Lajpat Rai was born in a Jain family in Dhudike (now in Moga district, Punjab) on 28 January, in 1865. His grandfather was a Svetambara Jain while his father practiced Islam. Lala Lajpat Rai had his initial education in Govt. Higher Secondary School, Rewari(now in Haryana, was earlier in Punjab), in the last 1870s and early 1880s where his father Radha Krishan was an Urdu teacher. Lala Lajpat Rai was influenced by Hinduism and Manusmriti and created a career of reforming Indian policy through politics and writing. (When studying law in Lahore, he continued to practice Hinduism. He became a large believer in the idea that Hinduism, above nationality, was the pivotal point upon which an Indian lifestyle must be based.) Hinduism, he believed, led to practices of peace to humanity, and the idea that when nationalist ideas were added to this peaceful belief system, a non-secular nation could be formed. His involvement with Hindu Mahasabhaite leaders gathered criticism from the Bharat Sabha as the Mahasabhas were anti-secularism, which did not conform with the system laid out by the Indian National Congress. This focus on Hindu practices in the subcontinent would ultimately lead him to the continuation of peaceful movements to create successful demonstrations for Indian independence.
In 1928, Lajpat Rai led a procession with Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya to demonstrate against the Simon Commission. During this procession, Rai became the target of a lathi charge (a form of crowd control in which the police use heavy staves or `lathis' in Hindi) led by British police.During World War I, Lajpat Rai lived in the United States, but he returned to India in 1919 and in the following year led the special session of the Congress Party that launched the noncooperation movement. Imprisoned from 1921 to 1923, he was elected to the legislative assembly on his release. When the commission visited Lahore on 30 October 1928, Lala Lajpat Rai led the protest against Simon Commission in a...
