Lala Lajpat Rai

Lala Lajpat Rai led a peaceful march against a British commission. Police beat him in the charge that followed, and he died within weeks.

People called him “Punjab Kesari”, the Lion of Punjab. This lesson covers his life, his institutions, his death and the exam traps.

1Who was Lala Lajpat Rai?

He was a lawyer from Punjab who became a national leader.

• He was born on 28 January 1865 at Dhudike village, Punjab. It lies in today’s Moga district.
• His family belonged to the Aggarwal trading community.
• He studied law at Government College, Lahore.
• He practised law at Hisar and later in Lahore.
• Swami Dayanand Saraswati and the Arya Samaj deeply influenced him.
• He is known as “Punjab Kesari” and “Sher-e-Punjab”.
• Both names mean the Lion of Punjab.
• He was one-third of the Lal-Bal-Pal trio.
• The other two were Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal.
• This trio stood for the assertive wing of the Congress. The Moderates preferred petitions.

2What did he build?

He built schools, a bank and a service society.

• In 1886 he helped set up the Dayanand Anglo-Vedic (DAV) School in Lahore.
• The Arya Samaj inspired that school.
• In 1894 he was linked with the early days of Punjab National Bank.
• It was one of India’s first banks run wholly by Indians.
• In 1921 he founded the Servants of the People Society in Lahore.
• The Society trained workers for public service.
• He wrote biographies of Mazzini, Garibaldi, Shivaji and Shri Krishna.
• These books show his interest in nationalist movements abroad.

3What was his role in politics?

He stayed active from the Swadeshi years to the late 1920s.

• He was part of the assertive current in the Congress, with Tilak and Pal.
• The British deported him to Mandalay in 1907 over unrest in Punjab.
• They freed him because there was not enough evidence to convict him.
• The Congress held a special session in Calcutta in 1920. He presided over it.
• He backed the non-cooperation movement in Punjab.
• In January 1921 a student movement began there, inspired by him.
• The Sikh Akali upsurge happened in the same region. It was a parallel front, not a result of his student movement.
• He spent the First World War years in America, from 1914 to 1919.
• In 1917 he founded the Indian Home Rule League of America in New York.
• His books include Young India (1916) and The Story of My Deportation.
• His 1928 book Unhappy India answered Katherine Mayo’s Mother India.
• In 1926 he was elected to the Central Legislative Assembly.
• In 1925 he presided over a Hindu Mahasabha session. Later nationalists debated this choice.

4How did he die?

A police attack on a peaceful march led to his death.

• The Simon Commission reached India in 1928. No Indian sat on it.
• Indians boycotted it. Crowds chanted “Simon, Go Back”.
• The Commission visited Lahore in October 1928. The march met it at the station.
• He was 63 years old when he died.
• On 30 October 1928 he led a non-violent march in Lahore.
• Police lathi-charged the marchers. They attacked him directly.
• He died of his injuries on 17 November 1928.
• He reportedly said the blows on him would be nails in the coffin of British rule.
• Bhagat Singh swore revenge.
• On 17 December 1928, Bhagat Singh and Shivaram Rajguru shot J. P. Saunders.
• They mistook Saunders for the officer they held responsible.
• For the full story, see Bhagat Singh: Martyr of the Revolutionary Current.

5What are the exam traps?

Exams often describe him without naming him.

• UPSC 2018 described a man who wrote about Mazzini, Garibaldi, Shivaji and Shri Krishna.
• He had also lived in America and sat in the Central Assembly. That man was Lajpat Rai.
• Learn his facts, not just his name.
• Do not mix him up with Tilak. Tilak founded Kesari, but “Punjab Kesari” is Lajpat Rai’s title.
• Remember the three Lal-Bal-Pal names in order: Lal is Lajpat Rai, Bal is Tilak, Pal is Bipin Chandra Pal.
• Do not say Saunders was the officer who ordered the lathi charge. The revolutionaries mistook him.
• Do not mix the dates. The march was 30 October. His death was 17 November.
• Do not say Bhagat Singh alone shot Saunders. Rajguru was with him.
• CDS 2019 paired his student movement with the Akali upsurge. Both were true, but neither explained the other.