Known as Punjab Kesari (the Lion of Punjab), was a prominent leader and freedom fighter. He was killed by British during a peaceful protest; his death was avenged by Bhagat Singh.

Lala Lajpat Rai was born on 28th Jan, 1865 in a village named Dhudike in Ferozepur District of Punjab. His father, Munshi Radha Krishan Azad was a teacher and scholar of Persian and Urdu and his mother Shrimati Gulab Devi was a deeply religious lady.

After schooling, Lalaji joined the Government College at Lahore in 1880 to study Law. During this time the Arya Samaj movement was gaining momentum and Lalaji joined it. Lalaji passed his Mukhtiarship (junior pleader) examination and started his legal practice in Jagraon. He passed his Law exams from Government College in 1885.

Lalaji started his legal practice in Rohtak but later moved it to Hissar. His practice in Hissar flourished. Lalaji remained an active member of the Arya Samaj, collecting funds for the Daya Nand College. He was also elected to the Hissar municipality as a member and later as secretary. After the death of Swami Dayananda, Lalaji, with his associates toiled to develop the Anglo-Vedic College. He came in contact with all the important Arya Samajis there. In Hissar, Lalaji started attending Congress meetings and became an active worker in the Hissar-Rohtak region. He shifted to Lahore in 1892. During the famines of 1897 and 1899, Lalaji was at the forefront providing immense service towards the famine relief efforts. When people fleeing the famine affected areas reached Lahore, they spent their first night at Lalaji's house. Lalaji also travelled to areas of Rajasthan and brought back destitute children to Lahore. Lalaji was again on the relief front when Kangra district of Punjab was rocked by earthquake.

By now Lajpat Rai had curtailed his legal practice and was concentrating all his efforts to serve the nation and its people. His activities were multifarious. He was an ardent social reformer. He founded the Indian Home Rule League of America in October 1917, in New York and, a year later, he also set up, with himself as Director, the "Indian Information Bureau" to serve as a Publicity Organization for India. Lala Lajpat Rai returned to India on Feb.20, 1920 as a great hero.

When the partition of Bengal was announced, Lalaji joined forces with Surendra Nath Banerjea, and Bipin Chandra Pal to galvanize Bengal and campaigned for 'swadeshi' across the country. Lalaji was arrested on May 3, 1907 for creating "turmoil" in Rawalpindi.

Lalaji was invited to preside over the special session of the Congress in Calcutta in 1920. He plunged into the non-cooperation movement, which was being launched in response to the Rowlatt (Black) Act, in principle. The movement spread like fire in Punjab under Lajpat Rai's leadership and he soon came to be known as "The Lion of Punjab" or "Punjab Kesri". He travelled far and wide in India and his dynamism injected new life in his countrymen. His speeches were hard hitting and full of passion and influenced many.

Lala Lajpat Rai's supreme sacrifice came when he led a procession in Lahore on Oct.30, 1928 to boycott the all British Simon Commission. The procession was meant to be a peaceful protest, but the police resorted to 'lathi-charged'. While Lalaji tried his level best to keep the demonstration peaceful, the police targeted him and wounded him on his chest. The people were enraged at this insult and held a meeting the same evening. Lalaji, even though injured, delivered a fiery speech and declared "...every blow aimed at me is a nail in the coffin of British Imperialism....".

He recovered from the wounds left by the British but he remained emotionally scarred at the brutality of the "civilized" British. These thoughts racked his spirit till the very end. Lalaji passed away on November 17, 1928 of heart failure.

