Har Dayal
Encyclopedia
Lala Har Dayal was a Indian nationalist
revolutionary who founded the Ghadar Party
in America. He was a polymath
who turned down a career in the Indian Civil Service. His simple living and intellectual acumen inspired many expatriate Indians
living in Canada
and the USA to fight against British Imperialism
during the First World War.
. That is why most of his fellows used to call him Lala Har Dayal M.A.
He had a romantic imagination and classic insight; and both of these factors worked together. He was very particular in intonation, rhythm and tonal quality of his words. Even his prose writings gives us a pleasure of poetry. In the plain language of cricket it can be said that he was such a batsman who could very easily bat on any kind of pitch. And so far as his language is concerned it has the capacity to produce the music of sences. Moreover his style of writing has a flair of lovely letters. He had not to think or consult a book for reference as almost others do, but the appropriate word and expression used to dance on the tip of his pen.
Lala Har Dayal himself was a moving library of his time which had all the knowledge packed in the pocket of his extraordinary mind. Every appropriate word was instantly available like a computer. In every book of our age we find the pages full of references and footnotes but in the books of Har Dayal you would never find even a single quotation within brackets or asterisk (*) numbered (1,2,3) references. It is unnecessarily a wastage of time for a good reader. If something can be quoted like this "So and so has said on such and such page of his book" it is sufficient rather than to search a particular tag elsewhere or switch over to another mark in a particular code field.
According to Swami Rama Tirtha
Lala Har Dayal was the greatest Hindu
who ever came to America
, a greate sage and saint, whose life mirrored the highest sprituality as his soul reflected the love of the 'Universal Spirit' whom he tried to realise.
In another appreciation Prof. Dharmavira has sketched the picture of Lala Har Dayal which is being quoted here in verbatim:
community, but it is generally termed as an honorific title for writers such as the word Pandit which is used for knowledgeable persons in other Hindu communities. At the age of 17 he was married to Sundar Rani, (in English a Gracious Queen) who was extremely pretty girl. Their son, born two years later, died in infancy, but their daughter, born in 1908, survived.
At an early age he was influenced by Arya Samaj
. He was associated with Shyamji Krishna Verma, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
and Bhikaji Cama. He also drew inspiration from Giuseppe Mazzini
, Karl Marx
and Mikhail Bakunin
. He was, according to Emily Brown as quoted by Juergensmeyer, "in sequence an atheist, a revolutionary, a Buddhist, and a pacifist".
He studied at the Cambridge Mission School and received his bachelor's degree
in Sanskrit
from St. Stephen's College, Delhi, India and his master's degree
also in Sanskrit
from Punjab University
. In 1905, he received two scholarships of Oxford University for his higher studies in Sanskrit
. In a letter to The Indian Sociologist
, published in 1907, he started to explore anarchist
ideas, arguing that "our object is not to reform government, but to reform it's away, leaving, if necessary only nominal traces of it's existence." The letter led to him being put under surveillance by the police. Later that year, saying "To Hell with the ICS", he gave up the prestigious Oxford scholarships and returned to India in 1908 to live a life of austerity. But in India too, he started writing harsh articles in the leading news papers, When the British Government decided to impose a ban upon his writing Lala Lajpat Rai advised him to leave and go abroad. It was during this period that he came into the friendship of the anarchist Guy Aldred
, who was put on trial for printing The Indian Sociologist.
He moved to Paris
in 1909 and became editor of the Vande Mataram
. But he was not very happy in Paris
, so he left the Paris and moved to Algeria
. There too,he was unhappy and wondering whether to go- either to Cuba
or Japan
. After all he went to Martinique
, where he started living a life of austerity. An Arya Samaj Missionary, Bhai Parmanand
went there and searched him in the loneliness. Both of them discussed founding a new religion modelled on Buddha
. He was living an ascetic life eating only boiled grain and potatoes, sleeping on the floor and meditating in a secluded place. Guy Aldred later related that this religion's motto was to be Atheism
, Cosmopolitanism
and moral law
. Emily Brown and Erik Erikson have described this as a crisis of "ego-identity" for him. Parmanand says he agreed to go to the United States
to propagate the ancient culture of the Aryan Race
.
