Lala Lajpat Rai

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.

After 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.

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.

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.