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Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was born in Gujarat on 31st of October 1875 into a family of patriots. His father was a farmer and fought for India's freedom from the British. Vithalbhai, Vallabhbhai's elder brother, was also a well-known patriot. He was the Chairman of the Indian Legislative Council.
From a young age itself Vallabhbhai was very courageous and raised his voice against injustice. His ambition was to become a barrister like his brother. He studied very hard and travelled to England and passed the Barrister-at-Law Examination. After he returned to India he setup a practice in Ahmedabad which was very successful and he earned a lot of money.
Around this time the struggle for freedom was gaining a lot of momentum. Gandhiji attended a conference in Gujarat where he met Vallabhbhai and they became friends.
In 1918, Vallabhbhai took the responsibility of leading the farmers of Gujarat. He was very successful in his struggle against the British and became a prominent leader in the freedom struggle.
In 1920, the Congress started the non-cooperation struggle and Vallabhbhai gave up his practice. He setup the Gujarat Vidyapeeth where children could study instead of attending Government schools.
In 1928 he successfully organised the landowners of Bardoli against British tax increases. It was after this that Vallabhbhai was given the title of Sardar(Leader).
In 1931 he served as President of the Indian National Congress. He was sent to jail by the British and freed only in 1934.

In 1942 Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was again sent to jail because of the start of the "Quit India Movement".
1n 1947 when India got freedom Sardar Patel became the Deputy Prime Minister. He was in charge of Home Affairs, Information and Broadcasting and the Ministry of States. He was given the task of organizing 600 states into one nation. He took strong steps like sending the army to Junagadh and Hyderabad to force them to align with free India. It is because of these strong steps that earned him the title of "The man of steel".
Sardar Vallabhbhai passed away in Bombay on the morning of the 15th December 1950.

Jawaharlal Nehru Biography

Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964), India's first prime minister, was the chief architect of domestic and foreign policies between 1947 and 1964. Born into a wealthy Kashmiri Brahman family and educated at Oxford, Nehru embodied a synthesis of ideals: politically an ardent nationalist, ideologically a pragmatic socialist, and secular in religious outlook, Nehru possessed a rare combination of intellect, breadth of vision, and personal charisma that attracted support throughout India. Nehru's appreciation for parliamentary democracy coupled with concerns for the poor and underprivileged enabled him to formulate policies that often reflected his socialist leanings. Both as prime minister and as Congress president, Nehru pushed through the Indian Parliament, dominated by members of his own party, a series of legal reforms intended to emancipate Hindu women and bring equality. These reforms included raising the minimum marriageable age from twelve to fifteen, empowering women to divorce their husbands and inherit property, and declaring illegal the ruinous dowry system (see Life Passages, ch. 5).

The threat of escalating violence and the potential for "red revolution" across the country seemed daunting in the face of the country's growing population, unemployment, and economic inequality. Jawaharlal Nehru induced Parliament to pass a number of laws abolishing absentee landlordism and conferring titles to land on the actual cultivators who could document their right to occupancy. Under his direction, the central Planning Commission allocated resources to heavy industries, such as steel plants and hydroelectric projects, and to revitalizing cottage industries. Whether producing sophisticated defense matériel or manufacturing everyday consumer goods, industrial complexes emerged across the country, accompanied by the expansion of scientific research and teaching at universities, institutes of technology, and research centers (see Education, ch. 2; Science and Technology, ch. 6).

Jawaharlal Nehru demonstrated tremendous enthusiasm for India's moral leadership, especially among the newly independent Asian and African nations, in a world polarized by Cold War ideology and threatened by nuclear weapons. His guiding principles were nationalism, anticolonialism, internationalism, and nonalignment. He attained international prestige during his first decade in office, but after the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956--when New Delhi tilted toward Moscow--criticisms grew against his inconsistency in condemning Western but not communist aggression. In dealing with Pakistan, Nehru failed to formulate a consistent policy and was critical of the improving ties between Pakistan and the United States; mutual hostility and suspicion persisted as a result (see United States, ch. 9). Despite attempts at improving relations with China, based on his much-publicized five principles (Panch Shila--see Glossary)--territorial integrity and sovereignty, nonaggression, noninterference, equality and cooperation, and peaceful coexistence--war with China erupted in 1962. The war was a rude awakening for Nehru, as India proved ill-equipped and unprepared to defend its northern borders. At the conclusion of the conflict, the Chinese forces were partially withdrawn and an unofficial demilitarized zone was established, but India's prestige and self-esteem had suffered. Physically debilitated and mentally exhausted, Nehru suffered a stroke and died in office in May 1964. Jawaharlal Nehru's legacy of a democratic, federal, and secular India continues to survive in spite of attempts by later leaders to establish either an autocratic or a theocratic state.