Lala Lajpat Rai’s birth anniversary today
New Delhi: Lala Lajpat Rai had made an important contribution in freeing the country from the slavery of the British. Apart from being a freedom fighter, he was also an accomplished politician, historian, lawyer and writer. He was a leader of the extremist group of Congress and was known as Punjab Kesari. All the revolutionaries including independence hero Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad had great respect for Lala Lajpat Rai.
It was Lala who created the fire for the country’s independence among the youth and also supported them. Today is the birth anniversary of Lala Lajpat Rai. He was born on 28 January 1865 in an Agarwal family of Moga district of Punjab.
The British had lathicharged Lala.
On 30 October 1928, a massive demonstration was going on in Lahore against the Simon Commission. Lala Lajpat Rai also participated in this. During this time, the British soldiers lathicharged him, due to which he was badly injured. During this time, Lala had said, ‘Each stick lying on my body will act as a nail in the coffin of the British government.’
What was Simon Commission?
In fact, on 8 November 1927, the British had constituted a commission to study constitutional reforms in India, which was named Simon Commission. There were seven British MPs but no Indian members. This commission was created to investigate the Montague Chelmsford Reforms.
Simon Commission came to India on 3 February 1928, which was opposed by the entire country including the Indian National Congress. During this, slogans were also raised to take back Simon Commission. Lala Lajpat Rai was leading this protest in Punjab. But a lathi charge was carried out under the leadership of Lahore Police SP James A Scott, in which Lala suffered serious injuries and was admitted to the hospital for 18 days. He died on 17 November 1928.
Bhagat Singh had taken revenge for the attack on Lala
To avenge the death of Lala Lajpat, many revolutionaries including Bhagat Singh planned the murder of British officer James A. Scott. However, due to a mistake in identity, Bhagat Singh and Rajguru shot another police officer, John P. Saunders, instead of Scott on 17 December 1928. Saunders was the SP of Lahore at that time.
In this way the revolutionaries gave a message to the British that the country would not remain silent on the death of Lala Lajpat Rai and the British would be given a befitting reply.
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