Hardayal went straight from Boston
to California
, where he wrote an idyll
ic account of life in the United States
. He then moved on to Honolulu in Hawaii
where he spent some time meditating on Waikiki Beach. During his stay he made friendship with Japanese Buddhists and started studying the works of Karl Marx
. Whilst here he wrote Some Phases of Contemporary Thought in India subsequently published in Modern Review
. Parmanand persuaded him by letter to return to California.
in 1911, where he became involved in industrial unionism
. He had also served as secretary of the San Francisco branch of the Industrial Workers of the World
alongside Fritz Wolffheim
, later a National Bolshevik (but not while in the IWW). In a statement outlining the principles of the Fraternity of the Red Flag he said they proposed "the establishment of Communism, and the abolition of private property in land and capital through industrial organisation and the general strike
, ultimate abolition of the coercive organisation of government". A little over a year later, this group was given 6 acres (24,281.2 m²) of land and a house in Oakland, where he founded the Bakunin Institute of California, which he described as "the first monastery
of anarchism". The organisation aligned itself with the Regeneración
movement founded by the exiled Mexicans
Ricardo
and Enrique Flores Magón
. He had a designated post of a lecturer in Indian philosophy and Sanskrit at Leyland Stanford University
. However, he was forced to resign because of embarrassment about his activities in the anarchist movement.
He had developed contacts with Indian American
farmers in Stockton, California
. Having developed an Indian Nationalist perspective, he encouraged young Indians to gain a scientific and sociological education. With the personal help of Teja Singh, Tarak Nath Das
and Arthur Pope
and funding from Jwala Singh, a rich farmer from Stockton, he set up Guru Gobind Singh Scholarship for Indian students. With Shyamji Krishna Verma's India House in London, he established his house as a home for these students. Amongst the six students who responded to the offer were Nand Singh Sehra, Darisi Chenchiah and Gobind Behari Lal, his wife's cousin. They lived together in a rented apartment close to the University of California, Berkeley
.
At the time, he was still a vigorous anarchist propagandist and had very little to do with the nationalist Nalanda Club, composed of Indian students. However Basanta Kumar Biswas
's attempt on the life of the Indian Viceroy, Lord Hardinge, on December 23, 1912 had a major impact upon him. He visited the Nalanda Club Hostel to tell them this news at dinner. He delivered an aplouding lecture and finished his talk with a couplet of the Urdu poet Mir Taqi 'Mir' of Delhi (India):
The hostel then became a party with dancing and the singing of Vande Mataram. Hardayal excitedly told his anarchist friends of what one of his men had done in India.
He quickly brought out a pamphlet called the Yugantar Circular in which he eulogised about the bombing. Just see its words:
In April 1914, he was arrested by the United States government for spreading anarchist literature and fled to Berlin, Germany. He subsequently lived for a decade in Sweden
. He received his Ph. D. degree in 1930 from the School of Oriental and African Studies
at the University of London
. In 1932, he got his book Hints For Self Culture published and embarked on a lecture circuit covering Europe
, India, and the United States.
He died in Philadelphia on March 4, 1939. In the evening of his death he delivered a lecture as usual where he had said "I am in peace with all". But a very close friend of Lala Hardayal and the founder member of Bharat Mata Society (established in 1907), Lala Hanumant Sahai did not accept the death as natural, he suspected it as poisoning.
In 1987, the India Department of Posts issued a commemorative stamp in his honour, within the series of "India's Struggle for Freedom".
This book contains comprehensive notes and references besides a general index appended at the end. This book has been written particularly in a lucid style which exhibits scholarly acumen and mastry of Lala Hardayal in literary art.
