ON THIS DAY – 28TH JANUARY Birth Anniversary of Lala Lajpat Rai is Observed

0
487

Lala Lajpat Rai, an extremist leader and Indian Freedom fighter was born on 28th January 1865 in Dhudike, Punjab. He played a significant role in Indian Independence Movement. Lala Lajpat Rai was popularly known as Punjab Kesari and Lion of Punjab. He was part of the famous radical trio Lal Bal Pal (Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal), They together advocated the Swadeshi Movement in India, which involved the boycott of all imported goods and the use of Indian made goods.

Lala Lajpat Rai was born to Munshi Radha Krishna Azad and Gulab Devi at Dhudike village in Ferozpur District. Munshi Azad was a scholar of Persian and Urdu. Lala’s mother was a religious lady who inculcated strong moral values in her children. Lajpat Rai joined the Government College at Lahore in 1880 to study Law. While in college he came in contact with patriots and future freedom fighters like Lala Hans Raj and Pandit Guru Dutt. He studied law from Government College in Lahore and thereafter started his legal practice in Hissar, Haryana. He married Radha Devi in 1877. In 1886 the family shifted to Hissar, where he practiced law. During the 1888 and 1889 annual sessions of the National Congress, he participated as a delegate. He moved to Lahore to practice before the High Court in 1892. In 1886, Lala Lajpat Rai Helped Mahatma Gandhi to Open Dayanand Anglo-Vedic School in Lahore. He founded the Punjab National Bank and also founded the Laxmi Insurance Company which merged with LIC in 1956.

Lajpat Rai gave-up his legal practice and went to Britain in 1914 and then to the USA in 1917. In October 1917, he founded the Indian Home Rule League of America in New York. He stayed in the USA from 1917 to 1920. In 1920, after his return from America, Lajpat Rai was invited to preside over the special session of the Congress in Calcutta, (now Kolkata). He led fiery demonstrations against the British in Punjab in protest for their brutal actions at Jallianwallah Bagh. When Gandhi launched the non-cooperation movement in 1920, he plunged into action leading the movement in Punjab. When Gandhi decided to suspend the movement post Chauri Chaura incident, Lajpat Rai criticized the decision and went on to form the Congress Independence Party.

He wrote many books as well such as Young India ( 1916 ), Unhappy India ( 1928 ), England Debt to India ( 1917 ), Arya Samaj ( 1915 ), The Political Future of India ( 1919 ), An Open letter to the Right Honorable David Lloyd George ( 1917 ), The Problem of National Education of India ( 1920 ), The Message of the Bhagavad Gita ( 1908 ) and The United States of America: A Hindu Impression ( 1916 ).

Death

On October 30, 1928, Lala Lajpat Rai led a peaceful procession to oppose the arrival of the Simon Commission in Lahore. Intercepting the march, Superintendent of Police, James A.Scott ordered his police force to ‘lathi-charge’ at the activists. The police targeted Lajpat Rai, in particular, and hit him on the chest. This action left Lala Lajpat Rai with severe injuries. He died of a heart attack on November 17, 1928. His followers squarely placed the blame on the British and vowed to avenge his death. Chandrasekhar Azad along with Bhagat Singh and other associates plotted the assassination of Scott but the revolutionaries shot J.P. Saunders, mistaking him as Scott.

Lala Lajpat Rai Awards and Honors

He is named after Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial Medical College, Meerut. In the year 1998, Lala Lajpat Rai Institute of Engineering and Technology, Moga was named after him. In 2010, the Haryana government established Lala Lajpat Rai Veterinary and Animal Sciences University in Hisar in his memory. Lajpat Nagar and Lala Lajpat Rai Chowk with His Statue at Hisar Lajpat Nagar and Lajpat Nagar Central Market in New Delhi, Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial Park in Lajpat Nagar, Lajpat Rai Market in Chandni Chowk, Delhi Lala Lajpat Rai Hall of India in Indian Institutions . Technology (IIT) in Kanpur and Kharagpur Lala Lajpat Rai Hospital in Kanpur, bus terminus in his hometown Jagaram, several institutes, schools and libraries have been named in his honor. In addition, many metros and other cities in India have many roads named after them.