LALA LAJPAT RAI among Indian politicians has been less under stood and more misunderstood both by friends and hostile critics than Lajpat Rai, whose political record marks a series of what appear like petty persecutions, and a whole farrago of blundering accusations. It has been his sad lot to be condemned without being tried, and to suffer without any tangible evidence being produced against him. On the other hand, whenever he has launched a suit against his maligners, as, for example, against some powerful Anglo-Indian dailies, he has always come out triumphant. Suspected on the basis of secret reports concerning himself, watched under secret instructions by reason of his unpopularity with the powers that be ; deported without trial in 1907 under the express sanction of the Liberal Lord Morley : such are some of the unhappy episodes in the long tragedy of Lajpat's Rai's career.
Lord Morley in approving of Lajpat Rai's depor tation wrote back to Lord Minto : " The only comfort is that my immediate audience will be not at all unfriendly in any quarter of it, though radical supporters will be critical, and Tory opponents will scent an inconsistency between deporting Lajpat, and my old fighting of Balfour for locking up William O'Brien. I shall not, however, waste much time about that. I have always said that Strafford would have made a far better business of Ireland than Cromwell did, but then that would be an awkward doctrine to preach just now." (See Lord Morley's " Recollections," p. 2t8 : Macmillan & Co.). In another passage Morley remarks : " I see that - says that this drastic power of muzzling an agitator will save the necessity of ' urging deportation.' He must have forgotten that I very explicitly told him, that I would not sanction deportation except for a man of whom there was solid reason to believe that violent disorder was the direct and deliberately planned result of his action." It may, perhaps, be quite relevant here to press home the consideration, with all due deference to Morley's judgment, that if there was " solid reason to believe that violent disorder was the direct and deliberately planned result " of Lajpat's action, he could certainly be tried according to law, under the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code or any other code, instead of being denied justice and the opportunity of defending himself.
In the course of the present discussion we must necessarily confine our review of Lajpat Rai's activities to the period prior to his departure for America, for we have no means of finding out what changes, if any, have come over his convictions or methods. For prior to Sir George Cave's discovery that Lajpat Rai's allegiance has been suborned from the Empire, we knew of him both in India and in this country as, no doubt, radical in his views, and occasionally rather injudicious in his utterance, but always a constitutional agitator and opposed to methods of physical violence. On the outbreak of war, he was in this country and issued eloquent and forcible appeals to young Indians in England, asking them to rise to the occasion and loyally serve the Mother Country, in any capacity that was possible, in her hour of danger. In fact, we understand that he travelled throughout England and Scotland, inviting recruitment to the Ambulance Corps organised by Mr. Gandhi, for the benefit of Indian soldiers, in the earlier stages of the war.
Lajpat Rai was born in the Tehsil of Jagraon, of poor but intelligent and self-respecting parents. His father came early under the influence of Swami Dayananda Saraswati. Lajpat's Rai's mother was very affectionate and sensible, and through her strong personality, fostered in the son habits of frugality, simplicity and straight forwardness in speech and behaviour. It is but fair to say that she had a prominent share in moulding the young boy's character, and whatever impresses us to-day in Laj pat's life as of dour strength and bearing the impress of sincerity may, in part, be traced quite consistently to his mother's dominat ing influence on him. Equally potent, as a formative influence in Lajpat Rai's life, was his father's love of truth and country. We learn that Lajpat's father was a great admirer of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, before the latter adopted reactionary views on Indian politics and assumed a position of indifference, if not of hostility, towards the legitimate claims and the constitutional demands of the Indian National Congress.