New Delhi: Today marks the 100th death anniversary of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, one of the most respected figures of India’s freedom struggle. Tilak’s most powerful slogan was ‘Swaraj is my birth right and I shall have it’ which caught the imagination of the entire country and inspired them in the fight against the colonial rule.
A part of the Lal-Bal-Pal (Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal), Tilak was called ‘father of the Indian unrest” by British colonial rulers. He was also conferred with the title of “Lokmanya”, which means “accepted by the people (as their leader)” while Mahatma Gandhi called him “The Maker of Modern India”
On this day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute to Bal Gangadhar Tilak on his death anniversary and said that his courage, intellect and idea of ‘Swaraj’ continued to inspire people.