari (Kesari was written in Marathi, and “Maratha” was written in English), quoting the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, to say that no blame could be attached to anyone who killed an oppressor without any thought of reward.

To achieve the political aim, Tilak wanted to generate a mass movement which is different from the opinion of moderates and so, in 1907 there was a split between moderates and extremists in Surat Session.

British took the benefit of the situation and send Bal Gangadhar Tilak to the Mandalay jail in Burma (Myanmar) to serve a six-year prison sentence.

Tilak developed diabetes during his sentence in Mandalay prison. This and the general ordeal of prison life had mellowed him at his release on 16 June 1914.

9. Bal Gangadhar Tilak launched the Indian Home Rule League with the rousing slogan 鈥淪warajya

Bal Gangadhar Tilak 1956 stamp of India. Photo from India Post, Government of India –

In April 1916, Bal Gangadhar Tilak launched the Indian Home Rule League with the rousing slogan 鈥淪warajya is my birthright and I will have it.鈥� In September 1916, Annie Besant launched the Home Rule League at Madras (now Chennai, Tamil Nadu).

Bal Gangadhar Tilak died on 1 August, 1920.

10. Bal Gangadhar Tilak was a great orator and inspired several masses.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak in Madras 1917. Indian boy scouts awaiting the arrival of Bal Gangadhar Tilak (the great advocate of Home Rule for India) in the Central Station compound in Madras, in 1917. Photo by Press Agency photographer –

 He published The Arctic Home in the Vedas which represents the origin of Aryans and Srimad Bhagvat Gita Rahasya (1915). Also, Om Raut directed the film Lokmanya: Ek Yug Purush which was released on 2 January 2015.

So, Bal Gangadhar Tilak or Lokmanya Tilak influenced people, spread the message of Swaraj. He was a great orator and inspired several masses.

In Maharashtra, Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated on a huge scale and is considered one of the main festivals which were started by the Tilak only. He spent a lot of time reading Hindu religious books.