PM Modi to be conferred with Lokmanya Tilak Award

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be conferred with Lokmanya Tilak Award in Pune on August 1, the 103rd death anniversary of Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak.

• The organisers said that Modi has been selected for the award, comprising a memento and citation, in recognition of his supreme leadership and for awakening the feeling of patriotism among citizens.

• The Tilak Smarak Mandir Trust (Hind Swaraj Sangh) will confer the Lokmanya Tilak National Award upon PM Modi.

• The award comprises a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh and a memento.

• The award was instituted in 1983.

• Several prominent personalities from different walks of life have been honoured with it. Some of the recipients include former President Pranab Mukherjee, former prime ministers Indira Gandhi, Dr Manmohan Singh, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, socialist leader S.M. Joshi, Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy and chairman of Serum Institute of India (SII) Cyrus Poonawalla.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak

• Bal Gangadhar Tilak was an Indian nationalist, journalist, social reformer, and popular leader of the Indian Independence movement.

• He was born in 1856 in the Ratnagiri district of the Bombay Presidency. 

• As an aftermath of his opinions published in the Marathi-language journal Kesari, Tilak was booked under sedition in 1897, mentioned in the Section 124A. 

• After six days of trial, the jury found Tilak guilty and ordered him an 18-month prison sentence. 

• The 1897 trial of Lokmanya Tilak is a significant turning point in Indian politics because it signalled the criminalisation of dissent. 

• This trial became a huge political spectacle and was widely reported in the press.

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