In this module you will see about two great leaders who

contributed their life to free Mother India.

The two leaders are:

Chandrasekhar Azad

Lala Lajpat Rai

CHANDRASEKHAR AZADChandra Shekhar Azad was born on 23 July 1906 in Bhawra village, in the present-day Alirajpur district of Madhya Pradesh. He was then called Chandra Shekhar Tiwari. His forefathers were from the Badarka village near Kanpur (in present-day Unnao District. His mother, Jagrani Devi, was the third wife of Sitaram Tiwari, whose previous wives had died young. After the birth of their first son, Sukhdev, in Badarka, the family moved to Alirajpur State.His mother wanted her son to be a great Sanskrit scholar and persuaded his father to send him to Kashi Vidyapeeth, Banaras to study. In December 1921, when Mohandas K. Gandhi launched the Non-Cooperation Movement, Chandra Shekhar, then a 15-year old student, joined.. As a result, he was arrested and sentenced to fifteen days' imprisonment with hard punishments. From that day onward, having announced his name to be Azad (The Liberated) in court, Chandra Shekhar Tiwari assumed the name of Azad.

Life•Chandrasekhar Azad was born to Pandit Sita Ram Tiwari and Jagrani Devi on July 23, 1906 in Badarka (Unnao).• His original name was Chandrasekhar Tiwari.•He received his early schooling in Bhavra District in Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh.• For higher studies he went to the Sanskrit Pathashala at Varanasi.• Chandrasekhar was deeply troubled by the Jalianwalabagh massacre in Amritsar in 1919.• Azad, at an age of 15, got involved in the revolutionary activities.• He was caught by the British police while participating in the non-cooperation movement and sentenced to. whiplashes as punishment.• When the magistrate asked him his name, he said "Azad" (independence).• From that point onwards, Chandrasekhar assumed the title of Azad and came to be known as Chandrasekhar Azad. 

Following the Chauri-Chaura incident, in which police stations were vandalized and burnt by the activists, Mahatma Gandhi called for the suspension of the non-cooperation movement. Azad, along with Bhagat Singh distanced themselves from the paths of Gandhi. They were more attracted by the aggressive and violent revolutionary ideals and means. Towards this end, they formed the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association and trained the revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Batukeshwar Dutt, and Rajguru. Azad was instrumental in carrying out numerous acts of violence. This includes the Kakori Train Robbery in 1926, assassination of John Poyantz Saunders in 1928 at Lahore to avenge the killing of Lala Lajpat Rai.

How important his role was in the freedom struggle of India can be understood by the fact that the British police badly wanted to nab him dead or alive. On February 27, 1931 Chandrasekhar Azad while meeting with friends at Alfred Park, Allahabad, and the police surrounded the park and asked Chandrasekhar Azad to surrender. Azad fought alone and valiantly and killed three policemen but after nearly exhausting his ammunition and foreseeing no means of escape, he shot himself in the head with his last bullet. He was reportedly betrayed by an informer.

Revolutionary life

After suspension of the non-cooperation movement in 1922 by Gandhi, Azad became more aggressive. He committed himself to achieve complete independence by any means. Azad also believed that India's future lay in socialism. He met a young revolutionary, Pranvesh Chatterji, who introduced him to Ram Prasad Bismil who had formed the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA), a revolutionary organization. Azad was impressed with the aim of HRA, i.e., an independent India with equal rights and opportunity to everyone without discrimination of caste, creed, religion or social status. On introduction, Bismil was impressed by Azad, when Azad reportedly put his hand over a lamp and did not remove it till his skin burnt. He then became an active member of the HRA and started to collect funds for HRA. Most of the fund collection was through robberies of government property. He also wanted to build a new India based on socialist principles. Azad and his compatriots also planned and executed several acts of violence against the British. Most of his revolutionary activities were planned and executed from Shahjahanpur which was also the hometown of Ram Prasad. He was involved in the Kakori Train Robbery of 1925, in the attempt to blow up the Viceroy's train in 1926, and at last the shooting of J.P. Saunders at Lahore in 1928 to avenge the killing of Lala Lajpat Rai.Despite being a member of Congress, Motilal Nehru regularly gave money in support of Azad,

GALLERY

DEATH OF CHANRASEKHAR AZAD

LALA LAJPAT RAI

•Lala Lajpat Rai was born on January 28, 1865 to Munshi Radha Krishna Azad and Gulab Devi at Dhudike village in Ferozpur District.• His father was a great scholar of Persian and Urdu while his mother was a strict religious lady and inculcated in her children strong morals values.• His family values allowed Lajpat Rai, the freedom of having different faiths and beliefs.•Lajpat Rai received his elementary education in the school where his father was posted as teacher.• Lajpat Rai joined the Government College at Lahore in 1880 to study Law. •While in college he came in contact with patriots and future freedom fighters like Lala Hans Raj and Pandit Guru Dutt.•He studied law from Government College in Lahore and thereafter started his legal practice in Hissar, Haryana.• Since childhood he had a desire to serve his country and therefore took a pledge to free it from foreign rule.• In 1884 his father was transferred to Rohtak and Lala Lajpat Rai came along.

In 1886 the family shifted to Hissar, where he practiced law. There, Lajpat Rai helped to establish the nationalistic Dayanand Anglo-Vedic School and became a follower of Dayanand Saraswati. In 1888 and 1889 he was a delegate to the annual sessions of the National Congress. He moved to Lahore to practice before the High Court in 1892.

In 1895 Rai helped found the Punjab National Bank, demonstrating his concern for self-help and enterprise. In 1897 he founded the Hindu Orphan Relief Movement to keep the Christian missions from securing custody of these children. In the National Congress in 1900 he stressed the importance of constructive, nation-building activity and programs for self-reliance.

Gradually, Lajpat Rai had curtailed his legal practice and was concentrating all his efforts to free the nation from British. In October 1917, he founded the Indian Home Rule League of America in New York.

On October 30, 1928 to boycott the arrival of the members of the Simon Commission in Lahore, a peaceful procession, headed by Lajpat Rai was launched. Intercepting the march, Superintendent of Police, Scott ordered his police force to ‘Lathi-charge' at the activists. The police targeted Lajpat Rai, in particular, and hit him on the chest. The confrontation left Lala Lajpat Rai with severe injuries and also led to his death. To take avenge to the death of Lala Lajpat Rai, Bhagat Singh and his associates plotted the assassination of Scott. But, the revolutionaries, mistaking J.P. Saunders, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, as Scott, killed him instead.

DEATH

MOVEMENTS THEY PARTICIPATED

Non-Cooperation Movement Chauri Chaura Incident

Dandi March Movement