Inspirations

Life of Sh. Bal Gangadhar Tilak is inspiration for all the true Indians. This great Indian, though dedicated almost all of his life to the service of his countrymen and motherland, is not known as much. Bal Gangadar did so much for the country. He launched the Indian National Movement, founded Deccan Education Society, was elected as Fellow of Bombay University, and formed Home Rule League to attain Swaraj. This versatile personality had many feathers in his cap. He was a social reformer, freedom fighter, national leader, a scholar in history, mathematics, and astronomy. It was he who gave the Indians the slogan 'Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it.' He did so much for the betterment of the backward masses of the country. He worked very hard to abolish old practices such as child-marriage; he was in favour of widow remarriage. He believed Indian culture was better than the western culture. He tried to unite the Indians through celebrations Ganpati festival and Shivaji's birthday. This great leader believed freedom could be achieved by extreme nationalism only. For his extreme anti-British ideology, he was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment. This great Indian leader died serving the nation. He inspires me to be like him. He motivates me to work like him and fight for the social and political ills with single-minded extremism. If half of the Indian political leaders started working like him, India would soon become an advanced nation.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak was a celebrated Indian lawyer, nationalist, independence activist, social reformer, and teacher. He was one of the firebrand leaders of the ‘Indian Independence Movement.’ He was also called as ‘The father of Indian unrest’ by the British colonial authorities. He aroused Indian consciousness and became the strongest proponent of ‘Swaraj’, meaning self-rule. He established close association with a number of Indian National Congress leaders, including Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Lala Lajpat Rai, Bipin Chandra Pal etc. We have rounded some inspiring sayings and thoughts by Bal Gangadhar Tilak who tirelessly contributed driving the nation to break the shackles of the British rule.

Inspired by Vishnushastri Chiplunkar, Shri Bal Gangadhar Tilak ji co-founded a New English school for secondary education in 1880 with a few of his college friends, including Gopal Ganesh Agarkar, Mahadev Ballal Namjoshi and Vishnushastri Chiplunkar. Their goal was to improve the quality of education for India's youth. The success of the school led them to set up the Deccan Education Society in 1884 to create a new system of education that taught young Indians nationalist ideas through an emphasis on Indian culture. The Society established the Fergusson College in 1885 for post-secondary studies. Tilak taught mathematics at Fergusson College. In 1890, Tilak left the Deccan Education Society for more openly political work. He began a mass movement towards independence by an emphasis on a religious and cultural revival. Tilak had a long political career agitating for Indian autonomy from the British 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 included 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.