He resumed his political
activities on his return to India in 1920. He
attended the Calcutta and to Nagpur sessions of
the Congress in 1920 and also presided over the
All India Students' Conference at Nagpur (1920).
He was arrested in 1921 while presiding over the
Punjab Provincial Political conference. He visited
Europe again in 1924, 1926 and 1927. He also attended
the International Labour Conference held in Geneva
in May-June 1926 as a delegate of the Indian Labour.
During his long stay abroad (1913-1920) Lajpat
Rai saw India's struggle in a wider perspective
against world movements and began to realise how
India could win support from other countries.
He believed that outside support would hasten
India's emancipation for that purpose it was necessary
to win public opinion in other countries in favour
of the Indian national movement. It was motive
which inspired him to write his major works: 'Young
India', England's debt to India', 'The Political
Future of India' and 'Unhappy India'.
In collaboration with Hardikar, he remained in
close touch with British Labour and Irish organisations,
expounded on social and economic democracy and
planned the formation of a school for the teaching
of modern political theories. He became more and
more convinced that the economic salvation of
India lay in reaching an equal distribution of
land among the masses, such as the Soviet Government
had done in Russia.
He also came to think that another useful weapon
would be an 'economic revolution effected by strikes,
organisation of labour, Boycott of British goods
and Swadeshi'. He was thinking at one time of
writing a book on the application of Bolshevism
to Indian conditions.
Lajpat Rai worked passionately for the freedom
India From the alien rule and believed that without
political freedom no improvement in economic and
social conditions would ever be possible. He wrote,
"Political domination leads to economic exploitation.
Economic exploitation leads to dirt, disease people
on earth to rebellion, passive or active and create
the desire for freedom" (Unhappy India).
In 1920,while presiding over the All India College
Students' Conference at Nagpur, he said, "All
the energies and the time and the resources at
our disposal ought to be concentrated in achieving
Swaraj and emancipating ourselves from this government.
About the students' participation in the freedom
movement, he said at the same Conference, "I am
not one of those who believe that the students,
particularly University students, ought not to
meddle in politics. I think it is a most stupid
theory."
On his return in 1920 Lajpat Rai was shocked that
British repression was even more ruthless than
before. He reacted sharply against the Jallianwala
Bagh massacre for which he held responsible Sir
Michel O'Dwyer and his band of lieutenants, such
as Bosworth Smith, O'Brien and Doveton.
He declared, in his Presidential Address at the
Calcutta session of the Congress (1920), "No man
in the whole history of the British rule of India
ha done such a great disservice to the British
Empire and has brought such disgrace on the good
name of the British nation as Sir Michael O'Dwyer."
He added, "The shrine in our heart which shall
live for ever in golden letters shall be the Jallianwala
Bagh and not the Montford Reforms."
After the advent of Gandhi Lajpat Rai found a
different world of politics, not really much to
his liking, especially when he was called upon
to preside over the Special Congress Session in
Calcutta in 1920. Gandhi's politics looked to
him as that of a visionary. Human nature, he thought,
was what it was, and time would not change it'
conscience was not the inner voice but was another
name for public opinion. In the first issue of
the People (an English weekly he had founded),
he wrote: "Melodrama and excess of sentimentality
have no place in politics."
He added further, "A campaign of political emancipation
of a nation under foreign rule imposed and maintained
at the point of bayonets cannot be based on an
attempt to change human nature quickly. Such attempts
are bound to fail." This outlook was at variance
with that of Gandhi and his followers. Lajpat
Rai was not enthusiastic about the Non-Cooperation
Movement and predicted its failure; civil disobedience
meant to him merely passive resistance which could
never be effective in the conditions then prevailing
in India.
But like many others who had opposed Gandhi at
the Calcutta session, he agreed with Gandhi at
the Nagpur Congress Session (1920) and accepted
of fight. He
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came to condemn the
use of force in political action and declared,
"If you do not win by the force of will and determination
of three hundred and fifty millions of human beings,
we do not deserve to win it by violence. If one-fifth
of humanity cannot win their liberty by the force
of will, by the power of their determination,
they deserve to be swept off the face of the earth;
and no power on earth can save them. Why think
of your power? Think of your potentiality. Think
of the force in your heart. We need not talk of
violence, we need not talk of force. Only cowards
do that."
