Lala
Lajpat Rai
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| Lala
Lajpat Rai was born on 28th Jan, 1865 in a village named Dhudike in
Ferozepur District of Punjab. His father, Munshi Radha Krishan Azad was
a teacher and scholar of Persian and Urdu and his mother Shrimati Gulab
Devi was a deeply religious lady. |
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schooling, Lalaji joined the Government College at Lahore in 1880 to
study Law. During this time the Arya Samaj movement was gaining momentum
and Lalaji joined it. Lalaji passed his Mukhtiarship (junior pleader)
examination and started his legal practice in Jagraon. He passed his Law
exams from Government College in 1885. |
| Lalaji
started his legal practice in Rohtak but later moved it to Hissar. His
practice in Hissar flourished. Lalaji remained an active member of the
Arya Samaj, collecting funds for the Daya Nand College. He was also
elected to the Hissar municipality as a member and later as secretary.
After the death of Swami Dayananda, Lalaji, with his associates toiled
to develop the Anglo-Vedic College. He came in contact with all the
important Arya Samajis there. |
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In
Hissar, Lalaji started attending Congress meetings and became an
active worker in the Hissar-Rohtak region. He shifted to Lahore in
1892. During the famines of 1897 and 1899, Lalaji was at the
forefront providing immense service towards the famine relief
efforts. When people fleeing the famine affected areas reached
Lahore, they spent their first night at Lalaji's house. Lalaji also
travelled to areas of Rajasthan and brought back destitute children
to Lahore. Lalaji was again on the relief front when Kangra district
of Punjab was rocked by earthquake. |
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| By now
Lajpat Rai had curtailed his legal practice and was concentrating all
his efforts to serve the nation and its people. His activities were
multifarious. He was an ardent social reformer. He founded the Indian
Home Rule League of America in October 1917, in New York and, a year
later, he also set up, with himself as Director, the "Indian Information
Bureau" to serve as a Publicity Organization for India. Lala Lajpat Rai
returned to India on Feb.20, 1920 as a great hero. |
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When the
partition of Bengal was announced, Lalaji joined forces with
Surendra Nath Banerjea, and Bipin Chandra Pal to galvanize Bengal
and campaigned for 'swadeshi' across the country. Lalaji was
arrested on May 3, 1907 for creating "turmoil" in Rawalpindi. |
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| Lalaji
was invited to preside over the special session of the Congress in
Calcutta in 1920. He plunged into the non-cooperation movement, which
was being launched in response to the Rowlatt (Black) Act, in principle.
The movement spread like fire in Punjab under Lajpat Rai's leadership
and he soon came to be known as "The Lion of Punjab" or "Punjab Kesri".
He travelled far and wide in India and his dynamism injected new life in
his countrymen. His speeches were hard hitting and full of passion and
influenced many. |
| Lala
Lajpat Rai's supreme sacrifice came when he led a procession in Lahore
on Oct.30, 1928 to boycott the all British Simon Commission. The
procession was meant to be a peaceful protest, but the police resorted
to 'lathi-charged'. While Lalaji tried his level best to keep the
demonstration peaceful, the police targeted him and wounded him on his
chest. The people were enraged at this insult and held a meeting the
same evening. Lalaji, even though injured, delivered a fiery speech and
declared "...every blow aimed at me is a nail in the coffin of British
Imperialism....". |
| He
recovered from the wounds left by the British but he remained
emotionally scarred at the brutality of the "civilized" British. These
thoughts racked his spirit till the very end. Lalaji passed away on
November 17, 1928 of heart failure. |
