Lala Lajpat Rai – a short biography
Lajpat Rai was born on 28 January, 1865, in a Punjabi Hindu family, as a son of Urdu and Persian government school teacher Munshi Radha Krishan and his wife Gulab Devi, in Dhudike.
Since childhood, he had a desire to serve his country.
In 1886, he moved to Hisar and started to practice law and became a founding member of the Bar council of Hisar along with Babu Churamani.
To shape the political policy of India to gain independence, he also practiced journalism and was a regular contributor to several newspapers including The Tribune. In 1886, he helped Mahatma Hansraj establish the nationalistic Dayananda Anglo-Vedic School, Lahore. He became founder-editor of Lahore-based Arya Gazette.
In 1914, he quit law practice to dedicate himself to the freedom of India.
He was elected President of the Indian National Congress in the Calcutta Special Session of 1920.
In 1921, he founded Servants of the People Society at Lahore, a non-profit welfare organization.
He was imprisoned from 1921 to 1923 and elected to the legislative assembly on his release.
He was of the view that Hindu society needed to fight its own battle with caste system, position of women and untouchability.
Lala Lajpat Rai believed that everyone should be allowed to read and learn from the Vedas irrespective of one’s caste or gender.
During the independence movement, he was a key component of the legendary ‘Lal Bal Pal’ firebrand three.
When the Simon Commission visited Lahore on 30 October, 1928, Lajpat Rai led a non-violent march in protest against it. The superintendent of police, James A. Scott, ordered the police to lathi (baton) charge the protesters and personally assaulted Rai. He did not fully recover from his injuries and died on 17 November, 1928.
His famous slogans are:
“Simon Go back”.
“A single blow to my head would prove to be a nail in the coffin of British rule”.
Lala Lajpat Rai – a prolific writer
Lala Lajpat Rai was gifted with a perceptive mind, he was a prolific writer and authored several works like – “Unhappy India”, “Young India: An Interpretation”, “History of Arya Samaj”, “England’s Debt to India” and a series of popular biographies.
His biographies of Mazzini, Garibaldi and Shivaji were published in 1896 and those of Dayanand and Shri Krishna in 1898.
His purpose in selecting Mazzini and Garibladi was to infuse patriotic sentiment in the youth of Punjab, who had no access to books in English. He wanted his countrymen to become acquainted with the teachings of Italian leaders who had so impressed his own mind. He had seen the points of similarity between the problems of India and those the Italian leaders had to face.
Lala Lajpat Rai travelled to the US in 1907. He toured Sikh communities along the West Coast in the USA and noted sociological similarities between the notion of ‘color-caste’ there and within castes in India.
He joined Swaraj Party in 1926 and was elected its Deputy Leader in the Central Legislative Assembly. He later resigned from the Swaraj Party in August 1926.
Must read: Rabindranath Tagore’s Contribution to the Freedom Movement
External link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lala_Lajpat_Rai
PRACTICE QUESTIONS
QUES . He wrote biographies of Mazzini , Garibaldi , Shivaji and Shrikrishna ; stayed in America for sometime; and was also elected to the Central Assembly. He was: UPSC 2018
(a) Aurobindo Ghosh
(b) Bipin Chandra Pal
(c) Lala Lajpat Rai
(d) Moti lal nehru
(c) EXPLANATION To rouse the Punjabis from slumber and inspire them with patriotic zeal , Lala Lajpat Rai wrote biographies of Mazzini , Garibaldi , Shivaji and Shrikrishna. In October 1917, he founded the Indian Home Rule League of America in New York. He stayed in the USA from 1917 to 1920.
QUES . Lala Lajpat Rai was assaulted by police in a demonstration which caused his death. That demonstration was against : IES 2007
(a) Rowlatt Act
(b) Jallianwala Bagh Massacre
(c) Arrival of Simon Commission
(d) Public Safety Ordinance
(c)
QUES . Consider the following paragraph:
He was seriously injured in police lathi charge in Lahore during demonstrations against Simon Commission for which he subsequently died in November 1928. Later on the British officer, who was responsible for the lathi charge on him, was shot dead by Bhagat Singh and Rajguru. The revolutionary referred to in the above paragraph is: CDS 2010
(a) Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant
(b) Lala Lajpat Rai
(c) Mangal Singh
(d) Motilal Nehru
(b)
