Mahatma Gandhi's homage to Lala Lajpat Rai :

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 ?