Indian nationalism
Indian nationalism refers to the many underlying forces that molded the Indian independence movement, and strongly continue to influence the politics of India, as well as being the heart of many contrasting ideologies that have caused ethnic and religious conflict in Indian society...
revolutionary who founded the Ghadar Party
Ghadar Party
The Ghadar Party was an organization founded by Punjabi Indians, in the United States and Canada with the aim to liberate India from British rule...
in America. He was a polymath
Polymath
A polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply be someone who is very knowledgeable...
who turned down a career in the Indian Civil Service. His simple living and intellectual acumen inspired many expatriate Indians
Non-resident Indian and Person of Indian Origin
A Non-Resident Indian is an Indian citizen who has migrated to another country, a person of Indian origin who is born outside India, or a person of Indian origin who resides permanently outside India. Other terms with the same meaning are overseas Indian and expatriate Indian...
living in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and the USA to fight against British Imperialism
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
during the First World War.
Life
Lala Har Dayal was a model of bourgeois virtues-order, regularity, precision and industry. There is a happy display of the faculty of higher criticism which depends upon certain refined perceptions and the power of subtle analysis. His analysis was neither rough nor hasty or sweeping; his perception was healthy, robust and sound. His precision is absolute. If we conclude in a single sentence, it is just like a line drawn in one stroke by a Master of LettersMaster of Letters
The Master of Letters is a postgraduate degree.- United Kingdom :The MLitt is a postgraduate degree awarded by a select few British and Irish universities, predominantly within the ancient English and Scottish universities.- England :Within the English University system MLitts are not universally...
. That is why most of his fellows used to call him Lala Har Dayal M.A.
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
He had a romantic imagination and classic insight; and both of these factors worked together. He was very particular in intonation, rhythm and tonal quality of his words. Even his prose writings gives us a pleasure of poetry. In the plain language of cricket it can be said that he was such a batsman who could very easily bat on any kind of pitch. And so far as his language is concerned it has the capacity to produce the music of sences. Moreover his style of writing has a flair of lovely letters. He had not to think or consult a book for reference as almost others do, but the appropriate word and expression used to dance on the tip of his pen.
Lala Har Dayal himself was a moving library of his time which had all the knowledge packed in the pocket of his extraordinary mind. Every appropriate word was instantly available like a computer. In every book of our age we find the pages full of references and footnotes but in the books of Har Dayal you would never find even a single quotation within brackets or asterisk (*) numbered (1,2,3) references. It is unnecessarily a wastage of time for a good reader. If something can be quoted like this "So and so has said on such and such page of his book" it is sufficient rather than to search a particular tag elsewhere or switch over to another mark in a particular code field.
According to Swami Rama Tirtha
Swami Rama Tirtha
Swami Ram Tirth , also known as Swami Ram, was an Indian teacher of the Hindu philosophy of Vedanta. He was among the first notable teachers of Hinduism to lecture in the United States, traveling there in 1902. He was preceded by Swami Vivekananda in 1893, and followed by Paramahansa Yogananda in...
Lala Har Dayal was the greatest Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
who ever came to America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, a greate sage and saint, whose life mirrored the highest sprituality as his soul reflected the love of the 'Universal Spirit' whom he tried to realise.
In another appreciation Prof. Dharmavira has sketched the picture of Lala Har Dayal which is being quoted here in verbatim:
Early years
Har Dayal was the sixth of seven children of Bholi Rani and Gauri Dayal Mathur. His father was a Reader in the District Court. Lala is not so much a surname as a sub-caste designation, within the KayasthaKayastha
Kayastha or Kayasth or Kayeth is a caste or community of Hindus originating in India. Kayastha means "scribe" in Sanskrit, and has traditionally denoted members of the writer caste....
community, but it is generally termed as an honorific title for writers such as the word Pandit which is used for knowledgeable persons in other Hindu communities. At the age of 17 he was married to Sundar Rani, (in English a Gracious Queen) who was extremely pretty girl. Their son, born two years later, died in infancy, but their daughter, born in 1908, survived.
