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Lala Lajpat Rai
claimed a large circle of friends in Europe and America.
They loved him because they knew him. He was an ardent
social and religious reformer. Like many of us he
became a politician because his zeal for social and
religious reform demanded participation in politics.
He observed at an early stage of his public career
that not much reform of the type he wanted was possible
until the country was freed from foreign domination.
It is impossible to think of a single public movement
in which Lalaji was not to be found. His love of service
was insatiable. He founded educational institutions.
He befriended suppressed classes. Poverty, where found,
claimed his attention. He surrounded young men with
extraordinary affection. No youngman appealed to him
in vain for help. In the political field he was indispensable.
He was fearless in the expression of his views. He
suffered for it when suffering had not become customary
or fashionable. His life was an open book. His extreme
frankness often embarrassed his friends, it also confounded
his critics.
His desire to strengthen and purify Hinduism must
not be confounded with hatred of Mussalmans or Islam.
He was sincerely desirous of promoting and achieving
Hindu-Muslim unity. He wanted not Hindu Raj. But he
passionately wanted Indian Raj. He wanted all who
called themselves Indians to have absolute equality.
Men like Lala Lajpat Rai cannot die so long as the
sun shines in the Indian sky. Nor may we forget the
Servants of the People Society which he founded for
the promotion of his many activities, all designed
for the advancement of the country.
There will be, as there must be, a demand for a national
memorial. In my humble opinion no memorial can be
complete without a definite determination to achieve
freedom for which he lived and died so nobly. He has
bequeathed to the younger generation the task of vindicating
India’s freedom and honour. Will they prove
worthy of the trust he reposed in them ? Shall we,
older survivors, men and women, deserve to have had
Lalaji as a countryman by making a fresh, united supreme
effort to realise the dream of a long line of patriots
in which Lalaji was so distinguished a member ?
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