Who said "Swaraj is my birthright"?

Matching a famous nationalist slogan to its exact author requires tracing the precise phrase back to the specific event and speaker in the freedom movement's timeline, since several leaders coined memorable rallying cries in overlapping decades.

"Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have it!" was declared by Bal Gangadhar Tilak in 1916, and it became the rallying cry of the Home Rule Movement that he led alongside Annie Besant.

• Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose is remembered for a different call to arms - "Give me blood, and I will give you freedom" - delivered decades later, in 1944, to the Indian National Army, not for the Home Rule-era slogan asked about here.

• Dadabhai Naoroji, known as the "Grand Old Man of India," is remembered for his Drain Theory exposing Britain's economic exploitation of India and for becoming the first Indian elected to the British Parliament, not for originating this particular slogan.

• Lala Lajpat Rai, known as "Punjab Kesari," is remembered for leading the protest against the Simon Commission and for the injuries sustained there that led to his death, not for coining this rallying cry.

Hence, per the standard historical record, this celebrated slogan is attributed to Bal Gangadhar Tilak.