2018-07-20 Fri

Bal Gangadhar Tilak was born as Keshav Gangadhar Tilak. He was an Indian nationalist, social reformer; lawyer, teacher and Independent activist. He was also a great scholar of Indian History, Sanskrit, Hinduism, Mathematics and Astronomy. Gangadhar Tilak was given a title of ‘Lokmanya’ by the people meaning ‘Accepted by the people’ as a leader. He is also known for his famous quote, “Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have it”. He is also considered as Father of Indian National Movement. Bal Gangadhar Tilak is one of the prime architects of modern India.

Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak was the first popular leader of Indian Independence Movement. The British government had also called him ‘Father of the India unrest’. In the year 1894, Tilak started the household worshipping of Ganesha into a ‘Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav’ and had also made ‘Shivaji Jayanti; a social festival.

Indian Government had issued a commemorative 5 Rupee coin to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Lokmanya Tilak’. The obverse side of this coin depicts the portrait of ‘Bal Gangadhar Tilak’ in the centre and the title ‘150th BIRTH ANNIVERSARY OF LOKAMANYA BAL GANGADHAR TILAK’ in English at the bottom and ‘LOKMANYA TILAKJI KI 150 WI JAYANTI’ at the top. One of the interesting fact about this coin is here ‘Lokmanya Tilakji’ was written, were ‘ji’ is used for honorific, but later on, minting of this coin was stopped. The coining die was modified and initial ‘Ji’ was removed from the die. The reverse of the coin is inscribed with the ‘Ashokan Pillar’ with denomination ‘5’ India Rupee written in ‘English’ and ‘Bharat Rupeye’ written in Devanagari.

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