A Chopra Khatri by caste, he was born at Wazirabad, District Gujranwala (now in Pakistan) in 1889. He graduated from D.A.V. College, Lahore in 1919. After that he joined the Law College, Lahore but left his studies in 1920 at the call of Mahatma Gandhi and joined the non-cooperation movement. He was arrested in 1921 and was sentenced in two and a half years imprisonment. In jail he stayed with Lala Lajpat Rai and other leaders and acted as Lalaji's Personal Secretary. In 1924 he joined Bhai Parmanand's Weekly Hindi Paper Akashvani as Editor. He participated in all the Satyagraha movement launched by the Congress under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi and was in jail for about nine years on different occasions. His wife and other members of the family also suffered on account of their participation in the freedom movement. His wife was in jail for six months and so were his minor sons and daughters. His eldest son, Ramesh Chandra, was arrested in the Quit India movement and detained for a few months.Lala Jagat Narain was President of the Lahore City Congress Committee for seven years and leader of the Congress Party in the Lahore Corporation. He was member of the Punjab Provincial Congress Committee for more than thirty years and member of the All-India Congress Committee for about the same number of years