At an early age he was influenced by Arya Samaj
Arya Samaj
Arya Samaj is a Hindu reform movement founded by Swami Dayananda on 10 April 1875. He was a sannyasi who believed in the infallible authority of the Vedas. Dayananda emphasized the ideals of brahmacharya...
. He was associated with Shyamji Krishna Verma, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
Vināyak Dāmodar Sāvarkar was an Indian freedom fighter, revolutionary and politician. He was the proponent of liberty as the ultimate ideal. Savarkar was a poet, writer and playwright...
and Bhikaji Cama. He also drew inspiration from Giuseppe Mazzini
Giuseppe Mazzini
Giuseppe Mazzini , nicknamed Soul of Italy, was an Italian politician, journalist and activist for the unification of Italy. His efforts helped bring about the independent and unified Italy in place of the several separate states, many dominated by foreign powers, that existed until the 19th century...
, Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
and Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was a well-known Russian revolutionary and theorist of collectivist anarchism. He has also often been called the father of anarchist theory in general. Bakunin grew up near Moscow, where he moved to study philosophy and began to read the French Encyclopedists,...
. He was, according to Emily Brown as quoted by Juergensmeyer, "in sequence an atheist, a revolutionary, a Buddhist, and a pacifist".
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
from St. Stephen's College, Delhi, India and his master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
also in Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
from Punjab University
University of the Punjab
University of the Punjab , colloquially known as Punjab University, is located in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. The University of the Punjab is the oldest and biggest University of Pakistan. The University of the Punjab was formally established with the convening of the first meeting of its...
. In 1905, he received two scholarships of Oxford University for his higher studies in Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
. In a letter to The Indian Sociologist
The Indian Sociologist
The Indian Sociologist was an Indian nationalist publication in the early twentieth century. Its subtitle was An Organ of Freedom, and Political, Social, and Religious Reform....
, published in 1907, he started to explore anarchist
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
ideas, arguing that "our object is not to reform government, but to reform it's away, leaving, if necessary only nominal traces of it's existence." The letter led to him being put under surveillance by the police. Later that year, saying "To Hell with the ICS", he gave up the prestigious Oxford scholarships and returned to India in 1908 to live a life of austerity. But in India too, he started writing harsh articles in the leading news papers, When the British Government decided to impose a ban upon his writing Lala Lajpat Rai advised him to leave and go abroad. It was during this period that he came into the friendship of the anarchist Guy Aldred
Guy Aldred
Guy Alfred Aldred - often Guy A. Aldred - was a British anarchist communist and a prominent member of the Anti-Parliamentary Communist Federation...
, who was put on trial for printing The Indian Sociologist.
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1909 and became editor of the Vande Mataram
Bande Mataram (Paris publication)
For other uses of the term Bande Mataram, see Bande Mataram .The Bande Mataram was a nationalist publication from Paris begun in September 1909 by the Paris Indian Society...
. But he was not very happy in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, so he left the Paris and moved to Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
. There too,he was unhappy and wondering whether to go- either to Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
or Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. After all he went to Martinique
Martinique
Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...
, where he started living a life of austerity. An Arya Samaj Missionary, Bhai Parmanand
Bhai Parmanand
Bhai Parmanand was an Indian nationalist.-Biography:Parmanand was born into a prominent family of the Punjab, descended from the family of the famous Sikh martyr, Bhai Mati Das...
went there and searched him in the loneliness. Both of them discussed founding a new religion modelled on Buddha
Gautama Buddha
Siddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...
