Lala Lajpat Rai on his 150th birth anniversary

He was born on 28 January 1865 in Dhudike (now Moga district) of Punjab. He was popularly known as Punjab Kesari meaning The Lion of Punjab also known as Sher-E- Punjab in Punjabi for his contribution to the freedom movement. He was part of the Lal Bal Pal trio i.e. assertive nationalists Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and Bipin Chandra Pal from 1905 to 1918. Lal Bal Pal trio had advocated the Swadeshi movement involving the boycott of all imported items and the use of Indian-made goods in 1907 during the anti-Partition agitation in Bengal which began in 1905. He was lawyer by profession and had practiced his legal profession for few years but later curtailed it to focus on all his efforts to the freedom struggle. He was also associated with the foundation of Punjab National Bank in 1895 and later Lakshmi Insurance Company. He also had helped to establish the nationalistic Dayanand Anglo-Vedic School and became a follower of Dayanand Saraswati (founder of the Arya Samaj). In 1888 and 1889 he was a delegate to the annual sessions of Indian National Congress (INC) and was elected as its President in the Calcutta Special Session of 1920. In 1921, he had founded Servants of the People Society, a non-profit welfare organisation, in Lahore, which shifted based to Delhi after partition, and has branches in many parts of India. His books: As an author he had written many books which includes The Story of My Deportation (1908), Arya Samaj (1915), The United States of America: A Hindu’s Impression (1916), Unhappy India (1928) etc. Death: He died on 17 November 1928 after sustaining serious injuries in lathi charge carried by the police when he leading a non-violent protest against the Simon Commission