Lala Har Dayal

Lala Har Dayal played a very important role in the struggle for India's independence, He was born at Delhi on October 14, 1884. His father, Gaury Dayal Mathur, a Reader in the District Courts at Delhi, was not a man of wealth but a scholar of Persian and Urdu.He received his school education at Delhi. For higher education, he sought admission in the Government College, Lahore from where he took his Master of Arts degree in English Literature, standing at the top of the list of successful candidates. In another year, he did M.A. in History and established a new record in the University. He was awarded a State scholarship by the Government of India, which entitled him to a three years course of post-graduate studies at Oxford in England. Going abroad he studied for the Honors School of Modern History. Like many young Indians, he had the ambition to take the I.C.S. examination. But he soon dropped the idea and plunged into the struggle for freedom of India.In England he developed close associations with revolutionaries and reformers like C.F. Andrews, Bhai Parmanand's, Shyamaji Krishana Varma etc. By becoming a member of Abhinav Bharat, a revolutionary association, be came in close contact with Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. There after he began to contribute profusely in the Indian Socialist. He went further registering his protest against the British oppression of Indians, especially the arrests of Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh in 1907, he resigned his State scholarship in England and returned to carry on political work at Lahore. On his way to the Punjab in January 1908, he halted at Poona where he met B.G. Tilak and G.K. Gokhale. Later, he left his wife who was expecting her first child at Patiala and adopted the life of a wandering monk. He began to dress simply, eat frugally and think deeply. On the advice of Lala Lajpat Rai, Hardayal started a center at Lahore for the training of young men. During these days he regularly contributed articles to the Modern Review and The Punjabi and openly associated himself with the revolutionaries. As the situation became tense, he left India and reached London in September 1908.With the murder of Sr W.C. Wyllie by Madan Lal Dhingra, Indian revolutionaries in London shifted to Paris. Har Dayal accompanied them and inaugurated the Bande Matram, a monthly journal, in September 1909. Finding Paris uncongential for revolutionary activities, Har Dayal left for the U.S.A. via West Indies and South America. In January 1911 he reached Boston and soon after left Harvard to meet Bhai Teja Singh, a prominent Punjabi in U.S.A. From Harvard he went to Honolulu and then to San Francisco. Here in collaboration with Bhai Parmanand's, he began to work for the rejuvenation of his countrymen. With the help of Sikh settlers in California, he instituted six scholarships for India youth that would choose to work for the welfare of India. As his popularity increased and the First World War drew closer, he helped to organize the Ghadar movement in U.S.A. In 1913, he was General Secretary of the Hindustan Gadar Pary. As Har Dayal was the real brain behind the movement, the British Government pressed the U.S. Government to arrest him. Consequently, he migrated to Germany and in October 1914 sought German support for the liberation of India.Distressed at the attitude of the German Government, he left Germany in October 10, 1918 for Stockholm and finally settled down in Sweden where he earned his livelihood by teaching and lecturing. He stayed in Sweden till October, 1927 when the British Government granted amnesty to all political refugees. In 1928 he decided to do from the same learned institution his doctorate on Bodhisatine Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature in October, 1931 he submitted his thesis and was awarded the degree. Next year, his thesis was published in London. From now onward he followed only literary pursuits.Har Dayal stayed in England for about 10 years. In September, 1938 he left for U.S.A. to deliver lectures at various Universities over there. It was in Philadelphia that he breathed his last on 4th March 1939.