. He was living an ascetic life eating only boiled grain and potatoes, sleeping on the floor and meditating in a secluded place. Guy Aldred later related that this religion's motto was to be Atheism
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
, Cosmopolitanism
Cosmopolitanism
Cosmopolitanism is the ideology that all human ethnic groups belong to a single community based on a shared morality. This is contrasted with communitarian and particularistic theories, especially the ideas of patriotism and nationalism...
and moral law
Normative ethics
Normative ethics is the study of ethical action. It is the branch of philosophical ethics that investigates the set of questions that arise when considering how one ought to act, morally speaking...
. Emily Brown and Erik Erikson have described this as a crisis of "ego-identity" for him. Parmanand says he agreed to go to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to propagate the ancient culture of the Aryan Race
Aryan race
The Aryan race is a concept historically influential in Western culture in the period of the late 19th century and early 20th century. It derives from the idea that the original speakers of the Indo-European languages and their descendants up to the present day constitute a distinctive race or...
.
Hardayal went straight from Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, where he wrote an idyll
Idyll
An idyll or idyl is a short poem, descriptive of rustic life, written in the style of Theocritus' short pastoral poems, the Idylls....
ic account of life in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He then moved on to Honolulu in Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
where he spent some time meditating on Waikiki Beach. During his stay he made friendship with Japanese Buddhists and started studying the works of Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
. Whilst here he wrote Some Phases of Contemporary Thought in India subsequently published in Modern Review
Modern Review (Calcutta)
Modern Review was the name of a monthly magazine published in Calcutta since 1907.Founded by Ramananda Chatterjee, the Modern Review soon emerged as an important forum for the Indian Nationalist intelligentsia. It carried essays on politics, economics, sociology, as well as poems, stories,...
. Parmanand persuaded him by letter to return to California.
Anarchist activism in America
He moved to the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1911, where he became involved in industrial unionism
Industrial unionism
Industrial unionism is a labor union organizing method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union—regardless of skill or trade—thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in bargaining and in strike situations...
. He had also served as secretary of the San Francisco branch of the Industrial Workers of the World
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
alongside Fritz Wolffheim
Fritz Wolffheim
Fritz Wolffheim was a German communist politician and writer. He was a leading figure in the National Bolshevism tendency that was briefly influential in Germany after World War I.-Early life:...
, later a National Bolshevik (but not while in the IWW). In a statement outlining the principles of the Fraternity of the Red Flag he said they proposed "the establishment of Communism, and the abolition of private property in land and capital through industrial organisation and the general strike
General strike
A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...
, ultimate abolition of the coercive organisation of government". A little over a year later, this group was given 6 acres (24,281.2 m²) of land and a house in Oakland, where he founded the Bakunin Institute of California, which he described as "the first monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
of anarchism". The organisation aligned itself with the Regeneración
Regeneración
Regeneración was a Mexican anarchist newspaper that functioned as the official organ of the Mexican Liberal Party. Founded by the Flores Magón brothers in 1900, it was forced to move to the United States in 1905. Jesús Flores Magón published the paper , while his brothers Ricardo and Enrique...
movement founded by the exiled Mexicans
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
Ricardo
Ricardo Flores Magón
Cipriano Ricardo Flores Magón was a noted Mexican anarchist and social reform activist. His brothers Enrique and Jesús were also active in politics. Followers of the Magón brothers were known as Magonistas....
and Enrique Flores Magón
Enrique Flores Magón
Enrique Flores Magón was a Mexican journalist and politician, associated with the Mexican Liberal Party and anarchism...
. He had a designated post of a lecturer in Indian philosophy and Sanskrit at Leyland Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
. However, he was forced to resign because of embarrassment about his activities in the anarchist movement.
He had developed contacts with Indian American
Indian American
Indian Americans are Americans whose ancestral roots lie in India. The U.S. Census Bureau popularized the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Indigenous peoples of the Americas who are commonly referred to as American Indians.-The term: Indian:...
farmers in Stockton, California
Stockton, California
Stockton, California, the seat of San Joaquin County, is the fourth-largest city in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. With a population of 291,707 at the 2010 census, Stockton ranks as this state's 13th largest city...