In 1921 Lajpat Rai presided over the Punjab Provincial
Political Conference and was arrested. After his
release and the withdrawal of the Non-Cooperation
Movement, Lajpat Rai joined the Swarajya Party
founded by C. R. Das and Motilal Nehru. On 30
October 1928, Lajpat Rai led a procession at Lahore
for the boycott of the Simon Commission and received
baton blows on the head and the chest from an
English officer. Eighteen days after this brutal
assault, he died of his injuries on 17 November
1928. About the Police assault he remarked, "every
blow aimed at me is a nail struck in the coffin
of British Imperialism in India."
Lajpat Rai had a cosmopolitan outlook and was
a staunch fighter against imperialism everywhere.
He recognised the right of all the countries in
Western Asia to freedom. He sympathised with the
sufferings of Indians in South Africa and on one
occasion sent Rs. 24,000/- for a Satyagraha there.
He had no illusion about the League of Nations,
which, he left, was dominated by Imperial powers
like Britain and France. He had a high sense of
national self-respect. He took Miss Mayo to task
for her book 'Mother India' to which he replied
by his 'Unhappy India'. It was a powerful and
a scathing refutation of Miss Mayo's scurrilous
attacks on Indian society.
Lajpat Rai was a prolific writer. He was deeply
interested in journalism and founded an Urdu daily,
the Bande Mataram and an English weekly, the People.
Earlier he had published the Young India in the
U.S.A. He also wrote several short biographies
to which reference has already been made. His
other important works were: 'The Arya Samaj',
'Young India', 'England's Debt to India', 'Evolution
of Japan', 'Great Thoughts', 'Ideals of Non-Cooperation',
'India's Will to Freedom', 'Message of the Bhagwad
Gita', 'Political Future of India', 'Problem of
National Education in India', 'The Depressed Classes',
'Story of My Deportation', 'United States of America',
'Call to Young India' and 'Unhappy India'.
Lajpat Rai's association with the Arya Samaj gave
an orientation to his social and educational outlook.
In collaboration with Mahatma Hans Raj, he founded
the D.A.V. College, Lahore, and many years was
the President and Secretary of its Management
Committee. He also established the National College,
Lahore (of which Sardar Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev
were two of the illustrious products, the Tilak
School of Politics, and the Dwarka Dass Library
at Lahore. Lajpat Rai was appointed Honorary Secretary
of the Hissar Municipal Committee, and later elected
to the Lahore Municipal Committee.
He was the General Secretary of the Arya Samaj
Orphanage at Ferozpur, and a member of the Committee
of the Meerut Vaish Orphanage. He presided over
the fourth session of the Cow Protection league
at Nagpur, and also over the All India College
Students' Conference in 1920. He was a Director
of the Punjab national Bank and sponsored the
Lakshmi Insurance Company. He had also founded
the Servants of People's Society, a training centre
for social workers.
Lajpat Rai was always ready to help his countrymen
whenever he found them in distress. He organised
relief work during the famines of 1896-1897 and
1899-1900, and saved many thousands of lives in
the Central Provinces, Rajputana and East Bengal.
In 1901 he gave valuable evidence before the famine
Commission appointed by the Government which brought
some changes in the official policy regarding
orphans and the helpless children left in the
famine.
During the Kangra earthquake in 1905, he was the
Secretary of the Relief Committee. He toured all
over Punjab, collected donations and helped the
homeless and the needy. He established a Home
for the consumptives known as the Gulabdevi hospital
at Jullundur, and also many orphanages, schools
and widow-homes.
Lajpat Rai was called 'Sher-i-Punjab' (Lion of
the Punjab). His appearance was rough and he was
naturally wanting in the charms of Gokhale and
the sheer magnetic power of Gandhiji; but his
integrity, sacrifice and persuasive power gave
a special dignity to his carriage. Punjab has
yet to produce an all-India figure of his stature. |