Lala Lajpat Rai is counted among the great freedom fighters of India. He believed that freedom is not achieved by joining hands, but one has to struggle for it. People also proudly called him ‘Punjab Kesari’.
Lala Lajpat Rai, along with Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal, formed the Garam Dal to fight for independence. This is the reason why the name of Lal-Bal-Pal is taken with great respect in Indian history.
Lala Lajpat Rai was born on 28 January 1865 in Dudhike (now Moga district) of Punjab. His father was a teacher of Radha Krishna High School. He was well versed in Persian and Urdu. At the same time, his mother Gulab Devi was a religious woman.
Lajpat Rai did his early education from his father’s school. Then, he joined the Government College in Lahore in 1880 to study law. In 1886, his family moved to Hisar to live and he started his practice there.
Lala Lajpat Rai was very fond of writing and giving speeches. During his school days, he met Dayanand Saraswati, the founder of Arya Samaj and he was greatly influenced by his ideas.
Then, seeing the atrocities of the British Raj in the country, he decided to contribute to the freedom struggle. During this he met Lal Hans Raj and Pandit Guru Dutt. He was strongly against the soft policy of Congress for independence.
Meanwhile, in 1905, the then Viceroy Lord Curzon partitioned Bengal to promote discrimination in India. Which was opposed by Lajpat Rai along with Bipin Chandra Pal, Aurobindo Ghosh and Bal Gangadhar Tilak. He played an important role in promoting the Swadeshi movement in the country.
Due to his involvement in several political movements in Punjab, he was expelled from the country without trial in 1907 and sent to Mandalay, Burma (now Myanmar).
However, when Lord Minto, the then Viceroy of India, saw that there was no concrete evidence against him, Lajpat Rai was allowed to visit India. After this he left the law and gave all his strength for freedom.
Lajpat Rai realized that if the British tyranny on the countrymen is to be reduced, then his fight has to be taken to the international level. In this episode, he went to Britain in 1914 and then to America in 1917. He remained in America till 1920 and founded the Indian Home Rule League in New York. During this, he also opposed the participation of Indian soldiers on behalf of the British in the First World War.
When he returned to India, he met Mahatma Gandhi during a special session of the Congress in Kolkata and became a part of the non-cooperation movement. He took over the reins of this movement in Punjab.
Martyrs killed in protest against Simon Commission
This is 1928. A seven-member commission headed by the famous English lawyer Sir John Simon came to India. All British members were in this commission and due to no Indian representative, it was being opposed all over the country.
Lala Lajpat Rai was leading this peaceful protest in Lahore on 28 October 1928. During this, the police resorted to lathi-charge, especially targeting him, due to which he was badly injured. After this attack on himself, he warned the British government, saying, “Every stick hit on my body will prove to be a nail in the shroud of the British government.”
Due to this wound, he could not recover and on 17 November 1928 he said goodbye to this world. To avenge his death, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru stabbed the British police officer Saunders with bullets.
Strengthened the economic strength of the country
Along with making a big contribution to the freedom struggle, Lala Lajpat Rai also made a lot of efforts to strengthen the country financially. This contribution of his is still playing its role in the economy of the country.
Lala Lajpat Rai laid the foundation of Punjab National Bank in Lahore on 19 May 1894. In today’s era, it is the second largest public sector bank in the country. This bank was started as an indigenous bank and only the capital of the Indian public was invested in it. This bank was started with only 14 shareholders and 7 directors.
In those days, there were only banks operated by the British and they used to give loans to Indians at very high interest rates. In view of this, Rai Mool Raj of Arya Samaj advised Laja Lajpat Rai to open a Swadeshi Bank.
After this he wrote a letter to some of his special friends with this idea and everyone agreed to it. Then, immediately the paperwork started and under Section 6 of the Indian Companies Act 1882 this bank was started with two lakh rupees.
Apart from Lala Lajpat Rai, people who started this bank include industrialist Lala Harkishan Lal of Punjab, Dyal Singh Majithia, founder of Tribune newspaper, Lala Lalchand, founder of DAV College, Parsi businessman EC Jeswala and well-known lawyer Babu Kali Prasuno Roy. Were.
The prospectus of the bank was made available to the people through newspapers like Tribune, Akhbar-e-Aam and Paisa newspaper. Dayal Singh Majithia was elected as the first chairman of the bank.
Let us tell you that none of them had specific knowledge about running the bank. Therefore, on 23 May 1894, all the founders met at the house of Dyal Singh Majithia and prepared the way to take this bank forward. The first branch of the bank was opened in Anarkali Bazar opposite the post office and the second in a rented house near Rama Brothers Stores.
Then, on 12 April 1895, the day before Baisakhi, the bank was fully opened for business. The first account in the bank was opened by Lala Lajpat Rai.
All the shareholders and directors decided that they would keep only a few shares of the bank in their own hands and the majority of the rights would be with the common shareholders. Then, in May 1895, an auditor was appointed for the bank.
Later on, many personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri opened their accounts in this bank and gradually people’s trust in the bank started increasing. Lala Lajpat Rai was associated with this bank till his last time. In view of the threat of partition, the bank’s head office was shifted from Lahore to Delhi shortly before independence.
Punjab Kesari Lala Lajpat Rai, who did not care for his life while facing the British rule throughout his life, was an important soldier of the Indian freedom struggle. He is forever immortal in our memories.
Editing – G N Jha
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