. Having developed an Indian Nationalist perspective, he encouraged young Indians to gain a scientific and sociological education. With the personal help of Teja Singh, Tarak Nath Das
Tarak Nath Das
Taraknath Das was an anti-British Bengali Indian revolutionary and internationalist scholar. He was a pioneering immigrant in the west coast of North America and discussed his plans with Tolstoy, while organizing the Asian Indian immigrants in favor of the Indian freedom movement...
and Arthur Pope
Arthur Pope
Arthur Upham Pope , was an American archaeologist and historian of Persian art.Born in Phenix, Rhode Island, graduated from Worcester Academy in 1899, and taught at Amherst College and the University of California. He married fellow Persian art historian, Phyllis Ackerman, in 1920. In 1923, Pope...
and funding from Jwala Singh, a rich farmer from Stockton, he set up Guru Gobind Singh Scholarship for Indian students. With Shyamji Krishna Verma's India House in London, he established his house as a home for these students. Amongst the six students who responded to the offer were Nand Singh Sehra, Darisi Chenchiah and Gobind Behari Lal, his wife's cousin. They lived together in a rented apartment close to the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
.
The assassination attempt on Viceroy of India
Basanta Kumar Biswas
Basanta Kumar Biswas was a pro-independence activist involved in the Jugantar group who, in December 1912, is believed to have bombed the Viceroy's Parade in what came to be known as the Delhi-Lahore Conspiracy....
's attempt on the life of the Indian Viceroy, Lord Hardinge, on December 23, 1912 had a major impact upon him. He visited the Nalanda Club Hostel to tell them this news at dinner. He delivered an aplouding lecture and finished his talk with a couplet of the Urdu poet Mir Taqi 'Mir' of Delhi (India):
-
- "Pagari apani sambhaliyega 'Mir' !
- Aur basti nahin, ye DilliDelhiDelhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
hai !!"
-
- "Take care of your turbanTurbanIn English, Turban refers to several types of headwear popularly worn in the Middle East, North Africa, Punjab, Jamaica and Southwest Asia. A commonly used synonym is Pagri, the Indian word for turban.-Styles:...
Mr Mir ! (Note: Here Mir is Quoted for Britishers.) - This is not just any town, this is Delhi, IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
Okay !!'
- "Take care of your turban
The hostel then became a party with dancing and the singing of Vande Mataram. Hardayal excitedly told his anarchist friends of what one of his men had done in India.
He quickly brought out a pamphlet called the Yugantar Circular in which he eulogised about the bombing. Just see its words:
In April 1914, he was arrested by the United States government for spreading anarchist literature and fled to Berlin, Germany. He subsequently lived for a decade in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. He received his Ph. D. degree in 1930 from the School of Oriental and African Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies
The School of Oriental and African Studies is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the University of London...
at the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
. In 1932, he got his book Hints For Self Culture published and embarked on a lecture circuit covering Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, India, and the United States.
He died in Philadelphia on March 4, 1939. In the evening of his death he delivered a lecture as usual where he had said "I am in peace with all". But a very close friend of Lala Hardayal and the founder member of Bharat Mata Society (established in 1907), Lala Hanumant Sahai did not accept the death as natural, he suspected it as poisoning.
In 1987, the India Department of Posts issued a commemorative stamp in his honour, within the series of "India's Struggle for Freedom".
Literature of Lala Har Dayal
Lala Har Dayal was sober, simple, saint, soft spoken and selfless servant of his motherland. No doubt his precious writings are few drops of elixir to the deep well of mankind. His idealistic thoughts and cited expressions in the available books written by him are really impressive. Some of his famous books with available references are listed hereunder:- Thoughts on Education: Lalaji had written so many articles in 'Punjabi'( published from Lahore) and 'Modern Review' (published from Calcutta). Most of these articles were written against the Education Policy of British Government in India. Mr Hem Chand Kaushik Alias Varadachari Pandit had given to this author this book which he had published in July 1969.
