LAJPAT RAI, LALA (1865-1928), a Nationalist politi cian, who played an influential part in the development of Indian political extremism. He was born in 1865 at Jagron, a small town in the Ludhiana district, Punjab, the son of Munshi Radha Krishen Lala, the author of numerous Urdu books and pamphlets, who, when his son was twelve years old was converted to the re formed Hindu cult, the Arya Samaj, founded by Swami Dayanand Sarasavathi. Graduating in law from the Government college, Lahore, in 1885, Lajpat Rai practised first at Hissar, and then at Lahore, where he took an active part in founding the Dayanand Anglo-Vedic college. Joining the Indian National Congress, he was one of the originators of the view that the Nationalists should rely on their own exertions for Indian political progress and should form no sort of alliance with British parties. In the spring of 1907 agitation broke out among the settlers in the newly formed. Chenab Canal and Bari Doab irrigation colonies, and in conse quence Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh were deported to Mandalay under Regulation 3 of 1818 without trial. Spurred by radical critics in the House of Commons, John Morley, then secretary of state for India, was very uneasy about the use of this "rusty sword," and in the autumn persuaded the viceroy, Lord Minto, to release the deportees. Thereafter Lajpat Rai, a man of great energy, combined with his legal practice political, philanthropic and educational activities, edited a vernacular magazine and a vernacular weekly journal.
For some time before and during the World War Lajpat Rai was in the United States, where he wrote The Arya Samaj (1915), Young India (1917) and National Education in India (1920). Obtaining permission in the latter year to return to India, he went back when political feeling was running very high. He was president of the special session of the National Congress which in September 1920 launched the non-cooperation programme, but his own attitude was halting. Imprisoned for seditious activi ties in 1921 he was released in August 1923 and at the end of the year was elected to the legislative assembly, where for some time his tendency was to draw away from a policy of mere negation. He accepted a Government nomination to represent the Indian trade unions at the International Labour Conference at Geneva in 1926, but in 1928 he moved the resolution in the Legislative Assembly carried by a small majority for boycott of the Statutory Commission under Sir John Simon. His active share in promoting various Hindu movements and his proselytizing zeal tended to encourage communal disturbances. His Unhappy India (1928) was a voluminous reply to Katharine Mayo's Mother India. He died in the autumn of 1928 of heart failure though his death was stated to be the result of injuries received during a baton charge at Lahore. This was disproved at the subsequent enquiry. (F. H. BR.)