Lala Hardayal

Lala Hardayal was a revolutionary and a scholar who dedicated himself to the cause of Indian Freedom. He was the General Secretary of the Gadar party and was a prominent leader in the Gadar movement. He traveled to many parts of the world and helped to spread the freedom movement.

Lala was born on October 14, 1884 at Delhi. From the Government College of Lahore, he secured the Master Degree in English Literature. He pursued further education and was awarded a State Scholarship by the Government of India. As a result he went to study at Oxford, England. While in England he involved himself into the Indian struggle for freedom.

In England he came in close contacts with revolutionaries and reformers like C.F.Andrews, S.K.Verma and Bhai Permanand. He raised his voice against the British Oppression of Indians and resigned from his scholarship. He returned to India and dedicated himself to political activities in Lahore. He left his family life to adopt the life of a monk. During this period, he contributed articles to the Modern Review and The Punjabi and his association with the Revolutionaries became prominent. He left India for London in 1908 as the situation in India was very tense. In order to propagate the freedom movement further, Lala crossed the borders of Paris, West Indies and South America to reach USA.

In USA, he helped to organize the Gadar movement. Sensing trouble, the British Government pressed the U.S Government to arrest him. Hence he migrated to Germany and further to Sweden and England only to go back to USA where he passed away.

Apart from his political and patriotic contribution, Lala has contributed a lot in the field of Literature and earned his Doctorate on Buddhist Sanskrit Literature. He breathed his last in Philadelphia, USA on 4 th March 1939.

Kanishka Harshvardhana Ashoka Chandragupta Maurya Babar Sher Shah Suri Prithviraj Chauhan Akbar Humayun Shaheed Bhagat Singh Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel Aruna Asaf Ali Mahatma Gandhi Bal Gangadhar Tilak Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Mangal Pandey