- Social Conquest of Hindu Race: A booklet containing 21 pages was proscribed by British Raj is kept in National Archives of India under Acc.No.74. (Ref:Patriotic s Banned by the Raj)
- Writings of Lala Har Dayal: This book was published in 1920 by Swaraj Publishing House,Varanasi. as per details given in the book of Dr. Vishwa Nath Prasad Verma's book 'Adhunik Bhartiya Rajneetik Chintan' on page 389.
- Forty Four Months in Germany and Turkey: This book was published in 1920 by P.S.King and Sons. London when Lalaji was living in Sweden. Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthy has quoted so many references of this book into his book Kranti Ka Udghosh.
- Lala Har Dayal Ji Ke Swadhin Vichar: This book was translated in Hindi by Sri Narayan Prasad Arora and was published in Raghunandan Press, Kanpur by Pt. Ganga Narayan Shukla in 1922. It can be seen in Seth Surajmal Jalan Library, Calcutta.
- Amrit me Vish: This was the Hindi Translation of above book 'Thoughts on Education'. It was published by Lajpat Rai Prithviraj Sahni from Lohari Gate, Lahore in the year 1922. In the National Library, Calcutta under catalogue no 181.Rc.92.33.
- Hints for Self Culture: This famous book of Lala Har Dayal was published by Hy.S.L.Polak and Co. London (U.K) in 1934. Jaico Publishing House published it in 1977 from Bombay by obtaining a copyright from its original publisher in 1961. Its Hindi Translalation has also been published from Kitab Ghar, Delhi (India) in 1997 under the title 'Vyaktitva Vikas-Sangharsh aur Safalata'.
- Glimpses of World Religions: It was the presentation of several religions by Lala Har Dayal from so many angles of history, ethics, theology and religious philosophy. It reflects the individuality of every religion in a rational way of thinking. This book was also published by Jaico Publishing House India from Bombay.
- Bodhisatva Doctrines: Lala Lajpat Rai, who was a mentor of Har Dayal, had suggested him to write an authentic book based on the principles of Gautam Buddha. In 1927 when Har Dayal was not given permission by British Government to return to India, he decided to remain in London. He wrote this book and presented it to the University as a thesis. The book was approved for Ph.D. and a Doctorate was awarded to him in 1932. It was published from London in the year 1932. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers of India published this book in 1970 with a title 'The Bodhisatva Doctrines in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature.'
The Bodhisatva Doctrines in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature
This 392 pages work of Lala Hardayal consists of total 7 chapters which deal with the Bodhisattva doctrine as expounded in the principal Buddhist Sanskrit Literature.- In Chapter I the nature of the Bodhisattva doctrine with particular stress on the distinct chatacteristics of arhat, Bodhisattva and sravaka has been described.
- Chapter II recounts the different factors including the influence Persian religio-cult, Greek art and Christian ethics which contributed the rise and growth of the Boddhisattva doctrine.
- In Chapter III the production of the thought of Enlightenment for the welfare and liberation of all creatures has been expounded.
- Chapters IV describes thirty-seven practices and principles conducive to the attainment of Enlightenment.
- In Chapter V ten perfections that lead to welfare, rebirth, serenity, spiritual cultivation, and supreme knowledge have been explained.
- Chapter VI defines different stages of spiritual progress in the aspirant`s long journey to the goal of final emancipation.
- The last Chapter VII relates the events of the Gautama Buddha`s past lives as Bodhisattva.
This book contains comprehensive notes and references besides a general index appended at the end. This book has been written particularly in a lucid style which exhibits scholarly acumen and mastry of Lala Hardayal in literary art.
See also
- http://www.sikhpioneers.org/famous.html#dayal
- http://www.sikhpioneers.org/scan1/lalaHardayal.jpg