Polymath turned Anarchist cum Freedom Fighter

Lala Har Dayal, the worker activist, nationalist revolutionary, and anti-imperialist freedom fighter, died today in America, 1939.

Lala Har Dayal; Source: Public Domain

There are few more people as extensively involved in activism as Lala Har Dayal was. Born in 1884 in Delhi, he was influenced by the Arya Samaj and attained his degrees in Sanskrit. In 1905, he got his chance at Oxford with two scholarships - and he began preparing for his entry into the Indian Civil Service.

Fate would not have it turn out that way, however, as he was introduced to revolutionary and anarchist ideas of Marx, Bakunin and Mazzini, and turned to writing increasingly inflammatory articles against the British government in India. At that time, he was put under surveillance. Frustrated with the state of affairs, he would give up his scholarships, and return to India. The British government had him cornered, and banned his writings. On the advice of people like Lala Lajpat Rai, he decided to advocate for a revolution in colonial India in other countries - emigrating first to Paris and then to Martinique.

Over there, his austere lifestyle developed, and his atheistic and cosmopolitan ideas started to emerge. Migrating to the United States in 1911, his involvement in trade unionism brought him close to issues of workers, their education, and a general tilt towards communism. He founded the Ghadar Party, developing contacts with Sikh farmers of the Stockton region, he encouraged their scientific education - setting up scholarships and staying homes for Indian students with the help of fellow Indian expatriates.

While still being an anarchist, he got to hear of the news of Basanta Kumar Biswas’ attempt on the Viceroy of India, Lord Hardinge. This drove him into a fervour, as he visited the Indian students’ clubs and praised the attempt to no end, ending his speech with “Pagari apni sambhaliye ga, Mir, aur basti nahin, ye Dilli hai”. Thus cautioning the British for further violence.

For his activities, he was arrested in America and fled to Germany, where he helped the German Empire’s efforts to sow discontent in the British Raj during the First World War. Continuing to publish his essays, books and thesis, Har Dayal would die on the fourth of March, 1939.