Lala Lajpat Rai was a prolific freedom fighter for India. His death anniversary, 17th November is celebrated as Martyr’s Day in India.
- Born in 1865 in Moga district, Punjab to a middle-class family.
- Was a lawyer by profession.
- Also called ‘Punjab Kesari’.
- Was influenced by Swami Dayananda Saraswati and joined the Arya Samaj in Lahore.
- He believed that the ideals in Hinduism combined with nationalism will lead to the establishment of a secular state.
- Along with Bipin Chandra Pal and Bal Gangadhar Tilak, he formed the Lal-Bal-Pal trio of extremist leaders.
- He was also involved with the Hindu Mahasabha.
- He fought against untouchability.
- He joined the Indian National Congress (INC) and participated in many political agitations in Punjab.
- For his political agitation, he was deported to Burma without trial in 1907 but returned after a few months because of lack of evidence.
- He was opposed to the partition of Bengal.
- He founded the Home Rule League of America in 1917 in New York. In the USA, he worked to get moral support for the Indian independence movement from the international community.
- He was also elected President of the All India Trade Union Congress.
- He supported the non-cooperation movement of Gandhi at the Nagpur session of the Congress in 1920.
- He protested against the Rowlatt Act and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre that followed.
- He was the editor of the Arya Gazette, which he had founded.
- He founded the Servants of People Society in 1921.
- He co-founded the Punjab National Bank in 1894.
- He was elected deputy leader of the Central Legislative Assembly in 1926.
- In 1928, he moved a resolution in the assembly refusing cooperation with the Simon Commission since the Commission had no Indian members.
- He was leading a silent protest against the Simon Commission in Lahore when he was brutally lathi-charged by Superintendent of Police, James Scott. Rai died of injuries sustained a few weeks later. Bhagat Singh and a few other revolutionaries vowed to take revenge for Rai’s death and plotted to kill Scott. But he shot and killed John Saunders, an Assistant Superintendent of Police in a case of mistaken identity.
