PM releases coins featuring Tilak, eulogises the leader

New Delhi, July 23 (UNI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today released a set of commemorative coins feature Lokmanya Tilak on his 151st Birth Anniversary.

Realeasing the coins here, Dr Singh said Tilak's electrifying slogan, "Swaraj is my birth-right and I shall have it" stirred the Indian people and breathed new life into the struggle for freedom.

"Born in 1856, just one year ahead of the First War of Indian Independence, Lokmanya Tilak grew up in an India that was frustrated and sullen, getting drawn into a whirlpool of despair and hopelessness after the failure of the 1857 revolt," Dr Manmohan Singh said.

He said while some people were losing hope, others began to believe that the British had now turned a new leaf and were beginning to do good. A viewpoint had gained currency that the people were not yet ready for freedom since they did not know how to govern themselves. Apologists for the Empire were arguing that improvements in colonial administration had begun to give Indians a "good government," Dr Singh said.

Dr Singh said it was in this environment of defeatism and cynicism, that Lokmanya Tilak stood up and said that the so-called "good government" was no substitute for "self-government". Indians wanted to regain their natural right to govern themselves.

The Prime Minister described Lokmanya Tilak as belonging to the "most revered pantheon of our freedom fighters." "His impact on the people both inside and outside India was indeed mesmerising. When the British authorities arrested him in 1908, a world-renowned personality like Lenin was so moved that he denounced it. His criticism of Lokmanya's imprisonment constituted a shattering condemnation of British Empire. Before Mahatma Gandhi spearheaded our struggle for independence, it was Lokmanya Tilak who was among its leading torchbearer," Dr Singh said. The Prime Minister said Tilak's clarion call came as a breath of fresh air for Indians and a nation's straining at the "leash of subjugation." "It summoned from the depths of their hearts unprecedented energy and courage to stand up to the might of the British rule. Mahatma Gandhi described himself as Lokmanya's "strongest bulwark". Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, then studying in London, described himself a "Tilakit", he said. .

Dr Singh said the Swaraj that Tilak conceived and wanted to achieve was meant to liberate the nation, both from the yoke of foreign rule and the exploitative social traditions indigenous to India. By drawing the people belonging to all sections of society in to the national movement, he widened the base of the movement and of the Indian National Congress.

The Prime Minister said his vision and his desire to achieve Swaraj through the mobilization of common people constituted a turning point in the struggle for independence. The Home Rule Movement that he started with Ms Annie Besant forced the British to concede that introduction of responsible Government was their final objective. His activism and his passionate advocacy, especially through the media, inspired an entire generation.

Dr Manmohan Singh said social and political leaders like Lokmanya Tilak placed great emphasis on gender equality and on the rights of women.

"In the year in which we celebrate the 60th anniversary of our Independence, the 150th anniversary of the First War of Independence and the 151st birth anniversary of Lokmanya Balgangadhar Tilak, I feel proud as an Indian that we will have a woman from Tilak's homeland as our President," Dr Singh added.

UNI