Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak

Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, the immortal son of Mother India, was a social reformer and universally acknowledged leader of the freedom struggle. He was the first to raise the demand for complete independence. His statement, Swaraj is my birthright and I will have it, infused new enthusiasm among freedom fighters.Tilak joined the Indian National Congress. In 1907, the Congress split into the extremist and moderate factions. The extremist faction included Lala Lajpat Rai and Bipin Chandra Pal along with Tilak. In 1908, Tilak supported the bomb attacks by revolutionaries Prafulla Chaki and Khudiram Bose, leading to his imprisonment by the British government in Mandalay Jail, Burma. He was a staunch opponent of child marriage and other social evils. He insisted on making Hindi the language of all India. In Maharashtra, he started the tradition of Ganeshotsav to spread the message of Swaraj. He also started two daily newspapers in Marathi, Maratha Darpan and Kesari.He died in Bombay on August 1, 1920. Paying tribute, Mahatma Gandhi called him the maker of modern India, and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru called him the father of the Indian revolution. He wrote numerous books; but his most outstanding work is his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, Gita Rahasya, written in Mandalay Jail, which has been translated into many languages.